Here is an easy download link, and an embedded image for Greg Hartmann’s presentation at Meet the Money® 2010.
Articles Posted in Outlook and Trends
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Hotel industry think tank top 10 challenges for 2010
I am privileged to be one of the co-chairs of the Lodging Industry Investment Council along with Mike Cahill and Sean Hennessey. This is the hotel industry “think tank” whose membership owns or operates many billions of hotel investments, and involves all aspects of the industry.
For most of the last 10 years, we have premiered the release of The LIIC Top 10 at our annual Meet the Money® conference, and this year is no different.
What is really neat about this survey, is that it is “forward looking”. It reflects what industry leaders with billions of dollars of hotel real estate investment are looking at and what their sentiments are right now!
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Meet the Money® – What is really happening with the recovery and how will it affect the hotel industry? Insightful perspectives from the experts at Meet the Money®
4 May 2009
What is really happening with the recovery and how will it affect the hotel industry? Insightful perspectives from the experts at Meet the Money®
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Tranche Warfare: The coming litigation among stakeholders in CMBS Loans
25 February 2010
Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.
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.
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Atlas 2009 Year End Hotel Survey . . . and what it means
1 February 2010
Please see “troubled hotel loans – workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships” for the latest articles on troubled hotels.
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.
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Hotel Lawyer: ALIS brings optimists to earth. Lenders make new evaluations. Realism is cold and gray.
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?
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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
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.
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Hotel Occupancy Tax Alert: online travel company suits over transient occupancy taxes raise – 5 things every hotel owner and operator needs to know
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.”
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Hotel Lawyers in Phoenix: What happened at the Phoenix lodging conference? Can we find a Black Swan?
28 September 2009
Hotel Lawyers’ insights from The Lodging Conference at the Arizona Biltmore. As our Global Hospitality Group® members compared notes from last week’s Phoenix Lodging Conference, we had some observations we wanted to share. Congratulations to Morris Lasky and Harry Javer for another great event.
Here is our take on what happened in Phoenix . . .
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Hotel Lawyer: Hotel liability — Have you checked your parental release forms lately?
13 September 2009
Florida Supreme Court invalidates parental release. Hotel Lawyers suggest fast action.
A recent opinion out of Florida involving a fatal ATV accident to a 14 year old at an ATV track could have a major impact on the validity of parental release forms. In the case of Kirton v. Fields, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a pre-injury release signed by a parent is not valid against a minor who is injured while participating in a “commercial activity.” While other courts have reached similar results, the Kirton case has attracted nationwide attention and may lead those other states that currently uphold parental release forms to change their law to follow Florida’s lead.