Hotel Law Blog

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

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

Hospitality Lawyer on green hotel development. Here at www.HotelLawBlog.com, we have a rich library of articles on green hotel development. (Just go to the blog, search down the right hand side for "Topics" and then click on "Green Hotels.") But as we now release the DVDs from our recent conference on green hotels -- which are free to all conference attendees -- we thought many of our readers would like to see the major PowerPoint presentations from our high-powered speakers, so we have published them here for your benefit. You will not want to miss this series of important presentations!

Deirdre Wallace is the Founder and President of The Ambrose Collection, a Santa Monica-based company focused on developing and managing eco-lifestyle boutique hotels. Her flagship property, The Ambrose, has won numerous awards since opening in 2003, setting a new industry standard for environmental responsibility while regularly outperforming competitors in both occupancy rate and gross revenues. Deirdre Wallace can be reached at (310) 382-2145 or deirdre@ambrosecollection.com.

In her own words, Deirdre Wallace shares with us her experience of "going green" in an already existing building.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer talks with Ambrose Collection's Deirdre Wallace on going Green with an Existing Building" »

Posted In: Green Hotels, Hotel Developers Conference™

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

Hospitality lawyer with pearls from the New York hospitality conference. The mood in New York was more somber in June 2008 than it has been for a long time at hotel conferences. Attendance was down from last year (less than 1,500 at NYU this June) and for the first time, NYU had fewer conference delegates than the Los Angeles conference in January (3,200 at ALIS in January 2008). Many believe that attendance at these conferences is a good barometer of sentiment in the industry -- send more people when times are good, and send fewer when you batten down the hatches for a storm.

I had the opportunity to listen to Randy Smith and Mark Lomanno of Smith Travel Research in two sessions this past week -- one private session at the Lodging Industry's think tank (the Lodging Industry Investment Council or LIIC) and in the general opening session at NYU. I also had the good fortune to hear the fascinating presentation made by Bjorn Hanson, principal of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (retiring effective June 30, 2008), which informed much of what I had heard from my friends at STR. My commentary includes selected slides from STR and PwC. A link to the full STR presentation can be found at the end of the article. Here is a Hospitality Attorney's executive summary.

Continue reading "Hospitality Attorney with pearls from NYU, Part 5: Whither Lodging Demand, GDP and the Cost of Gasoline?" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

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

Hospitality lawyer with pearls from the New York hospitality conference. The mood in New York was more somber in June 2008 than it has been for a long time at hotel conferences. Attendance was down from last year (less than 1,500 at NYU this June) and for the first time, NYU had fewer conference delegates than the Los Angeles conference in January (3,200 at ALIS in January 2008). Many believe that attendance at these conferences is a good barometer of sentiment in the industry -- send more people when times are good, and send fewer when you batten down the hatches for a storm.

I had the opportunity to listen to Randy Smith and Mark Lomanno of Smith Travel Research in two sessions this past week -- one private session at the Lodging Industry's think tank (the Lodging Industry Investment Council or LIIC) and in the general opening session at NYU. My commentary includes selected slides from STR, and a link to the full STR presentation can be found at the end of the article. Here is a Hospitality Attorney's executive summary.

Continue reading "Hospitality Attorney with pearls from NYU, Part 4: Chain Scales" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

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

Hospitality lawyer with pearls from the New York hospitality conference. The mood in New York was more somber in June 2008 than it has been for a long time at hotel conferences. Attendance was down from last year (less than 1,500 at NYU this June) and for the first time, NYU had fewer conference delegates than the Los Angeles conference in January (3,200 at ALIS in January 2008). Many believe that attendance at these conferences is a good barometer of sentiment in the industry -- send more people when times are good, and send fewer when you batten down the hatches for a storm.

I had the opportunity to listen to Randy Smith and Mark Lomanno of Smith Travel Research in two sessions this past week -- one private session at the Lodging Industry's think tank (the Lodging Industry Investment Council or LIIC) and in the general opening session at NYU. My commentary includes selected slides from STR, and a link to the full STR presentation can be found at the end of the article. Here is a Hospitality Attorney's executive summary.

Continue reading "Hospitality Attorney with pearls from NYU, Part 3: What's Weekday vs. Weekend demand tell us?" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

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

Hospitality lawyer with pearls from the New York hospitality conference. The mood in New York was more somber in June 2008 than it has been for a long time at hotel conferences. Attendance was down from last year (less than 1,500 at NYU this June) and for the first time, NYU had fewer conference delegates than the Los Angeles conference in January (3,200 at ALIS in January 2008). Many believe that attendance at these conferences is a good barometer of sentiment in the industry -- send more people when times are good, and send fewer when you batten down the hatches for a storm.

I had the opportunity to listen to Randy Smith and Mark Lomanno of Smith Travel Research in two sessions this past week -- one private session at the Lodging Industry's think tank (the Lodging Industry Investment Council or LIIC) and in the general opening session at NYU. My commentary includes selected slides from STR, and a link to the full STR presentation can be found at the end of the article. Here is a Hospitality Attorney's executive summary.

Continue reading "Hospitality Attorney with pearls from NYU, Part 2: State of the U.S. Lodging Industry" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

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

Hospitality lawyer with pearls from the New York hospitality conference. The mood in New York was more somber in June 2008 than it has been for a long time at hotel conferences. Attendance was down from last year (less than 1,500 at NYU this June) and for the first time, NYU had fewer conference delegates than the Los Angeles conference in January (3,200 at ALIS in January 2008). Many believe that attendance at these conferences is a good barometer of sentiment in the industry -- send more people when times are good, and send fewer when you batten down the hatches for a storm.

I had the opportunity to listen to Randy Smith and Mark Lomanno of Smith Travel Research in two sessions this past week -- one private session at the Lodging Industry's think tank (the Lodging Industry Investment Council or LIIC) and in the general opening session at NYU. My commentary includes selected slides from STR, and a link to the full STR presentation can be found at the end of the article. Here is a Hospitality Attorney's executive summary.

Continue reading "Hospitality Attorney with pearls from NYU, Part 1: International Markets" »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

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

Hospitality attorney on the latest outlook and sentiment of the hotel industry from New York. As a hotel lawyer, consultant, and deal maker, I am always listening and thinking. Here's what resonated with me at the New York hotel investment conference last week.

Continue reading "Hospitality Lawyer with the top Quips, Quotes and Insights from the 2008 NYU hotel conference." »

Posted In: Outlook and Trends

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
30 May 2008

Hospitality Attorneys on green hotel development. We have a rich library of articles on green hotel development here at www.HotelLawBlog.com. (Just go to the blog, search down the right hand side for "Topics" and then click on "Green Hotels."). But as we now publish the DVDs from our recent conference on green hotels -- which are free to all conference attendees -- we thought many of our readers would like to see the major PowerPoint presentations from our high-powered speakers, so we have published them here for your benefit. You will not want to miss this series of important presentations! Here is the presentation from Gary Golla of SERA.

Gary Golla is an Architect and Associate with SERA Architects in Portland, Oregon. SERA is a 90-person employee-owned Architecture, Planning, and Interiors firm with a special focus on sustainable design and development. Gary has 14 years of experience in architecture, much of it focused on hospitality design. His portfolio includes over 2,000 built guestrooms ranging from a 900-room convention center hotel to a 50-room ski resort. Gary is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional and has several LEED registered projects in design and construction. Among those is a 331-room Starwood Luxury Collection Hotel and a 256-room Courtyard by Marriott, both designed with the goal of LEED Silver. Gary Golla can be reached at (503) 445-7361 or garyg@serapdx.com.

Continue reading "JMBM's Hospitality Attorneys with case studies of the compelling economics of Green Hotel Development by Gary Golla of SERA" »

Posted In: Green Hotels, Hotel Developers Conference™

By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
28 May 2008

Hospitality lawyer on the real world cost of going green. "Cost" is the first and biggest excuse developers give for not getting LEED certification or beyond. Yet here is an actual case study of a real world project where the client actually saved several million dollars by building to the LEED Platinum standard! In this case, the magnitude of the savings was enhanced by special credits and incentives available from the State of Oregon, but Kip Richardson says there would still have been net savings of over $1 million without Oregon's special benefits.

How can this be? Why wouldn't everyone build a high performance LEED-certified building if they could save money? Is this just a matter of education or of dispelling old myths left over from first generation technologies now surpassed by second and third generation technologies? Here are some insights from a true leader in the field: Kip Richardson, Director of Business Development, Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects. Kip can be reached at (503) 892-7138 or kipr@amaa.com.

Continue reading "The Mirabella -- Hotel attorneys with a real world project where client saved by going LEED Platinum" »

Posted In: Green Hotels, Hotel Developers Conference™