Hotel Law Blog

By Jim Butler, Jeff Steiner and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
25 February 2010

CMBS loan delinquencies -- a problem growing every month at a staggering rate.

According to the Monthly Delinquency Report issued by Realpoint a few days ago, the total outstanding amount of CMBS (Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities) tracked by that firm is almost $800 billion, of which approximately $46 billion was delinquent in January 2010.

Continue reading " Tranche Warfare: The coming litigation among stakeholders in CMBS Loans " »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends , Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
22 February 2010

Under the Bush Administration, the Department of Justice issued proposed modifications to the ADA regulations that would increase the obligations of certain commercial property owners and operators under the ADA Accessibility Guidelines and include time share developments within the definition of "public accommodations." These amendments, if passed in their current proposed form, may impose significant burden on an industry that cannot realistically comply with certain operating requirements meant to ensure accessibility within the transient hospitality world. This at a time when time share is already hurting.

After President Obama was elected, the proposed modifications were placed on hold. We expect that before the modifications to the ADA are passed, the Department of Justice will issue a Notice of Proposed Rule Making and open another comment period. This may occur soon, so you should get and stay informed about the proposed modifications now before you need to comply with new burdensome regulations.

Continue reading " Timeshare lawyer advisory for timeshare developers, owners and operators. Impact of new ADA rules on your timeshare project. " »

Posted In: Timeshare

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
07 February 2010

Hotel Lawyer with tips for lenders on defaulted California mortgages. California now leads the nation in defaulted mortgages for hotels and commercial real estate. As lenders start to review their options, they must formulate asset plans that will avoid violating California's tricky one action and anti-deficiency rules, or they may be in for some nasty surprises.

To help lenders avoid unnecessary pitfalls, we asked Guy Maisnik, one of the senior member of our real estate department and Global Hospitality Group® to help us review the essential principles that every lender should know. Guy is one of members of our deep bench who has been through every real estate downturn since the 1980s, and is used to helping lenders and investors maximize the value on billion dollar portfolios or one-off assets.

In Guy's career, he has worked with lenders to advise on the restructuring and exercising of remedies. These clients include numerous banks, special services, opportunity funds and pension funds on the structuring and/or exercise of their remedies, such as GE Capital, Midland Loan Services, Helios AMC, HSH Nordbank, AG, HSBC, Wells Fargo Bank, BankAmerica, Morgan Stanley, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Colony Advisors, Loan Star, Archon Capital, CalPERS and Washington PERS. Such work involved analyzing and assisting in the successful bidding and purchase of loan/asset portfolios, from small portfolios to those exceeding a billion dollars, exercising remedies on the acquired loans, addressing complex workout and guaranties realization issues, addressing tranche disputes, restructuring capital requirements, structuring sales of the acquired loans/assets and addressing tax consequences of note holders to facilitate workout and disposition strategies.

Here is what he has to say. You may also find the rich library of materials on www.HotelLawBlog.com a valuable source of information on this and related subjects. At the top of the blog, check out the tab that says "Hotel Law Topic" and click on the one called "Workouts, Bankruptcies and Receiverships."

Continue reading " Hotel Lawyer: California foreclosure traps for unwary lenders: California's one action and anti-deficiency rules. What one top expert tells lenders about avoiding the pitfalls of foreclosing in California on hotels and other mixed collateral. " »

Posted In: Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
1 February 2010

Hotel Lawyers with grim reports from the field. If lenders are looking for some encouraging news on their distressed hotel asset sales prospects, they are not going to get it anytime soon. That is what the Atlas 2009 Year End Hotel Survey shows, but it does offer some valuable tips for dealing with continued distress in 2010.

Here is an executive summary.

Continue reading " Atlas 2009 Year End Hotel Survey . . . and what it means " »

Posted In: Global Financial Crisis & Recovery , Outlook and Trends , Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hospitality Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
31 January 2010

Hotel Lawyer: A new realism settles on the hotel industry. We've already given up 2010 and 2011 won't be that much better . . . then a long, slow "jobless recovery."

"Realism" was the defining word for the ALIS conference held in San Diego on January 25-27, 2010. ALIS attendance was roughly half or less of last year, and the experts officially declared 2009 one of the worst years for the hospitality industry. They have already thrown in the towel on the industry for 2010, and look to an anemic 2011, with double digit growth in RevPAR after that . . . but we are so far down the hole now, that even double digit RevPAR growth will take years to reclaim the levels enjoyed in 2005-2007.

So what does this portend for lenders? And what is the smart money doing now?

Continue reading " Hotel Lawyer: ALIS brings optimists to earth. Lenders make new evaluations. Realism is cold and gray. " »

Posted In: Global Financial Crisis & Recovery , Outlook and Trends , Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and Jim Abrams | JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
20 December 2009

In early November, we warned the readers of the Hotel Law Blog that the multi-year fight over "lost" transient occupancy taxes (TOT) that has been raging between local governmental entities (state, city, and county) and the various online travel companies (OTCs), such as Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Priceline.com, and Expedia, was reaching the point where it was going to start impacting hotels financially. Unfortunately, we are there NOW, and things don't look good for the lodging industry!

Two important developments have just occurred recently, which hotel owners and operators need to watch carefully because they will be spreading rapidly.

First, at least one city has amended its TOT ordinance to expressly make hotels liable for the collection and payment of the TOT on the entire amount that a guest ultimately pays an OTC for the use of a guest room.

Second, some cities are amending their TOT ordinances so that it will make it more difficult and expensive for hotels to challenge TOT assessments.

Continue reading " How they are going to make you pay TOT on revenues your hotel never received " »

Posted In: Innkeepers Law

By Jim Butler and JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
11 December 2009

Even if you don't have a hotel in Manhattan, you will want to know about the "Manhattan Hotels ADA Compliance Review Survey" conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ's reach is nationwide and other cities are targeted for the same kind of survey and enforcement.

In an interview on the Hotel Law Blog earlier this year, Coming to a Theater District Near You: The DOJ's ADA "Survey," my partner, Marty Orlick, described the sweeping scope of the DOJ's ADA Compliance Review Survey of Manhattan hotels. In that interview, Marty emphasized that hoteliers who receive the questionnaire should be aware that DOJ investigators may have already been to their hotel -- in fact, the DOJ's sub rosa investigation may be why the hotel received the survey in the first place.

In today's interview on the same topic, Marty explains what hotel owners and managers should do when they receive the DOJ's ADA Compliance Review questionnaire in the mail. (First: take it very, very seriously.)

Continue reading " Hotel Lawyers and the ADA: Is the DOJ's ADA Compliance Survey Coming to Your City Soon? What to do when you receive the DOJ's ADA Compliance Review questionnaire. " »

Posted In: ADA

By Jim Butler and Jim Abrams | JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
3 November 2009

Hotel Lawyer: The transient occupancy tax litigation by cities and local governments continues to mushroom.

On November 3, Florida filed one of the first lawsuits against Expedia and Orbitz for lost bed taxes, but using the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Although October was a big month in the OTC battles, November may be even bigger. Today, we are going to look at the latest litigation filings and what they mean.

Continue reading " Occupancy tax update on internet hotel booking: More lawsuits against Expedia and online travel companies (OTCs) over "lost" bed taxes -- Why hotels should care about the transient occupancy tax (TOT) battle " »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler and Jim Abrams | JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
1 November 2009

How Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and other online travel companies (OTCs) create huge headaches for owners and operators on their suits over hotel occupancy taxes.

Billions of dollars of hotel rooms have been sold through the online travel companies or OTCs. Generally speaking, no transient occupancy taxes (TOT) or bed taxes, have been paid on the portion of these sales kept by the OTCs when they resell the rooms to hotel guests. The exposure on these unpaid hotel bed taxes easily exceeds $100 million -- before interest and penalties.

Until now, most of the press has focused on the lawsuits brought by more than 200 local governments against Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and the other third party internet hotel booking companies. As many of these lawsuits now reach final resolution, some cities have announced that if they don't win against the OTCs, they will take aggressive action to collect these lost bed taxes from the hotels themselves. And OTCs have said that if they lose, they may come back against the hotels.

Who will be the biggest loser in this high-stakes poker game, and how did we get here? If you think you already know that, then skip to end of this article to see if you also have a firm grip on the "5 things every hotel owner and operator needs to know."

Continue reading " Hotel Occupancy Tax Alert: online travel company suits over transient occupancy taxes raise - 5 things every hotel owner and operator needs to know " »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
01 October 2009

This is one of many articles on the subject of "troubled hotel loans - workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships" in the rich library at www.HotelLawBlog.com.

Our national hotel practice focuses on being the legal and business advisors for lenders, borrowers and investors. With the hotel industry suffering a record-breaking collapse of revenues and no immediate relief in sight, everyone is starting to examine available options.

Continue reading " Hotel Lawyer: Distressed hotel investments -- Maximizing the value for Lenders, Borrowers and Investors " »

Posted In: Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships