Owning a Gudauri apartment: your three options

Own a studio apartment in New Gudauri and there are three things you can do with it: let it by the night through the Altimera Collection, let it for a whole ski season as one booking, or sell it. The same apartment can move between all three, and you can change the plan from one winter to the next.

This is a guide to those three routes, what each one asks of you, and how a single studio moves between them. Every figure here is Altimera's own, read from the live site on 23 September 2026. There are eleven studios in the Collection, all ski-in / ski-out, a 3.5 minute walk from the gondola and about 2.5 hours from Tbilisi, and each one has been let, held for a season, or listed for sale at some point, which is why this question has a real answer rather than a brochure one.

What are the three ways a Gudauri apartment earns?

Two of the routes are lettings and one is a sale. You can let the apartment night by night through the Altimera Collection, the way a guest books any short stay. You can let the entire ski season, 15 December to 15 April, as a single 121-night booking. Or you can sell, either to move on or to take profit, and the apartment leaves the rental book entirely. Nothing commits you to one route forever: an apartment that spends this winter on the nightly calendar can be offered for the season next year, or listed for sale the year after.

Letting by the night: the Altimera Collection

This is the default, and it is what most owners do. Altimera runs the calendar, the pricing across Airbnb, Booking.com and its own direct channel, the guest messaging, the housekeeping and the maintenance, and pays out monthly. Across the 2025/26 ski season the Collection ran at 70% occupancy, with February the strongest month at around 90%, and some individual apartments fully booked through the February high season. One detail matters for cash flow: the deposit taken when a guest books is 30% of the stay and is non-refundable, so a share of the winter's income is committed well before the guest arrives. What a season actually looked like, month by month, is set out in how often a Gudauri apartment rents.

Letting the whole season: one booking, 121 nights

Instead of a full calendar of short stays, an apartment can be taken for the entire season by one party: 15 December to 15 April, 121 nights, at a single all-in figure set by the floor rather than by the dates. There are no nightly rates and no peak surcharges over New Year or February. Utilities, high-speed Wi-Fi, a ski locker downstairs and a full professional clean every two weeks sit inside that one figure; a weekly clean is the only paid upgrade, and a refundable $1,000 security deposit is held for the season. The season rate itself is not published: it is sent as a written proposal once you ask, from the full ski season page. For an owner, this route trades some upside for certainty, one guest and one payment schedule instead of a winter of turnovers.

Selling: the for-sale book

The third route is to sell. Altimera lists apartments for sale as well as letting them: on 23 September 2026 there are nine apartments on the for-sale book, from $50,000 to $190,000, with one price on request. Six are Altimera Ready, already furnished and operating to the Collection standard, and three are renovation units priced below market with the work scoped by Altimera before you commit. A buyer pays a 2.5% Altimera Fee at completion, which covers title verification, transaction handling and handover. What a purchase costs, line by line, is in what it costs to buy an apartment in Gudauri.

Can you move an apartment between the three?

Yes, and it is the part people miss. An Altimera Ready apartment that is for sale can go straight into the Collection and start earning from the first week; an apartment in the Collection can be listed for sale while it keeps taking bookings; and either can be offered for the whole season instead of the nightly calendar. You keep full title throughout. The management agreement runs for an initial twelve months and either side can end it on sixty days' written notice, so choosing one route this year does not lock the apartment into it next year.

What does Altimera charge, and what do you keep?

For the nightly and seasonal lettings, Altimera charges 20% of net rental revenue, where net means the money actually received after channel commissions and payment processing, not the headline booking figure. That 20% appears as a bracketed term in the published agreement, which means it is completed at signature and should be read as the standard rate rather than a fixed one. There is no upfront or onboarding fee. Owners receive monthly statements, keep the title and the final say, and the whole management agreement is published to read before you speak to anyone. The clause-by-clause version is in what an owner signs.

Which route is right for you?

If you want the highest likely return and do not mind a winter of turnovers being handled for you, the nightly Collection is the usual answer. If you value certainty and a single tenant over four months, the season let is the quieter choice. If the apartment has done its job, selling is a clean exit in a market where a foreign buyer can complete the purchase without ever travelling. Most owners start on the nightly calendar and keep the other two in reserve, which is exactly the flexibility owning here is meant to give you.

The fuller case, the market context and the numbers behind all three sit in the Gudauri investment guide. If you already own a studio in New Gudauri and want the operating side handled, Altimera manages apartments for other owners; if you are still deciding whether to buy, start with the guide, then talk to us.