Hotel Law Blog

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
30 October 2008

Butler's Matrix: the Hospitality Lawyer's analytical tool for lender decisions on hotel mortgage loan defaults -- workouts, receiverships, deeds in lieu or bankruptcy.

OK. You handle troubled real estate loans for a lender. You are in special servicing or special assets. A troubled hotel loan comes on your screen. You know that hotel loans are different, and you have just brushed up on the Dos and Don'ts of troubled hotel loan workouts. You have done your Comprehensive Situation Analysis so that you have all the relevant business and legal information you need to make a decision, and you have even mulled over the Lender Alternatives for a Troubled Hotel Loan. But you think that there must be another way to get your arms around this situation to make a decision on which way to go . . . And there is. It's Butler's Matrix for choosing Lender Alternatives in troubled hotel mortgage loan workouts and defaults. . .

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer -- Butler's Matrix: Key to hotel mortgage loan defaults, workouts, bankruptcies and receiverships." »

Posted In: Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
30 October 2008

Advice from Hospitality Lawyer: Options and considerations in troubled hotel mortgage loans for lenders and borrowers.

When a hotel loan gets in trouble, a lender should immediately perform a Comprehensive Situation Analysis. (See Hospitality Lawyer - The "Comprehensive Situation Analysis" for troubled hotel loans and workouts). This is the foundation for making some of the most important decisions that the lender will face on what to do with the borrower and the loan. The borrower should also look at these considerations to formulate its strategy to accomplish its goals. So what are the alternatives for dealing with a troubled hotel loan, and what are the considerations each party has?

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer: Lender and borrower alternatives for troubled hotel mortgage loans" »

Posted In: Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
30 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer: The Comprehensive Situation Analysis -- Critical foundation for decisions on lender alternatives for workouts, receiverships, deeds in lieu and bankruptcies with distressed hotel loan

When CMBS special servicers (and other lenders' special assets workouts teams) see more hotel loans pop up on their "Watch Lists," it is important to perform a "Comprehensive Situation Analysis" of your "special assets" or distressed loans. Do you know why? Do you know how?

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer - The "Comprehensive Situation Analysis" for troubled hotel mortgage loans and workouts" »

Posted In: Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
30 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer: Workouts, receiverships, deeds in lieu and bankruptcies with distressed hotel loans: Do you know the 8 Dos and Don'ts of handling Troubled Hotel Loans?

As CMBS special servicers and other lenders' special assets workouts teams start to receive a new wave of troubled loans in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis that erupted in September 2008, it is a great time to "get back to fundamentals" and review the Dos and Don'ts of Troubled Hotel Loans. So here they are in case you want to test your memory or get started on a new run . . .

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer asks, "Do you know the 8 Dos and Don'ts of handling troubled hotel mortgage loans?"" »

Posted In: Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
30 October 2008

Hotel Lawyer on troubled hotel mortgage loans and defaults, hotel workouts, hotel bankruptcies, and hotel deeds in lieu of foreclosure.

JMBM's bankruptcy lawyers say that they have not been this busy in 20 years. JMBM's troubled loan team veterans have dealt with more than 1,000 receiverships over the years and handled some of the biggest real estate, timeshare and hotel assets for banks and the U.S. Government (both the FDIC and the RTC in the last great meltdown). As they swing into action again, they have dusted off and updated all their checklists, polished their troubled asset technology and are providing decades of experience that has been largely lost by most institutional players from too many prosperous years.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer -- Workouts and Special Servicing for Hotel Mortgage Loans: What is so different about TROUBLED HOTEL LOANS?" »

Posted In: Workouts, Bankruptcies & Receiverships

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
28 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer with the fundamentals of vacation ownership. Vacation ownership, timeshare, fractional and clubs have increasingly important roles in hotel and resort development, and repositioning, but as the Panic of 2008 has gone global, we may also find ourselves addressing these projects in workouts, receiverships and bankruptcies. It's time for all of us to dust off the cobwebs and be sure we understand this critical component of our industry.

The hotel lawyers at JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® are fortunate to have David Sudeck heading up the timeshare and vacation resort practice for us. He is a real veteran on the team for these issues. (See "Hotel & Timeshare Lawyer Joins JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® team").

So given these interesting times, I asked David if he would put together a series of articles on a spectrum of timeshare topics and he readily agreed. Here is the first in David's "Vacation Ownership 101" series. You will also be able to access timeshare and vacation resources under the "Timeshare" TOPIC -- one of the tabs at the top -- at www.HotelLawBlog.com. You can also just go to http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/timeshare/.

Continue reading "Vacation Ownership Properties 101: What are they? How do they work? How are they regulated?" »

Posted In: Timeshare

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com and
Robert E. Braun | Partner JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®

26 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer on how SNDAs or Subordination Agreements affect the value, financeability, and collateral value of a hotel.

As we mentioned recently, Bob Braun and I decided to create a series of articles about Hotel Management Agreements or HMAs as hospitality industry veterans often call them. (See "Hotel Management Agreements 201 by Hospitality Lawyer - Indemnification Provisions"). The successful matching of the brand and operator with your hotel can be one of the most important factors controlling your hotel's value, liquidity, financeability and operational success. Many owners do not realize how important the HMA is until it is too late. That's why the Hospitality Attorneys at JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® -- who focus on representing hotel owners, developers and lenders -- decided to share some important lessons we have learned over the years in working on many hundreds of Hotel Management Agreements -- probably more than 1,000.

If you are about to explore looking for a hotel operator for your hotel project, have a new hotel management agreement in your future, or have issues with an existing HMA, you will find important information under the "Hotel Management Agreements" TOPIC -- one of the tabs at the top -- at www.HotelLawBlog.com. You might also check out the resources listed at the end of this article.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer: Hotel Management Agreements: SNDAs or Subordination Agreements" »

Posted In: Hotel Management Agreements

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
21 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer on Condo Hotels. Do they work? Are they viable? What are the 5 biggest misconceptions about Condo Hotels?

"Condo Hotels" -- they are a subject the media "loves to hate." Everyone has an opinion about them -- whether they know anything about them or not. JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® has worked on more than 100 hotel mixed-use projects in the last 5 years alone, most of them involving condo hotels or hotel condos. Funny. Almost all the ones JMBM's hotel lawyers work on really "work" and don't make the headlines.

So with all the critical (and often uninformed) press lately, it was really great to see Brent Howie of Provident Hotels & Resorts -- one of the 30-year veterans of the condo hotel industry -- write a "no nonsense" article de-bunking the 5 biggest myths about condo hotels. I thought I would share it with you and lend our endorsement to its theme (and to the kind of support Brent gives these projects). Brent Howie can be reached at 727-726-4770 or bhowie@prov.com.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer: The 5 biggest misconceptions about Condo Hotels" »

Posted In: Condo Hotels, Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
15 October 2008

The Hospitality Lawyers at JMBM enthusiastically welcome David Sudeck as a new Senior Member of the Global Hospitality Group® focusing on timeshare and fractional projects. This is one of the strongest segments of the hospitality industry that keeps on going, so we are very happy to have David Sudeck to take responsibility for this area of our practice. Here is the press release that says it all . . .

Continue reading "Hotel & Timeshare Lawyer Joins JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® team" »

Posted In: Timeshare

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
13 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer with the latest update on the Financial Crisis or "Turbulence."

A few days ago, some were calling the Dow's 2,400 point collapse in 8 days a "crash" but others insisted that a "crash" requires a drop of 20% or more in a single day or two days. Therefore, they call the recent collapse in stock indexes a "cascading crash" or a "slow motion crash." It was pretty fast for most of us, with a 1,000 point swing between high and low on Friday (October 10) -- the first time that has happened in its 12-year history.

Continue reading "Hospitality Attorney on the current financial "Turbulence" and forced partial nationalization of 9 U.S. banks." »

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

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
8 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer at the Hispanic Hotel Owners Association Inaugural Conference in Miami, Florida. WOW! Tonight was the opening of the Inaugrual Annual Conference for the HHOA founded by Angela Gonzalez-Rowe. (See Hispanic Hotel Owners Association (HHOA) and Angela Gonzalez-Rowe talk with Hospitality Lawyer about HHOA's exciting developments) This is a serious group of hotel investors, a focused gateway for the Hispanic community's involvement in hotels, and a demographic segment that absolutely commands respect.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer in Miami at the HHOA Inaugural Convention. What energy! What focus! ¡Que Fabuloso!" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
3 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyer with insights from Warren Buffett on the Financial Crisis that has created an "economic Pearl Harbor." After the Senate passed the Bailout Bill, he talked about what it takes to win the war of Financial Recovery. Buffett's common-sense insights on the $700 billion financial system rescue package are great. Let's hope our Government listens to the compelling logic of how to make this bailout work . . . and how we will all make out better.

I hope the U.S. Treasury and Congress are listening . . .

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer: $700 billion bailout bill is now law! Warren Buffett insights on (1) Why the Bailout Bill had to pass, (2) The key to making the bailout work, and (3) How the Treasury can make a profit." »

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

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
3 October 2008

Hotel Lawyer: $700 billion financial rescue bill is signed! Full text of the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.''

In the coming days and weeks, we will have more thoughts to share on this landmark legislation and its implications for the hospitality industry, but here is the final text of the law signed today -- October 3, 2008.

Continue reading "Hotel Lawyer: $700 billion financial rescue bill is signed! Full text of the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008'' or "EESA 2008"" »

Posted In:

By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group®
Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
01 October 2008

Hospitality Lawyers at JMBM don't create economic cycles or events like the Panic of 2008, but we often help our clients and friends find the fortune-making deals or put a tourniquet on life threatening hemorrhaging for owners, developers, investors and lenders.

These times remind this hotel lawyer of some time-tested wisdom. Hetty Green, one of the world's most successful investors who lived in the 19th century said, "Next to my children I love a good panic more than anything else." And why would those words be relevant today? That is the penultimate question today at www.HotelLawBlog.com.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer: Fortunes will be made . . . or lost . . . in the wake of The Financial Bailout Bill and the Panic of 2008. What happens AFTER the Bailout Bill . . ." »

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