Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
19 September 2006
As a record 1,200 hotel industry members meet at The Lodging Conference at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide held a special reception to announce the long-anticipated new name for its Westin extended stay product.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
18 September 2006
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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may view the condo offering as a “security,” if any one of the following exists: 1) The condo is sold to the buyer with an emphasis on economic (or tax) benefits; 2) the condo is put into a “rental pool,” where income and expenses are pooled and each condo owner gets an allocated share; 3) the unit owner has substantial restrictions on use, occupancy or selection of a rental agent of the owner’s choosing, or 4) the condo was offered with certain “ancillary services” such as a rental program. Because a successful condo hotel must have an adequate and predictable inventory of rooms to rent out to hotel guests, it is easy to see how these factors could present challenges.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
17 September 2006
In past few blog commentaries, I have described the labor settlements in San Francisco and Monterey, and begun to look at what they portend. Last time, my partner, Marta Fernandez, helped us understand that although the union would like us to think that the deals cut with Multi-Employer Groups (or MEGs) in various cities set the standard for everyone else, that is not true. Nothing mandates that hotels adopt a “me too” agreement as the union proposes.
Today, we will look at one important area where it may pay for other hotels (i.e. non-MEG hotels) to avoid the “model” negotiated by the MEGs.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
16 September 2006
For this comment, I talked with my partner, Marta Fernandez . She is one of the senior members of our Global Hospitality Group® who specializes in labor and employment issues related to hospitality. Her background and contact information are provided below.
As the strike threats resolve in New York, Chicago and now San Francisco and Monterey, one has to ask, “What does it all mean?” What is the significance, for example, of the deal Local 2 of UNITE HERE cut with the 13 San Francisco hotels making up the SFMEG (San Francisco Multi-Employer Group).
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
15 September 2006
On September 15, 2006, Unite Here Local 483 reached a tentative agreement with Hyatt covering 485 workers at the Hyatt Regency Monterey and Park Hyatt at Carmel Highlands Inn according to Marie Vasari, writer for the Monterey County Herald. The proposed four year contract is expected to be ratified by rank and union members next Tuesday, September 19.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
15 September 2006
Adequate and predictable room inventory is critical to the success of a condo hotel project. Without adequate hotel rooms to accommodate the normal flow of guests, the project simply won’t work as a hotel. Large groups and conferences tend to reserve up to 24 months in advance, so the hotel has to have predictable inventory.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
14 September 2006
After two years of strikes, lockouts, boycotts and tense negotiation, the 13 hotels that make up the San Francisco Multi-Employee Group reached a tentative labor agreement this week with Local 2 of the Unite Here union. Rank and file members of Unite Here will vote on the pact Sept. 22, and it is likely to pass. While the union touts a victory, the agreement is very close to the proposals originally made by the union two years ago. Yes, the SFMEG hotels stood up to the union throughout this time, but the negotiation process was clearly costly to all.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
13 September 2006
Each condo hotel program has specific needs and considerations — there is no “one size fits all” situation. The design and allocations have to be designed for each project particularly as they become larger and more complex.
We quickly found out that the early revenue splitting formulas (e.g. 60% to the hotel and 40% to the unit owner) were really clumsy efforts to cover expenses that couldn’t really be allocated to either the hotel or the unit owner. Where hotel guests and unit owners both use the service, which should pay for its maintenance and benefit from its revenue?
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
11 September 2006
Hotels and other targets of ADA lawsuits have found a friend in the U.S. Constitution: Article III.
Many thousands of ADA lawsuits have been filed in federal District Courts in the past few years. A large percentage of the plaintiffs filing these lawsuits are represented by a handful of plaintiffs’ organizations that specialize in ADA lawsuits. Because plaintiffs can recover attorneys’ fees and litigation costs and — in California and several other states — damages, in addition to injunctive relief, plaintiffs’ organizations have become a cottage industry.
However, some federal courts have recently determined they have no authority to award attorney’s fees, because the plaintiffs failed to establish “Article III standing”.
Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
8 September 2006
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Five keys to success with Condo Hotels
Along with the other hotel lawyers in the Global Hospitality Group® at JMBM, at the time of this article, my team and I have been involved in structuring more than 85 condo hotel projects over the past few years. When developers come to us with a condo hotel project — whether it is a new development or a conversion — we look at five key factors to assess the viability of the project.
These factors are:
And although I don’t include it in these fundamentals, you have to worry about SEC compliance for a deal marketed or sold to US buyers (See “Why does the SEC care about condo hotels?“). Today, I want to focus on the all-important economic fundamentals.
