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This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer. Please contact me at Jim Butler at jbutler@jmbm.com or 310.201.3526.

Outlook and Trends

Posted On: March 8, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Hotel Lawyer: Stimulate this! The lighter side of political commentary from the centuries

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

Hotel Lawyer with political insights from the past centuries.

I started this blog with some thoughts from Bloomberg about how retail sales were down in February, developing nations were $700 billion short on being able to pay for their imports and debt, implications of the soaring unemployment that now exceeds the job creation targeted by Obama's program, but then my friend Carl Lambert sent me an email with some terse thoughts that rang true and made me smile.

So I thought I would share these today instead.


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Posted On: March 6, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Hotel Lawyer: Luxury hotel success story! (and philosophy). Ali Kasikci and Montage Beverly Hills

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

Hotel Lawyer with a wonderful luxury hotel success story

We attended the gala opening party for Montage Beverly Hills in early December, and it was one of the best opening parties we have been to. And now that the hotel has settled in to providing wonderful luxury experiences for hotel guests, we thought it would be a good time to catch up with one of our favorite hoteliers in the world, Ali Kasikci, Managing Director of Montage Beverly Hills.

Here's what we learned.

Continue reading " Hotel Lawyer: Luxury hotel success story! (and philosophy). Ali Kasikci and Montage Beverly Hills " »

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Posted On: February 27, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Hotel Lawyer: New hotel data and revised predictions for 2009. Increased hotel loan stress, falling NOI and slumping values. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

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

Hotel Lawyer with an update on hotel industry prospects.

As we have been reporting, the data coming in from the field continues to show deteriorating economic results in the hotel industry. Here's the latest on how 2008 ended up, and how 2009 and 2010 are shaping up now, including a special report on the hotel industry from Moody's.


Continue reading " Hotel Lawyer: New hotel data and revised predictions for 2009. Increased hotel loan stress, falling NOI and slumping values. It's going to get worse before it gets better. " »

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Posted On: February 23, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Hotel Lawyer: Eureka! A ray of sunshine amidst the gloom.

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

Hotel Lawyers find a ray of sunshine. As the headlines continue to belt out new tales of financial crises, crumbling infrastructure and staggering debt, it's nice to have an occasional ray of sunshine. Here it is, from Italy!

Continue reading " Hotel Lawyer: Eureka! A ray of sunshine amidst the gloom. " »

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Posted On: February 17, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Hotel Attorneys with the latest "updates from the field"

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

Hospitality Lawyers with the latest reports on what is happening at hotels in the U.S. and Europe.

It is always great to get the global perspective from Mark Woodworth of PKF Consulting (see Latest insights from JMBM's Hotel Attorneys and PKF Consulting on what lies ahead for the hotel industry) and Mark Lomanno of STR, but that is only one perspective.

Here is what the hospitality attorneys of JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® are hearing from "the field" in real time . . .

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Posted On: February 10, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Distressed hotel assets find no fast relief in bailout plan. Up to $1 trillion "bad bank" to take toxic assets. No critical details yet.

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

Hotel lawyers on the continuing financial crisis. A few minutes ago, on a 61-37 vote, the U.S. Senate approved an $838 billion package to attack the financial crisis. Negotiations will now start to strike a compromise with the House.

Meanwhile, Treasury secretary Timothy F. Geithner's greatly anticipated unveiling of the administration's bailout plan details left the markets and many expert's flat. Expecting more detail on exactly how the plan would work, "investors greeted Mr. Geithner's speech with dismay and the Dow Jones industrial average shed 300 points" according to the Wall Street Journal.

Here's what we know.

Continue reading " Distressed hotel assets find no fast relief in bailout plan. Up to $1 trillion "bad bank" to take toxic assets. No critical details yet. " »

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Posted On: February 9, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Troubled Hotel Loans: Turning point or just another ledge on the cliff before we go over the edge? Bad bank rescue and RTC-2 ahead?

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

Hotel Lawyers contemplating the cleanup ahead. Today and tomorrow may either mark a turning point for economic recovery or just another ledge we bounce off before we plunge into a deeper abyss.

Continue reading " Troubled Hotel Loans: Turning point or just another ledge on the cliff before we go over the edge? Bad bank rescue and RTC-2 ahead? " »

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Posted On: February 6, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Hotel Lawyers: How bad is it? And how bad will it get?

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

Hotel Lawyers: It's not getting any better yet. The New York Times announced this morning that almost 600,000 jobs were lost in January 2009, bringing total unemployment in the U.S. to 7.6%, the highest level in 16 years. The government also revised estimates of job losses for prior periods, adding another 400,000 job losses to prior estimates.

This brings the total job losses since December 2007, when the recession began, to more than 3.6 million jobs. Just to put that in perspective, the 2007 census said the entire population of Los Angeles was only 3.8 million people. So our job losses over the last 13 months are now almost as big as the City of Los Angeles.

What are the ramifications of that for the hospitality industry?

Continue reading " Hotel Lawyers: How bad is it? And how bad will it get? " »

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Posted On: February 4, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Hotel lawyers' on "State Of The Hotel Industry" -- Sound Bites from hotel industry leaders at the ALIS conference

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

Hotel Lawyers at "The conference of doom and gloom"

The ALIS conference this year was as glum as I can recall. You would have to go back to 1991 and 1992 at the old UCLA and NYU conferences to find a similar mood. Compared to the record attendance of more than 3,200 at last year's ALIS conference, the attendance of 1,700 was a good showing, but obviously reflected a lot of cutbacks.

Continue reading " Hotel lawyers' on "State Of The Hotel Industry" -- Sound Bites from hotel industry leaders at the ALIS conference " »

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Posted On: February 2, 2009 by the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®

Latest insights from JMBM's Hotel Attorneys and PKF Consulting on what lies ahead for the hotel industry . . .

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

Hotel Lawyers with the pulse of the hotel industry from ALIS. Mark Woodworth of PKF Consulting shared his latest analysis of the hotel industry with us, as well as his slides from the ALIS conference. The picture is not pretty. Mark says, that if you're waiting for the recovery, the key word is "PROTRACTED." Here are the details.

Continue reading " Latest insights from JMBM's Hotel Attorneys and PKF Consulting on what lies ahead for the hotel industry . . . " »

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