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Hotel Lawyers -- featured subjects and articles
Meet the Money® 2014

ADA defense and compliance

EB-5 financing

Workouts, bankruptcies & receiverships

Hotel Management Agreements

Hotel Franchise & License Agreements

Hotel industry trends

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.

Published on:

2 October 2010

Click here for the latest articles on ADA Compliance and Defense.

The U.S. Attorney General has signed into law important revisions to the Department of Justice’s Regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The new 2010 Standards impose both technical requirements, (e.g. the specifications a property must meet to be fully accessible), and scoping requirements (e.g. the number of rooms or elements in a facility which must be fully accessible).

Hotel owners will need to review their facilities to ensure they are in compliance with the 2010 Standards and retrofit where necessary to meet them. Developers of new hotel properties will need assurances from their design and construction companies that the new obligations and restrictions are being worked into their plans.

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Published on:

22 September 2010

Hotel Lawyer with the latest pulse of the hotel industry from The Lodging Conference at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix Arizona.

The title of this blog says it all. This is the time and place to be – The Lodging Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. We called it at Meet the Money® in May, 2010, but the tide that started turning at the end of the first quarter 2010 has continued its flow and it seems to be unmistakable now. I expect to hear some very exciting things at the Conference here in the next few days.

I would describe the mood of the pre-conference gathering that started this evening as very “EXPECTANT.” Expecting more and better in both transactions . . . and eventually . . . perhaps more slowly . . . better in the fundamentals of the hotel industry.

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Published on:

15 September 2010

Hotel Joint ventures are springing up like weeds in the hotel industry.

Nearly two years after the collapse of the old economic order of easy money, the biggest players in the hotel industry are using the joint venture structure to seize opportunities for acquisitions and expansion.

But everyone knows joint ventures can be risky. Why is the JV model being used and is there a way to minimize the very real risks that exist in every joint venture?

In her article below, which was recently published by Hotel Business, hotel lawyer Catherine Holmes, a senior member of the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®, explains why the joint venture model is being used for hotel acquisitions and expansion, what inherent risks exist in the the JV structure, and offers “Four Keys to Success in Hotel Joint Ventures.”

Cathy’s straightforward and timely advice is based on her experience representing numerous hotel owners in the acquisition process, whether it is a debt or equity transaction, a joint venture, a public-private partnership, or a deal that requires a complex capital stack. She recently represented Formosa International Hotel Corporation in the acquisition of the Regent brand hotels with operations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

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Published on:

30 July 2010

Hotel Lawyer with a name change. JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® is part of a vibrant law firm. Today, that firm announced that it is changing the firm name, but we will still be known as “JMBM.” Here’s the story.

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Published on:

15 July 2010

Hotel Lawyer with the latest information on hotel loan defaults, foreclosures, forebearances and distressed sales in California from the Atlas Hospitality Group.

Less than two weeks after the quarter’s end, Atlas Hospitality has released its California Distressed Hotels Survey (2nd Quarter 2010).

Here is our executive summary of that report, our view of its national implications and what we think it means for owners, lenders and investors.

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Published on:

13 July 2010

Hotel Lawyer with a critical update on the state of the industry

Today, the JW Marriott Los Angeles, we got an update on the state of the lodging industry from two of my favorite industry leaders: Mark Woodworth, President of Hospitality Research, and Mark Lomanno, President of Smith Travel Research.

There is some good news, and some bad news, although both reports were optimistic on the direction we are heading. Here is my take on some highlights with some pertinent slides.

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Published on:

12 July 2010

Hotel Lawyer with an alert about the DOL’s historic action targeting hotels.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is taking historic action. With a huge increase in funding and staffing, the DOL is specifically targeting audits and enforcement actions for every hotel, motel, and resort in the U.S. The program will search for violations of overtime rules, minimum wage, and classification of exempt and non-exempt positions. In addition, one of the primary focal points of these audits will be employers with workers holding H-2B visas.

Hotel labor lawyer Marta Fernandez and hotel lawyer, Jim Abrams, both senior members of the JMBM Global Hospitality Group®, say, ” We expect that the DOL compliance audits will cover all of the laws administered by the DOL and WHD including H-2B labor certification wage requirements and other federal laws such as minimum wage, overtime, and family and medical leave.”

In today’s Alert, they also suggest “4 Things that you should do now — Before it is too late.”

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Published on:

Hotel Lawyers | Authors of www.HotelLawBlog.com
30 June 2010

Click here for the latest articles on ADA Compliance and Defense.

 

Hotel ADA defense lawyer looking beyond the latest update on ADA “sweeps” by the Department of Justice coming to Portland, San Francisco and elsewhere.

As we wrote earlier, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is continuing its program of in-depth investigations of hotels to determine whether they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA. The investigations are called “sweeps” because they target all hotels in a given geographic area. There is also some basis to believe that the sweeps may now also focus on certain industries such as hotels, restaurants and other places of public accommodation.

There is a lot of valuable information on Hotel Law Blog about ADA Defense matters. Just go to the top of the Blog home page, click the “Hotel Law Topics” tab, and then select the first item named “ADA Defense.” You will see all the articles on this subject organized in reverse chronological order.

Although the sweeps sound an immediate call to action in the targeted areas and industries, there are broader implications that we will talk about today.

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Published on:

28 June 2010

Click here for the latest articles on ADA Compliance and Defense.

Hotel ADA defense lawyer with the latest update on ADA “sweeps” by the Department of Justice coming to Portland, San Francisco and elsewhere.

We discussed in earlier blogs that the DOJ is conducting in-depth investigations of hotels to determine whether they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA. The investigations are called “sweeps” because they typically target all hotels in a given geographic area. One of the first notable ADA sweeps hit all the hotels in Manhattan’s Theater District, where we actively assisted clients.

A few days ago, we were contacted by a hotel in Portland, Oregon that had just received an investigative survey from DOJ. It appears that a similar sweep operation is being initiated there. We have also received information indicating that an ADA sweep might hit San Francisco in the near future.

Here is what you need to know about the sweeps, how they can affect you, and what you need to do.

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Published on:

25 June 2010

Keywords:

Hotel Operating Agreement, HOA, Hotel Management Agreement, HMA, Hotel Management Contract, Management Contract. Hotel Operator, Hotel Manager, Hotel Owner. RFP for Hotel Manager. RFP for Hotel Operator, How to get a great hotel operator.

Terminology

Contracts between hotel owners and managers (or operators) controlling the management of a hotel go by various names. They are called hotel management agreements, HMAs, hotel management contracts or hotel operating agreements. For convenient reference, this article will generally use the term “Hotel Management Agreement” or “HMA.” However all these terms can be used interchangeably and mean the same thing, just as with hotel operator or hotel manager.

Whatever they are called, Hotel Management Agreements allocate risk between the hotel manager and the hotel owner. They are critical in determining the profitability and value of a hotel.

Hotel Lawyer with hotel management agreement performance standard to take care of Owner’s concerns. With experience gained in negotiating, re-negotiating, litigating, arbitrating and advising on more than 1,000 hotel management agreements and more than $87 billion of hotel transactions, the members of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® wanted to share some lessons learned on the subject. They are all available at www.HotelLawBlog.com.

To see the rich library of materials on Hotel Management Agreements, you can click here: Hotel Management Agreements ( https://hotellaw.jmbm.com/management_and_franchise_agree/). Or you can just do a GOOGLE search on “hotel management agreements” and you will see it near the top of the search.

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