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The Lessons of Sheraton v. Castillo Grand

Castillo Grand developed a 5 diamond ocean-front resort and residences project in Fort Lauderdale and sought to flag it as a St. Regis. Castillo entered into the usual package of branded management agreements with Starwood’s management subsidiary, Sheraton Operating Corporation. On November 18, 2011, after 5 years of litigation between Castillo and Sheraton, the New York state court in...Read More

“Push Me – Pull You” – In the Transition to a Better Economy, the Brands Get Tough.

The franchisor-franchisee relationship is often a “push me – pull you” affair. Whether the relationship is dominated by pushing or pulling varies from one year to the next, depending largely on the franchisor’s brand strategy and deal flow. Read More

The Hotel Industry Recovery: Where We Are, the Black Swans, and Current Strategies for Owners and Buyers

The Post-Meltdown world continues to be a strange, changing place for the hotel industry. Where are we now? What unusual attributes of our situation are we now discovering? And how can we use our knowledge and understanding to achieve success as hotel owners and buyers? Read More

Financing A Hotel Ownership or Management Business – Practical Advice

You need money; and you know you need a plan to get it. What is it about money that evokes the fear in getting it? We have a great idea; why doesn’t the world rush to our door with money to make it happen? We see projects being funded that don’t hold Read More

Owning and Operating a Hotel or Motel – Common Legal Issues & Practical Advice

Entire specialized libraries are filled with volumes and books of wisdom and technical advice. Therefore, to break down and/or condense all that wealth of knowledge into a few bullet points in a short article is understandably overwhelming and next to impossible. Read More

Meltdown Opportunities for Hotel Buyers: The “Hotel Restructuring” and the Acquisition Out of Bankruptcy

As the meltdown/recovery cycle grinds away, opportunities remain relatively scarce, but they do exist. Buyers can seek out “The hotel restructuring opportunity.” They can also seek to buy hotel assets out of bankruptcy. What is the context for these opportunities, what are they about, and how can they be captured? Read More

Entering the Asset Management Game – A Guide to Successfully Making the Transition

The hotel industry is seeing an increased interest among hotel companies to provide hotel asset management services. What are the pressures that are driving this trend? What are the best practices for securing asset management engagements? Read More

Hotel Owners, Lenders and Stakeholders Square Off: Equitable Subordination

The hotel industry’s year-over-year declines continued in the second quarter of 2009. Demand is leveling out at a lower baseline, and the hotel industry is adjusting to a new reality. Read More