10 June 2009
JMBM hospitality lawyer Jim Abrams has been practicing law for 40 years, specializing in lodging and hospitality law and in representing and advising trade associations and other non-profit entities. Jim is the author of the book Laws Pertaining to the California Innkeeper, which is published by the California Hotel & Lodging Association.
4 June 2009
Hospitality Lawyer with more from the New York hotel conference.
Earlier this week, we gave you our initial take on the NYU hotel conference. Now here are some of the things we heard that we thought worthy of note.
31 May 2009
Hospitality Lawyer with hotel industry insights from New York City.
The NYU Hotel Investment Conference is the grand daddy of them all — Stephen Brener would be proud if he were alive today to see what his vision had blossomed into. And as much as I love our Meet the Money®, and the Phoenix Lodging Conference, this is the greatest hotel investment conference in the country. It is the place you have to be if you are in the industry and doing business.
The Conference kicked off tonight with its Grand Reception at the Waldorf=Astoria with the Who’s Who of the industry present, and here is what we see.
03 June 2009
Hospitality Lawyer Insights from Meet the Money® 2009: The hospitality lawyers of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® have presented an annual hotel conference for 19 years. On May 5-7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, nearly 400 industry leaders gathered at the Sheraton LAX for Meet the Money® 2009.
03 June 2009
Hospitality Lawyer Insights from Meet the Money® 2009: The hospitality lawyers of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® have presented an annual hotel conference for 19 years. On May 5-7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, nearly 400 industry leaders gathered at the Sheraton LAX for Meet the Money® 2009.
27 May 2009
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.
Hospitality Lawyer: Fixing hotel management agreements that don’t work.
What is one of the nicest acknowledgements of professional accomplishment a hotel lawyer might receive? In my book, being recognized by the New York Times as an expert in a core aspect of my legal and advisory practice is pretty close, and that is what happened yesterday in a Times article by Jonathan D. Glater about the increased friction between hotel owners and operators now erupting into litigation in the case of the Four Seasons Aviara and the Fairmont Turnberry.
As I said in another New York Times quote last month by Martha C. White, we are facing the prospect of hotel bankruptcies and foreclosures reaching levels not seen since the last big downturn of the 1990s.
And indeed, it is in difficult times like these when hotels fail to meet debt service — or even operating expenses — that owners and lenders become very frustrated with operators that prefer their own interests to those of the hotel. And that is why Jonathan Glater’s article was looking at two high profile emerging battles where owners are standing up to operators and saying, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Here’s how we see it.
27 May 2009
Hospitality Lawyer Insights from Meet the Money® 2009: The hospitality lawyers of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® have presented an annual hotel conference for 19 years. On May 5-7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, nearly 400 industry leaders gathered at the Sheraton LAX for Meet the Money® 2009.
26 May 2009
Hospitality Lawyer Insights from Meet the Money® 2009: The hospitality lawyers of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® have presented an annual hotel conference for 19 years. On May 5-7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, nearly 400 industry leaders gathered at the Sheraton LAX for Meet the Money® 2009.
22 May 2009
Hospitality Lawyer Insights from Meet the Money® 2009: The hospitality lawyers of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® have presented an annual hotel conference for 19 years. On May 5-7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, nearly 400 industry leaders gathered at the Sheraton LAX for Meet the Money® 2009.
21 May 2009
Hospitality Lawyer Insights from Meet the Money® 2009: The hospitality lawyers of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® have presented an annual hotel conference for 19 years. On May 5-7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, nearly 400 industry leaders gathered at the Sheraton LAX for Meet the Money® 2009.