Look, we've all been there. You're playing as Franklin, Lester gives you a call, and suddenly you're perched on top of a parking garage with a sniper rifle aimed at the Von Crastenburg Hotel. It feels like just another mission. But if you pull that trigger too early, you are literally flushing tens of millions of in-game dollars down the toilet. The Hotel Assassination GTA V mission is the ultimate "test of patience" that Rockstar threw into the game, and honestly, most players fail it on their first playthrough because the game doesn't explicitly tell you how much is at stake.
It's a trap.
Basically, this mission is your introduction to the dark art of insider trading in Los Santos. You aren't just a hitman; you're a market manipulator. Lester Crest is using you to tank stocks and pump others. If you treat this like a standard "go here, shoot him" objective, you're missing the entire point of the endgame.
The Brutal Truth About the Hotel Assassination GTA V Mission
The target is Brett Lowrey. He’s the CEO of Bilkington Research. Lester wants him gone so that Betta Pharmaceuticals—a rival company—can swoop in and take over the market share. It’s a classic corporate hit. You wait outside the hotel, wait for the timer to tick down, and pop him when he exits. Simple, right?
The problem is the timing.
This is the only assassination mission you have to do to progress the main story. The others? You can save those for later. And you absolutely should. Most veterans of the game will tell you to leave the rest of Lester’s hits until after "The Big Score" (the final heist) because that’s when you’ll have the maximum amount of liquid cash to dump into the stock market. But for this first one, you're stuck doing it with whatever change you've scraped together from the early jewelry store job and Trevor’s initial rampages.
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How the Market Actually Reacts
The moment Lowrey bites the dust, the LCN exchange goes into a frenzy. Betta Pharmaceuticals (BET) is going to skyrocket. If you haven't put every single cent from Michael, Franklin, and Trevor into BET before the mission starts, you're losing money.
It’s not just about the buy-in, though. It’s the exit strategy. You’ll see BET climb by roughly 50% on the LCN. Some people report seeing it hit 80% on certain platforms or versions of the game, though 50% is the standard "safe" peak. If you sell too early, you miss the peak. If you wait too long, it corrects.
Then there’s the rebound. Bilkington (BIL) takes a massive hit. It craters. A lot of players forget that you can actually make money on the way back up, too. Once Bilkington bottomed out—usually after a few days of in-game sleep—you buy the dip. It eventually recovers, though it takes a lot longer than the Betta Pharmaceuticals spike. It’s a slow burn, but it’s free money.
Why Most Players Mess This Up
People get impatient. They see the mission marker and they just want to see the story move forward. I get it. The narrative momentum in GTA V is intense. But the stock market mechanics in this game are actually pretty sophisticated for a 2013 title.
The game uses two different markets: the LCN and the BAWSAQ. The LCN is "local" and affected by your specific in-game actions. The BAWSAQ used to be influenced by the global player base back when the Rockstar Social Club was more integrated with the live market data, but for the Hotel Assassination GTA V targets, you’re mostly looking at the LCN.
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A Quick Step-by-Step for the Uninitiated
- Switch between all three characters. This is the part people forget. They only invest with Franklin. No. Go to Michael, open the phone, buy BET. Go to Trevor, buy BET.
- Drive to the parking lot. Don't use a loud gun unless you want a 2-star wanted level immediately. Use a suppressed sniper.
- The Shot. You don't even have to be that precise. Lowrey is getting into a car. One shot to the head or a sticky bomb on the car both work, but the sniper is cleaner.
- The Exit. Get out of the area. Lester will call and congratulate you on being a tool for capitalism.
- The Wait. Go to a safehouse. Save the game to advance time. Do not actually save if the price hasn't peaked; just use the bed to move the clock forward 6 to 8 hours at a time.
Check the "My Portfolio" tab constantly. You’re looking for that 50% return. Once you see it start to stagnate or drop by a fraction of a percent, sell everything.
The "Post-Game" Strategy
If you're reading this and you've already finished the mission and only made a few thousand bucks, don't restart your save just yet. While the Hotel Assassination GTA V is a mandatory story beat, the real money comes from the Multi-Target Assassination, the Vice Assassination, the Bus Assassination, and the Construction Assassination.
If you save those four missions until after the final heist, you can turn your $30 million per character into $2 billion. Yes, billion with a B. That is enough to buy every property in the game, including the golf course, which costs a staggering $150 million.
The Hotel mission is basically the tutorial for this. It’s Rockstar’s way of saying, "Hey, pay attention to what Lester says about the brands." If he mentions a brand name, that’s your cue to open the browser.
Misconceptions About the LCN
There’s a common myth that you can influence stocks by destroying trucks on the highway. You know, blowing up PostOP vans to make GoPostal stock go up. Honestly? It barely works. If it does, the movement is so microscopic that it’s not worth the sticky bombs. The only way to truly "break" the market is through these scripted assassinations.
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Another thing: don't trust the "graphs" on the stock website. They are almost entirely decorative. The only numbers that matter are the "Current Price" and the "Return Percentage" in your portfolio. The graphs often show a downward trend even when the stock is actually rising. It’s a weird quirk of the game’s UI that has confused people for over a decade.
Taking Action: Your Portfolio Checklist
To maximize the return on the Hotel Assassination GTA V and the subsequent hits, follow this specific rhythm.
- Before the Mission: Empty the bank accounts of all three characters into Betta Pharmaceuticals (BET) on the LCN.
- During the Mission: Kill Lowrey quickly and leave the area to lose the cops.
- After the Mission: Head to a bed. Sleep (but don't necessarily save) to advance time. Check the stock every time you wake up.
- The Sell-Off: Once BET hits roughly 50% profit, sell it all.
- The Dip: Wait about 48 to 72 in-game hours. Check Bilkington (BIL). It should be at a record low. Buy it.
- The Recovery: This takes longer—sometimes a week of in-game time. Sell it once it rebounds by about 10-20%. It’s not as lucrative as Betta, but it’s "found" money.
Once you’ve cleared this, stop. Don’t touch the other Lester icons on the map. Ignore them. Finish the main story, do the heists, and wait until you have the massive payout from the Union Depository. Only then should you return to Lester to finish his "hit list." By then, the percentages remain the same, but the principal investment will be so much higher that you'll never have to worry about money in Los Santos again.
The biggest mistake is thinking of these as missions. They aren't. They are financial opportunities disguised as gunplay. If you want to own the Los Santos Golf Club, you have to play the long game.
Move on to the main story heists and keep your cash in your pocket. The market is waiting.