Here we go:

"You have no business being in the hotels business."

- a friend of mine back in 2022

I hate to say it, but he was right.

I had just exited the hedge fund business after 6 years, and as much as I loved compounding my wealth like Warren Buffett, I did not wake up every day looking forward to putting on a suit in almost 40-degree Singapore weather and trying to convince people to not surrender their money to inflation.

Being a hedge fund manager was actually pretty cool... and kinda strange. Cool because I was always invited to interesting events and parties, where I got to meet cool (and uncool) people. Strange because sometimes, because of the title, people somehow listened more intently. Sometimes, I get featured in the news, or speak on stage and get applauded by strangers... all for just repeating stuff I read on the internet the night before.

I was a workaholic from the time I finished my military service at 19 till I exited my hedge fund at 35 years old. Around that time, I met my wife and I have to thank her for saving me from working my way into the grave. She opened my eyes to a world outside of work. Family. Food. Travel. Housework. (boooooo!)

Very quickly, I became addicted to actually living a real life. I wanted more time to enjoy my finite time on this Earth. It might seem crazy thinking about it, but being an entrepreneur at heart, I could not help but wonder:

Could I live life and also make money and improve my financial future at the same time?

As I approached 40 years of age, I wanted to be more intentional about how I was going to spend the rest of my time.

You see, I do not subscribe to the idea of “optimising” to spend as little time as possible and getting the best results.

The biggest blessing is to be able to find something we love so much, that we want to keep giving out energy and time to it. This is why I am an entrepreneur, doing the things I am doing today.

Looking back at everything I have done in my life, the thing that always gets me excited is traveling.

So I made a commitment to, somehow, figure out:

How to travel more and make a business out of it.

Start With Why

Things don’t always go according to plan, and that’s the fun part.

I travelled a lot for business in my earlier years. I was doing 4-6 flights a month for years, averaging 150 nights in hotels. I had all the hotel points, airline miles and elite statuses you could name. At age 39, I have been to almost 150 cities in the world and spent more than 2,000 nights in hotels all over the world.

Spending so much time in hotels, it was only natural to dream of one day owning my own hotel. I had so many ideas about how I would want it to be: from the way it looks, to how the guests feel when they enter the lobby, what they smell, the plants they see, the music they hear. To the moment a guest enters a room, from the bedsheets, to the pillows, the pens they used, the bedroom slippers, the robes, amenities, definitely the coffee, the color of the fighting fish they leave inside for Feng Shui (true story at the “Water” themed room at Sofitel Bangkok). As my Dearest wife will tell you, I have an “unhealthy” obsession with hotels and the experience of hospitality.

After exiting my fund, I started traveling more for leisure. The thing I really enjoyed which I did not spend enough time doing was traveling with my family and friends for leisure. Just pure recreation and enjoyment. I daydream about traveling with people I love all the time. So many of my fondest memories happened during my travels with my loved ones. Unforgettable memories created (me and my Dad missing our flights for the first time ever together, because we were having a great conversation over coffee haha), and traveling with friends and experiencing the wonders of the world together. Meeting new friends all over the world, some of whom are people I engage in business with today.

ahH-CHOOO! My Hoteling Journey Begins

I received the full proceeds of my fund exit in Q1 2022. With a sizeable amount of capital, I was looking at investing in real estate because I wanted stability for my financial position. While the returns from real estate investing in Singapore are stable, the yields are as attractive as rush hour traffic on Monday morning.

I wanted to focus on starting a family and enjoying my life with the people I love. By my calculations, the post-tax, post-financing returns on Singapore real estate would probably equate to my wife leaving me. Thankfully, I am good at math, so this was a no-go.

Wait, did you go off track? Take us back to the ahH-CHOOO part!

At that time, there was a new kid on the block, and his name was Omicron. They say that “Where there is Crisis, there is Opportunity.” This turned out to be true for me, because while Omicron was terrorising the world, it began a chapter of my life I would describe as “THE Life-Changing Decision”.

There is often no 100%, but at that time, it was safe to say that 100% of hotel businesses got kicked in the nuts. Once in 2020. Another time in 2021. And Omicron was the 3rd time in a row. Imagine getting kicked in the nuts 3 times in a row... will you still be able to stand? Well, we could say the same for every hotel's balance sheet.

Here's something about the economics of hotels, and real estate for that matter:

Most hotels/real estate assets are bought on credit.

Real estate is a popular asset class because you put down only 20-30% of the full value of an asset, and sell it off at a price based on the full value of the asset. The caveat is that you will need to be able to repay the monthly mortgage payments (via rent/income).

During the COVID years, hotels got almost 1 year of close to zero income (about 10-20% of usual revenue), and 2 years of 30-50% revenue.

For the hotels that survived, they probably lost almost 5-10 years of income trying to stay afloat.

For the first time ever, hotels were on a fire sale. This was a fiery crisis. This was a golden opportunity.

Our First Deal

In April 2022, together with my partner, we structured our first ever multi-strategy, multi-asset deal for a portfolio of assets (hotels, islands, land parcels). It was the greatest challenge of our lives, where we underwent some of the most painful (and expensive) lessons. We had a plan that worked on paper, but as life would have it, no amount of planning can prepare us for the reality of life sometimes.

We had a really, really, (can I add one more “really”?) (ok, one, more, but in caps), REALLY rough start, because we had no idea what we were doing most of the time. There is a profound kind of pain that one goes through when we see more than 7 figures of money "burning" into thin air. At some point, one has to make a decision to philosophically cut off the hand before the cancer spread to the rest of the body. We had to confront a profound sense of loss on multiple occasions, and had to make some painful decisions to give up some deeply beloved assets (boats, a beautiful island, a reef) in the process.

The entire chapter taught us lessons that we would never forget (hopefully), and will never learn from textbooks. While you can say that we learned to become smarter, wiser, stronger… the reality is that the hopelessness of the moments shaped our choices and perspectives in a way that one could never truly learn, but can only be taught by experience. But it was not all doom and gloom. Might be the gym sessions or our cologne, but Lady Luck also chose to blow some kisses our way. We met some of the most amazing people along the way. Other hotel owners, seasoned industry veterans and professionals, legal eagles, money guys and girls who offered us guidance, help and support.

After a challenging 3 years, we turned a negative equity situation around. Today the resorts we are involved with together cost or are valued at over US$100 million.

Want to learn how we did it?

We Write Our Own Stories

Remember that friend who said I had no business being in the hotels business?

He is probably not alone in thinking that, and probably still thinks that, and that may actually still be true today.

I really had no business being in it, but I chose to pursue it anyway.

But as life would have it, I am in it deep now, and I am grateful to be in it, to be passionately in love with it, and there is no stopping me now.

So, it seems like 2 people can be right and wrong at the same time. (Surprise?!)

So… why am I sharing my story?

I am sharing my story because I want to show people that you can begin this journey no matter where you are. That all a person needs to succeed in this space is to be willing to learn and show up consistently in the right environment.

What is MasterKey all about?

I envision MasterKey as a place where people can come together and not just learn, but also experiment, like a lab. There are no gurus here, or suits in a room blind-selling. I don’t have any secrets to hold from you, or new lessons to sell to you. I want to teach people everything I know, because there is a lot of opportunity for us to win together.

I envision 3 profiles of people:

1) Aspiring Learner

It is crazy how learnable hotel investing is, but beyond a formal academic program, there is no one teaching people how to do it.

So I decided to create one: The Hotel Investing Bootcamp.

But in classic Maverick Endeavours fashion, I made it unconventionally better with AI (or SI, if you are in America).

A 2-day program where I teach you everything you need to know, provide you with all the tools and portal you into a winning environment.

All students will then be part of The Lobby, a community where we get to hang out and talk about what we have learned.

2) Aspiring Hotel Investor

If you are ready to take action, I offer The Lounge and The Penthouse.

The Lounge is like the Executive Lounge of a hotel. People are there for more than just a vacation. It is an intentionally closed group, because while knowledge is easy to come by, quality insights and information is not. We meet once a month and we share and give feedback on real challenges and opportunities together as we help to co-create winning outcomes together.

The Penthouse… well, when you book the Penthouse, you want to have a party.

The Penthouse is really for a unique few people who really want to LIVE through the experience. You will be invited to events and retreats at hotels owned by our Ambassadors and partners, where we get to see what’s behind the curtains of each other.

3) Hoteliers Building Their Legacy

If you are a hotel owner who is writing your greatest story yet, I offer the Ambassador Suite.

Real estate, and naturally hoteling, is becoming more competitive and disrupted. Informational edges and optimising strategies can only take us so far. The need for innovation is real and the right kind of expertise and support in moving towards a new direction can make or break a hotel’s future.

The Ambassador Suite is for people who are in the game and playing to win. The Ambassador Suite offers access to an ecosystem of knowledge, collaborators, experts, partners, business and capital solutions to help you reach the next level.

Closing Note

I learned from my life to never underestimate the power of a small group of people coming together and collaborating to win. I say this in tribute to our Founding Members and Ambassadors, who own hotels in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Japan and the Maldives. We have created a curated ecosystem for successful learning and pursuit of opportunity to anyone who is willing to show up consistently.

If you are ready, I would like to invite you to join us in a journey of hotel investing and ownership. I cannot guarantee any success whatsoever, but I can promise you an unforgettable adventure ahead.

Peace, Love, Joy,

Xavier See