It depends on what you want to own: the walls, the operation or the whole company. Buying the building gives you the property only, without the business run inside it. Buying the business (a going-concern transfer) puts a working hotel in your hands: staff move across with their existing rights (Civil Code art. 2112), and you become liable alongside the seller for business debts recorded in the mandatory accounting books (art. 2560). Buying the shares leaves the company unchanged, with its contracts, permits and past liabilities, so due diligence must cover the entire company. Tax differs too: a business transfer, for example, falls outside VAT and pays proportional registration tax. Our hotel acquisition guide describes the full process.
