25 September 2008
Hospitality Lawyer in Phoenix. The Lodging Conference 2008. Where are we now? Where are we going?
Let’s face it. Last week was essentially a financial panic in the United States — particularly in New York City. The biggest danger to pedestrians was investment bankers jumping out of windows or defaulting on their Rolls Royce payments. New York City’s financial crisis has rocked the world and the hospitality industry along with it. Here is the latest . . .
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
20 September 2008
Hospitality Lawyer: Big changes proposed to the ADA look to be very expensive and cause lots of litigation.
The Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA was enacted by Congress almost 18 years ago in 1990 and is the “law of the land.” Few would argue with the basic purpose of the ADA, to make “places of public accommodation” accessible to those with disabilities. But now, the Department of Justice (or DOJ), which administers this law, is proposing new ADA Rules that have caught many in the hospitality industry napping. It’s a good thing the smart people at the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) are wide awake and have proposed the DOJ make revisions that address the realities of the industry. But what the final rules will look like is unknown.
Our hotel lawyers have great experience in defending ADA claims, and we have covered quite a bit of important ground about the ADA here on www.HotelLawBlog.com (see https://hotellaw.jmbm.com/ada/), with some important tips on avoiding costly liabilities from experienced veterans who have defended more than 200 ADA cases. Once again, it’s time to put the ADA on your watchlist of issues that can affect you, your guests and your business. When the new rules go into affect you will want to be ready to draw up your game plan. Because you won’t believe what they want to do with ADA.
14 September 2008
Hospitality Lawyer with an index of articles on Green Hotel Development and more
The hotel lawyers at JMBM receive many calls from hotel owners and hotel developers looking to build LEED-certified hotels and to operate their hotels more sustainably. We increasingly see developers selecting their entire development and management team based on “green” hotel development experience. It is critical for the architects and consultants, but why shouldn’t you have a team where everyone understands what the focus is? Why should you be paying for on-the-job training instead of getting helpful input from each contributing member?
12 September 2008
Green Hotel Lawyer: “The Compelling Hard Case for Green Hotel Development ” is published by Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.
JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® has a long history of supporting green hotel development. We believe that sustainability is not only the responsible, but also the financially smartest approach to hotel development and renovation.
We are very proud to announce that the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly has just published our most recent contribution on this subject, entitled: The Compelling Hard Case for Green Hotel Development.” Here is the download link to a FREE copy of the article.
11 September 2008
Hospitality Lawyer in Italy. Lessons from History: When will we ever learn?
Lana and I are enjoying a brief Italian vacation in the Umbria region of Italy. Today we took a tour of the ancient city-state of Gubbio. I think there are some lessons here that are worth remembering. Disclaimer: This post isn’t about hotel law, so you hard core readers can go ahead and click on whatever is listed next on your RSS feed. The rest of you might be interested in why I am thinking about salt, window and chimney taxes.
5 September 2008
Hotel brand proliferation offers more choices — and challenges — for hotel owners. What are the 5 questions every owner should ask before selecting a hotel brand?
With the battle scars earned as the hotel lawyer and advisor on several hundred hotel management agreements, my partner, Bob Braun, is one of the senior members of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group®. While we have a very “deep bench” of hospitality lawyers experienced in dealing with hotel operators, Bob is one of the real veterans who has seen it all.
Bob and I work together frequently, and we often present practical guidance on many aspects of hotel management agreements at industry conferences and here on the Blog. In fact, an entire section of the Blog is devoted to Hotel Management Agreements. (Just go to www.HotelLawBlog.com and click on the “TOPICS” tab at the top, and then select “Hotel Management Agreements.” Alternatively, you can point your browser to https://hotellaw.jmbm.com/management_and_franchise_agree/).
Many of our rich library of resources focus on getting the right hotel operator, and how to get a fair management agreement, but today Bob gives us 5 Questions that every hotel owner needs to ask BEFORE even getting to the hotel management agreement.
Here is Bob Braun’s article. . .
12 August 2008
Hospitality Lawyer with the 3 most important issues facing the hospitality industry today and what you can do about them. Formed in 1910 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the American Hotel & Lodging Association is the sole national association representing all sectors and stakeholders in the lodging industry. For almost 100 years, AH&LA has been the leading voice for the hotel industry, providing national advocacy on Capitol Hill — a comprehensive federal governmental affairs program covering legislative and regulatory issues for the lodging industry. (see www.ahla.com)
AH&LA has a lot on its agenda, but when I caught up with AH&LA Chairman, Tom Corcoran, he identified 3 of the most important issues to the hospitality industry and asked that we really focus our attention. Here they are . . .
10 August 2008
Industry insights from JMBM’s Hospitality Lawyers. Some of the most popular articles here are the industry updates, like the ones posted after NYU and the NABHOOD Conference a few weeks ago, with many of the industry experts’ top slides.
One of the most popular slides from Jan Freitag of Smith Travel Research posted on www.HotelLawBlog.com
triggered quite a few questions about the impact of currency exchange rates on our industry, so I thought I would offer a little more detail to those who are intrigued by America being on sale because of the fall of dollar against most of the world’s major currencies.
2 August 2008
HHOA talks with Hospitality Lawyer – A compelling demographic of opportunity for all and the next big wave of hotel investment. I recently sat down with Angela Gonzalez-Rowe, President of the Hispanic Hotel Owners Association or HHOA (see www.hhoa.org) , to talk about our newest hospitality trade organization. The hospitality lawyers at JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® see some truly compelling opportunities for Hispanics or Latinos and all traditional hospitality players here. Check into this ground floor opportunity!
[And for the curious, I have some demographics of the Hispanic and Latino communities in the U.S., as well as a discussion of what “Hispanic” and “Latino” really mean.]
29 July 2008
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: How to survive some of the custom and “lore” of Hotel Management Agreement Indemnification Provisions.
While we have a very deep bench of hospitality lawyers — particularly in hotel management agreements — my partner, Bob Braun, is one of the most experienced on our team, with several hundred management contracts to his credit, and a dozen or more on his current work schedule at any point in time.
So it was no surprise when he suggested recently that we work together on a few articles going “beyond the basics” of hotel management agreements and post them for our industry friends on www.HotelLawBlog.com. We decided to call this upcoming series, “Hotel Management Agreements 201.” Bob took the lead in putting this first one together on the critical area of INDEMNIFICATION, and here it is.
