Hotel Law Blog

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

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 . . .

Continue reading "The AH&LA and Tom Corcoran talk with Hospitality Lawyer about the 3 most pressing issues facing the industry today" »

Posted In: Labor & Employment

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

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.

Continue reading "Ask the Hotel Lawyer™: America is on sale! Understanding the exchange rate impact on hospitality." »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

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.]

Continue reading "Hispanic Hotel Owners Association (HHOA) and Angela Gonzalez-Rowe talk with Hospitality Lawyer about HHOA's exciting developments" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

and

Robert E. Braun | Partner JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®

29 July 2008

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.

Continue reading "Hotel Management Agreements 201 by Hospitality Lawyer - Indemnification Provisions" »

Posted In: Hotel Management Agreements

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

27 July 2008

Hospitality Lawyer -- Why we need to maintain the discipline to keep ADRs up! As hotel occupancy rates are tending to soften nationally, the data from Smith Travel Research (STR) tells us that the industry has continued to do well because average daily rates (ADRs) have continued to rise, particularly in the Top 25 markets, and in the market segments that STR calls Luxury, Upper Upscale, Upscale and Midscale without Food & Beverage.

But there is a new threat to industry profits looming on the horizon -- something beyond pestilence, war, recession, and falling airline seat capacity, and this is within our own control if we will just behave rationally. Here's the scoop from www.HotelLawBlog.com.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer -- "Can we keep it up?" An increasingly important issue for the hotel industry!" »

Posted In: Ask the Hotel Lawyer™, Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

21 July 2008

Hospitality Lawyer: What a difference a year makes! Where we've been and where we're going. Practical advice and observations from Tom Baltimore. On July 17, 2008, at the NABHOOD Conference in Atlanta, the experts gave us the latest update on the Hotel Industry since NYU. (See the 5-part series at www.HotelLawBlog.com analyzing the data available at June 1, 2008 at "Quips, Quotes and Insights from the 2008 NYU hotel conference.").

Trends continue to emerge and JMBM's hospitality lawyers have 3 hot July updates for you on the state of the industry:

1. Jan Freitag, Vice President of Smith Travel Research (jan@smithtravelresearch.com)

2. Mark Woodworth, President of PKF Hospitality Research (mark.woodworth@pkfc.com)

3. Tom Baltimore, President of RLJ Development, LLC (www.rljcompanies.com)

You can also find the Top 10 Picks from www.HotelLawBlog.com by clicking here.

Here's the way Thomas J. Baltimore, Jr., Vice Chairman of NABHOOD and President of RLJ Development, summed things up.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer with perspectives from the top: Insights and advice from Tom Baltimore, President of RLJ Development" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

20 July 2008

Hospitality Lawyer: What lies ahead for the hotel industry? On July 17, 2008, at the NABHOOD Conference in Atlanta, the experts gave us the latest update on the Hotel Industry since NYU. (See the 5-part series at www.HotelLawBlog.com analyzing the data available at June 1, 2008 at "Quips, Quotes and Insights from the 2008 NYU hotel conference.").

Trends continue to emerge and JMBM's hospitality lawyers have 3 hot July updates for you on the state of the industry:

1. Jan Freitag, Vice President of Smith Travel Research (jan@smithtravelresearch.com)

2. Mark Woodworth, President of PKF Hospitality Research (mark.woodworth@pkfc.com)

3. Tom Baltimore, President of RLJ Development, LLC (www.rljcompanies.com)

You can also find the Top 10 Picks from www.HotelLawBlog.com by clicking here.

Here's Mark Woodworth's analysis of "What Lies Ahead," and it is very interesting . . .

Continue reading "What lies ahead in the hotel industry? Hospitality Lawyer looks at the good, the bad and the ugly . . . and something we haven't seen in 20 years!" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com

19 July 2008

Hospitality Lawyer: What's happened in the hotel industry since the NYU Hotel Investment Conference in June? The NABHOOD Conference in Atlanta was the place to be this week, as I reported in my recent blog entitled "Hospitality Attorney salutes NABHOOD"

On Thursday, July 17, 2008, the inspiration and insights continued to flow, with the latest industry data and predictions since NYU. (See the 5-part series at www.HotelLawBlog.com analyzing the data available at June 1, 2008 at "Quips, Quotes and Insights from the 2008 NYU hotel conference."). Another month and a half are under our belts since the NYU Hotel Investment Conference, and the hospitality lawyers from JMBM have 3 hot July updates for you on the state of the industry:

1. Jan Freitag, Vice President of Smith Travel Research (jan@smithtravelresearch.com)

2. Mark Woodworth, President of PKF Hospitality Research (mark.woodworth@pkfc.com)

3. Tom Baltimore, President of RLJ Development, LLC (www.rljcompanies.com)

Here's Jan Freitag's Smith Travel Research July update . . .

Continue reading "Smith Travel's July Update on State of the Lodging Industry from Hospitality Lawyer in Atlanta" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
16 July 2008

Hospitality lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia at the kick-off for the NABHOOD Annual Convention. If you are not yet a member, sponsor or supporter of NABHOOD -- the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators and Developers -- you need to check out this dynamic organization, whose members own about 325 hotels (up from just 1 in 2001). Thanks to my friend Andy Ingraham, President and Founder of NABHOOD, I am attending the Association's 12th Annual Summit in Atlanta as a speaker and participant, and JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® is a proud sponsor of this event.

As you can tell from many postings here at www.HotelLawBlog.com, I have been attending (and hosting) hospitality conferences for many years and I can tell you that the energy, vision and skill this group is bringing to the industry is just amazing. I like to think of myself as a great networker -- connecting people in the industry to get deals done. But I have met my match. No, I have to say, I have now seen the grand master in action, and I take my hat off to Andy Ingraham and what he helps NABHOOD members do. Congratulations, Andy!

Continue reading "Hospitality Attorney salutes NABHOOD, Andy Ingraham, Mike Roberts, Hank Thomas, Mit Shah and the African American hotel community" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
21 June 2008

Hospitality Attorney's top insights to hotel industry. As we approach the half-way mark in 2008, the hospitality lawyers in JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® thought it would be interesting to determine our readers' "top picks" of all the articles we have posted this year. We could almost say that the top three picks are hotel financing, hotel financing and hotel financing. But here are the top three picks by "Topics" at www.HotelLawBlog.com:

(1) Hotel financing and hotel values in buy-sell transactions

(2) Hotel management agreements

(3) LEED and GREEN hotel development

Continue reading "Top picks of hospitality lawyer insights in 2008 are: (1) hotel financing and hotel values in buy-sell transactions, (2) hotel management agreements, and (3) LEED & GREEN hotel development" »

Posted In: Ask the Hotel Lawyer™, Green Hotels, Hotel Developers Conference™, Hotel Finance − Hotel Debt & Hotel Equity , Hotel Management Agreements, Meet the Money®, Outlook and Trends