http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/ published by the Hotel Lawyer Jim Butler & the Hotel Lawyers of the Global Hospitality Group® en-us 2012-02-03T13:27:33-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2012/02/2012_predictions.html While no one has a crystal ball to accurately predict the future of the hospitality industry, Eric Stossel, Managing Editor of Lodging Hospitality has the next best thing: access to experts and insiders who have their fingers on the pulse of the industry. I was recently interviewed by Eric, along with other hospitality practitioners, for one of his articles that forecast the year ahead (see Capital Markets Key to Hotel Real Estate Rebound). There was plenty of prognosticating going on by pundits at the ALIS conference in Los Angeles this week, as well, and I took a lot of notes. Here's what the experts think the hospitality world will look like in 2012. Outlook and Trends jim 2012-02-03T13:27:33-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2012/01/pop_quiz_on_ada.html ADA pop quiz In less than 2 months, on March 15, 2012, new ADA Standards become mandatory. If you can't answer "YES" to each of the following three questions, you may be in trouble. 1. Do you know what the new ADA Guidelines will require for your hotel, restaurant, or other "place of public accommodation"? 2. Do you know that there is NO "grandfathering" to escape the most sweeping changes to the ADA Standards in 20 years? 3. Have you done everything the law requires to bring your property into compliance with the new rules? Answers . . . Call for a free consultation on ADA defense and compliance issues. If you are unsure about the answers to the first couple of questions . . . read on! ADA Defense jim 2012-01-20T08:00:00-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2012/01/alis_and_lobby_lizards.html Hotel lawyer in Los Angeles, looking at a new first in the hotel conference industry. The Americas Lodging Investment Summit or ALIS runs next week from Monday through Wednesday, January 23-25, 2012, at the JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles. ALIS is one of the major annual hotel investment conferences and gets some of the best attendance in the industry. In 2012, it returns to Los Angeles after several years of being held in San Diego. It is always a great way to get a handle on what's happening in the hotel industry at the beginning of the year, and many of us look forward to it as a regular annual event. However, this year, the conference is creating something of a stir with what seems to be an industry first. For several weeks, rumors have abounded that the conference promoter, BHN, has "bought out" all of the public space at the JW Marriott. The practical impact of this is that only people with ALIS Conference badges will be permitted in any of the public spaces at the conference hotel. Today, I received an e-mail sent to all registered ALIS delegates. It confirmed the rumors. Among other things, this e-mail from the "Alice Registration Team" said the following: "Security will be tight at both the JW Marriott Hotel and Nokia Theatre. ALIS has secured all public areas at the JW Marriott Hotel beginning Monday, January 23. In order to access both venues, only registered ALIS delegates with ALIS name badge and picture ID will be granted admittance." Outlook and Trends jim 2012-01-19T20:52:07-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2012/01/importance_of_operator_as_fiduciary.html Hotel Lawyer on Hotel Management Agreement disputes between Owners and Hotel Operators. While there are always disputes simmering between hotel owners and hotel operators, the past few years has witnessed a big increase in the number of disputes ripening to litigation and arbitration. In a recent article, we discussed some of the root causes of this trend and role of the economy. That article was entitled, Litigation and disputes between hotel owners and operators are on the rise. Why?" I believe that most owner-operator disputes stem from the owner's belief that the operator is not operating the hotel in a satisfactory manner and is treating the owner unfairly. A bad economy drives the parties to take action. When discussions fail to resolve the issues, litigation or arbitration claims often result. Operators as fiduciaries: Why is this important and what does it mean? As I mentioned in the recent article, some of these disputes pivot on the fiduciary responsibility of the operator. This is an important legal concept for hotel owners to understand. Generally, a hotel operator is the "agent" of the owner. Every agent is a fiduciary. A fiduciary has many duties such as a duty of loyalty, full disclosure, and noncompetition. A fiduciary also has a duty to prefer his principal's interest (the owner's interests) over his own interests. I discussed these important concepts in a sidebar recently published in an article by Jason Freed of HotelNewsNow (a division of Smith Travel Research) in his article, Economic woes drive owner-operator disputes. I have reprinted that sidebar below with a few formatting edits to make the reading a bit easier . Hotel Management Agreements jim 2012-01-17T10:00:00-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2012/01/hma_disputes.html Hotel Management Agreement litigation and controversies are on the rise. Why? I was recently interviewed by Jason Freed of HotelNewsNow (a division of Smith Travel Research) for his article (www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/7246/Economic-woes-drive-owner-operator-disputes). Economic woes drive owner-operator disputes and it got me thinking. Hotel lawyers will tell you that there are always disputes going on between hotel owners and operators, and that most of them are resolved at the bargaining table without any legal action. Some disputes advance into litigation with the filing of a complaint, and others go to arbitration. The choice between litigation and arbitration is normally determined by the terms of the management agreement. Operators seem to prefer arbitration and they have pushed to create a trend to arbitrate. The arbitrations are "private" and tend to be missed by the press and are conducted in secrecy. But the number of owner-operator battles has really escalated over the past few years. This is not just a matter of these disputes getting more media attention. There are a lot more disputes. What you see in the press is just the tip of the iceberg. What's going on? Hotel Management Agreements jim 2012-01-12T10:16:16-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2011/11/ada_regs_no_grandfathering.html ADA Defense Lawyers. Is your pool, spa and fitness facility compliant with the ADA 2010 Regulations? If you think your property is grandfathered, then you are wrong! There is no grandfathering. As we mentioned in our recent posted article "Updating Service Animal Policies of Your Hotel," the Department of Justice published revised final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for title III (public accommodations and commercial facilities) on September 15, 2010 (the "2010 Regulations"). Based on the 2010 Regulations, all "Public Accommodations," including "Places of Lodging" (hotels, resorts, most timeshares, restaurants, etc.) must bring certain elements of the facilities described below into compliance with the 2010 ADA Standards as of March 15, 2012. * No one is exempt. * There is no safe harbor. * The ADA's "readily achievable" standard will apply. If you are not already working on bringing your property into compliance, then you should call us to assist you with the creation of a compliance policy. ADA Defense jim 2011-11-21T14:33:49-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2011/11/nathic_hotel_lawyer_in_washington_dc.html Congratulations to Hotel Management on a great annual hotel conference in Washington DC Our heartiest congratulations to Stacy Silver and Stephanie Ricca of Hotel Management and their team for a great first day (just ended) on their 3rd annual hotel conference, now called NATHIC (North America Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference). This was my first time attending this conference, but it certainly won't be my last. Washington DC makes an excellent venue for a conference, because it is efficient to combine the conference with business meetings with so many hotel companies based in the greater metropolitan area. Washington DC is a capital of the hotel industry. So here is my take on the trip to Washington, DC and the NATHIC conference so far. Outlook and Trends jim 2011-11-01T20:19:24-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2011/10/eb-5_boot_camp.html EB-5 financing is a hot topic, particularly for hotels. My partners and I in the JMBM Global Hospitality Group® have been talking about EB-5 financing for some time in our blogs. A complete list of the articles with links is below for your convenience. EB-5 financing is important for hotel developers. And, hotels are the most popular EB-5 investment! From the responses we have received, we know there is tremendous interest in the hotel community about using the EB-5 program to finance hotels. In addition, we know from our discussions with Chinese marketing agents that hotels are the most popular of all EB-5 investments to Chinese investors. With the continuing constraints on lending for new hotel development, the EB-5 program offers an alternative source of financing that has been proven to work on new hotel developments around the country. Here is some more information on this hot topic, and an EB-5 Boot Camp that you should attend if you are interested in this subject. EB-5 Financing jim 2011-10-29T20:20:20-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2011/10/chinese_investment_in_us_hotels.html On Friday, October 21, 2011 I did a Q&A interview with the National Real Estate Bisnow about Chinese investment in U.S. hotels. Here is the full Question & Answer exchange, a portion of which appeared in the Biznow article. There's been an explosion of Chinese investment in the US, especially real estate. And many people believe it will surpass the Japanese investment of the late '80s (estimated to have exceeded $120B). There's been an explosion of Chinese investment in US real estate. Who's investing and where, and how much investment do you expect in 2011? The increasing wave of Chinese investment in the U.S. is being fueled by the Chinese government (generally acting through construction companies, banks and other intermediary companies) and an exploding class of wealthy Chinese. The top .05% wealthiest Chinese have investible funds of more than $2.7 trillion, and there is a rapidly growing class of billionaires and more than 800,000 millionaires. Plus there is a huge rising middle class looking to travel and enjoy life. Of course, in addition to Mainland China there are the Chinese in Taiwan, and everywhere else such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia. A recent Merchants Bank report estimates that rich Chinese individuals -- those with assets of more than 10 million yuan -- have about 3.6 trillion yuan ($564 billion) invested overseas. No reliable numbers are available for total Chinese foreign investment or Chinese investment in the United States. The investors are largely staying under the radar to avoid publicity and possible adverse reactions, and there seems to be no means to track the investments and get an aggregate investment number. Chinese Investment jim 2011-10-25T14:25:21-08:00 http://hotellaw.jmbm.com/2011/10/fairmont_v_turnberry_decision_1.html Important new court case on terminating hotel management agreements -- Fairmont v. Turnberry. JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®, together with Dennis Richard of Richard and Richard, represented the owner of the Turnberry Isle Resort & Spa in obtaining a significant decision involving against Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. On Friday, October 14, 2011, a Miami Federal District Court denied Fairmont Hotel's request for a preliminary injunction to be reinstated as the operator of the hotel. We think this is an interesting and important decision. We believe that this 71-page opinion written by Magistrate Judge Goodman and adopted and reaffirmed by Judge Donald L. Graham is destined to become one of the more important cases in the area of hotel management agreements. Grounded on solid legal precedent -- with English common law, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case by Chief Justice John Marshall, and a well-known line of hotel cases -- and public policy, this is one of the best-written, most thoroughly researched and comprehensive decisions in the area. Hotel Management Agreements jim 2011-10-18T13:22:17-08:00