A wave of mergers and acquisitions purport to help management companies capitalize on emerging markets, generate cost efficiencies, and position themselves more favorably with customers, vendors and employees. However, the most important constituent to the future success of today's mega-brands may be owners. In this article, we explore the legal rights and responsibilities of owners asked to adapt to changing brand concepts, new brand standards, and shifting dynamics in the marketplace. Owners are facing new challenges - and coming to the realization there are ways to respond to the "invisible hand" that may be working against them. READ MORE

Over the past decade, many hotel owners and management companies have looked to independent restaurant concepts—often associated with celebrity chefs—to increase revenue and enhance hotels' images and guests' experiences. One way to do this is to lease space to a celebrity chef's company (a “ChefCo”) and allow the ChefCo to operate the restaurant independently. A similar approach is for the hotel owner to enter into a management agreement with the ChefCo—separate from the management agreement with a hotel management company for the rest of the hotel. A third approach is for the hotel management company to subcontract management of the restaurant to the ChefCo. READ MORE

Given the number of hotel management companies in the United States, it's no surprise these companies are as active in the merger and acquisition arena as any other industry. For hotel operators who don't own the businesses they operate, their contracts with hotel owners are the “assets” to be combined in such a transaction. When hotel operators combine (through merger or asset acquisition), it's easy to focus on obtaining required owner consents. In addition, however, the parties must address operational transition matters long before the deal closes - they should be considerations even while the transaction agreement is being drafted. READ MORE

The relationship between a hotel owner and its operator is on one level a cooperative one, with the parties working together to maximize value for the owner's hotel and the operator's brand. However, close examination of the relationship reveals the inherent tension between the parties, as the owner seeks to maximize its net return on investment in the bricks and mortar and the operating business that it is acquiring or developing, and the operator seeks to maximize its profit from revenue-based fees and sundry charges while at the same time protecting and enhancing its brand reputation. READ MORE

Sense of Place has become one of marketing's more recent hot buzzwords. It's been used to promote everything from a national park to a housing development. And, yes, it is also used to promote hotel bookings. The truth, however, is that we can't really define the phrase so we don't really know how to leverage it effectively. Trying to define it is akin to what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in his 1964 test for obscenity, "I shall not today attempt further to define [it]…and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so, but I know it when I see it…" In this article, you'll read about the three keys to making sure your hotel has a sense of place, not placeness. READ MORE