12 January 2012
Hotel Lawyer: Hotel Management Agreement litigation and controversies are on the rise.
I was recently interviewed by Jason Freed of HotelNewsNow (a division of Smith Travel Research) for his article, 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.
21 November 2011
Click here for the latest articles on ADA Compliance and Defense.
ADA Defense & Compliance 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.
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.
1 November 2011
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.
25 October 2011
Click here for the latest articles on EB-5 Financing.
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.
18 October 2011
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 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.
CONTINUE READING →
15 October 2011
Optimistic keynote at the Dallas Lenders Conference from FelCor Chairman Tom Corcoran
One of the bright spots at Steve Van’s Fishing for Solutions lender conference was the keynote address given by FelCor Lodging Trust Chairman, Thomas J. Corcoran. Known for his blunt and sometimes salty candor, Tom sounded a call for a reality check for doomsayers, likes where we are now in the hotel industry and expects things to get better.
Yes, he reads the newspapers, knows all about the “market volatility” and pokes fun at how the world cringes on reports that Slovakia may not approve the European bailout of Greece. Everyone is over-reacting to news he says.
Here are the details . . .
15 October 2011
Hotel Lawyer from CMBS Special Servicer heaven with the latest insights from the Dallas Lenders Conference
For 11 years now, Steve Van and his team at Prism Hotels have held what is probably the best lender conference in the country. Attendance is by invitation only. The one-day program is attended by industry leaders and about 100 of the Who’s Who of the hotel lending world. If you are a special servicer, you want to be at this meeting. The convocation has swelled in size from about 35 at the first meeting, but Steve resists all the temptations to grow too large so that this remains an informal meeting place for serious dialog and candid discussion.
Generally, the conference delegates include the top people from the major special servicers, such as Midland Loan Services, C-III Asset Management, CW Capital, Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, ORIX Capital Markets, KeyBank Real Estate Capital, Bank of America and the like – all the people you would like to see but never find at the major investment conferences. The sessions are highly interactive, more akin to think tank sessions and sharing of experiences and concerns than the typical conference lecture format.
I was privileged to lead a panel of thought leaders on “Trends in Hotel Loan Sales,” and Guy Maisnik (my partner and vice chair of our Global Hospitality Group®) spoke on the panel “Special Servicers Survival Guide for Loan Defaults – CMBS 201: What has changed?”
Here are some highlights of the meeting that I thought were noteworthy . . .
6 October 2011
My partner, labor and employment lawyer Scott Brink, has informed us that the California Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral argument in a high-profile labor law case, Brinker Restaurant v. Superior Court, on November 8, 2011. He believes it is likely we will see a decision within the following 90 days.
The outcome could curb a wave of class action lawsuits in California — or provide the fuel for more of them.
At issue in the case is whether California employers must ensure that their employees actually take their meal and rest periods or merely make them available. Here is Scott’s update.
3 October 2011
Click here for the latest articles on ADA Compliance and Defense.
ADA Defense & Compliance Lawyers. What are some of the most common questions asked of our ADA Defense Lawyers? Many of them relate to “service animal” policies at hotels, restaurants and other places of public accommodation. One of the most read articles on Hotel Law Blog was a posting I did 5 years ago on this subject. Who’s crying “Woof”? What you must know about the ADA requirements for disabled guests and their service animals . . .
But with recent developments, we thought it was time to update that information with the effect of the latest amendments to the regulations on this subject published by the Department of Justice implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Many thanks to hotel lawyers David Sudeck and Marty Orlick for their help on this article.
27 September 2011
Hotel Lawyers with some (very) good news.
Of course there are plenty of macro economic issues and industry challenges to worry about. (See It’s not just me. The market has changed.)
But there are also some things to feel good about. If you want to be gloomy, go read your newspaper. If you want to cheer up, keep reading.
Here are a few nuggets of information to brighten your day.
[The slides in this article are taken from presentations at The Lodging Conference in Phoenix by Mark Woodworth of PKF, and Vail Brown of Smith Travel research. We appreciate their permission to use their slides.]
