Tips and Trick Hotel City

Much like Playfish's Restaurant City, Hotel City gives you the opportunity to test your skills at managing a virtual business -- in this case a hotel. Your goal is to take a small hotel and turn it into a luxury 5-star destination, by building and furnishing different types of rooms. You can also put your friends and family to work as receptionists, maids and other hotel staff, while you do more important things like shopping for Italian leather sofas and comparing wallpaper designs.

Released in mid-March, Hotel City is Playfish's 11th game on Facebook. With about 122,000 users, Hotel City is off to slow start, but playing for a few minutes shows that this game has managed to recapture the magic that gives Pet Society, Restaurant City that extra special something.

When getting started with Hotel City, here are six tips that will put you on the fast track to making your hotel a world-class destination.

1. Start by adding a bunch of budget rooms to your hotel. You want visitors to stay and pay, so the more rooms you have, the more money your hotel will earn. Your star rating also improves as you build more rooms, and you'll be able to unlock and add cooler features faster, i.e. a fancy restaurant or a big swimming pool.
2. Like Playfish's Pet Society, visiting your friends every day yields coins and points. Look for the pink "New" sign or the gold coins icon next to your friends' photos. Visiting a new hotel earns you 1,000 coins, while the bag of gold coins gives you 400. Also keep an eye out for the maid's tip jar in your neighbor's hotels, which will bring in an additional 500 coins.

3. Poke the sleeping guests. Some will yield coins and points, and even if they don't, it's still worth poking them to see their funny reactions.

4. Keep the staff working so your hotel is running 24-7. Many potential customers are lost if there's no receptionist to greet them at the door. You can do this by keeping an eye on the time at the bottom left-hand side of the screen. Come back when time's up and put your staff to work again.

5. Banish dust balls and keep the rooms spotless. If ignored, the rooms can become infested with cockroaches (gross!). The best way to keep things clean is to buy a maid's room in the very beginning of the game.

6. Spend money in order to make money. Invest your coins into luxe wallpaper, furniture and accessories for each room. Your star rating will go up, as will your nightly room rate. You can see how individual rooms rate by placing the cursor over each and eyeballing the progress bar that goes from red (needs more decor) to green (A-OK) for each room. That extra coin will go towards unlocking features such as restaurants, bars and swimming pools for a 5-star rating.