You know what a hotel is, of course. And perhaps, you also know what a condois-aresidntial(居住的)building divided into seprate uniots that are owned by different people.Whatyou may not know is that in someU.S. cities, the two have come together into somethingcalled a“condo hotel”.
Some condo hotels can now be found in beach and mountain towns and a few smallcities,However, none is more famous than the great 105-year-old Plaza Hotel in New York,onFifth Avenue across from Central Park. The Plaza closed for repair in When it reopened twoyears later,more than half of it had been changed into one of these modern condo hotels.
Here's how it works: You buy what equals to an apartment( 公寓). If it's at'The Plaza,it willcost you between $1.5million and $9 mllion. So you own a part of the building. But there's someinconvinience. You may stay there no more than 120 days a year. hereion. The rest of the time,thehotel's workers can book guests into your place, just as they would in the regular hotel's rooms. Soif you're lucky and rich,you can now live in really special quarters up to almost one thid of theyear. While others pay off your mortgage(房贷)the rest of the year.
So far,a great monry of the nation's condo hotel units have been purchased not by rich peoplebut richer companiesm, including foreign ones. They want a nice place for their bosses to staywhen they are in town or working late at the office.
47.A condo is a place where people .