Speed Bumps in the Road to Bankruptcy for Hotels and Resorts
Sunday, 23 November 2008 02:53
administrator
 Making hotel mortgage loans and dealing with troubled hotel loans is always more complex than with other real estate assets. Some of these issues have been nicely summarized at www.HotelLawBlog.com in a current series of articles on troubled hotel mortgage loans.
A lot has changed since the mid 1990s when there was an estimated wave of some 2,000 hotel bankruptcy filings. The veteran hotel lawyers in JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® represented many major lenders, the FDIC and RTC, and also a number of noteworthy borrowers in cleaning up that mess.
The Dos and Don'ts of Handling Troubled Hotel Mortgage Loans.
Monday, 17 November 2008 07:10
administrator
 As CMBS special servicers and other lenders' special assets workouts teams start to receive a new wave of troubled loans in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis that erupted in September 2008, it is a great time to "get back to fundamentals" and review the Dos and Don'ts of Troubled Hotel Loans. So here they are in case you want to test your memory or get started on a new run . . .
The 8 Dos and Don't for working with troubled hotel loans
Prevention. Prevention is the first step in a well planned approach to troubled loans. Proper underwriting, documentation and provisions for access to information may help a lender facing a troubled loan. In the event the loan does get into trouble, the lender will be in a stronger position to protect its interests. Prevention includes careful underwriting of the collateral and the borrower.
The "Comprehensive Situation Analysis" for Troubled Hotels
Monday, 17 November 2008 07:00
administrator
 The Comprehensive Situation Analysis - Critical foundation for decisions on lender alternatives for workouts, receiverships, deeds in lieu and bankruptcies with distressed hotel loan.
When CMBS special servicers (and other lenders' special assets workouts teams) see more hotel loans pop up on their "Watch Lists," it is important to perform a "Comprehensive Situation Analysis" of your "special assets" or distressed loans. Do you know why? Do you know how?
The "Comprehensive "Situation Analysis" is the cooperative effort by the lender's special assets team, experienced hospitality lawyers and hotel consultants. It examines the business, legal and hotel-specific factors affecting the assetThe Comprehensive Situation Analysis is the critical foundation for a lender choosing among its alternatives of workout, receivership, deed in lieu or bankruptcy (seeking involuntary bankruptcy and appointment of a trustee).
Hotel Guests Believe in Taking it With Them
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 09:33
administrator
 Wash cloths, towels, chandeliers and even duvet covers? Nothing unusual about hotel guests walking off with those relatively inexpensive items, says Karen Lampert, general manager of the upscale Whitelaw Hotel in fashionable South Beach, Florida
“That happens all the time, but they usually don’t take a 42-inch plasma TV. They just walked out with it, which was shocking to me,” she says.
Surveillance cameras caught the culprit, who eventually reimbursed the hotel at least part of the $1,000 cost of the TV, which had recently been installed.
But hotel thefts, sometimes of outrageous items, are nothing new.
And no hotels are immune; stealing happens in the big chains, roadside hotels, boutique outlets and even luxury resorts.
Televisions have been reported stolen more than once, even in broad daylight. Hotel manager Marcus Roberts remembers watching a man walk out the front door of an unnamed hotel carrying a television set.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 October 2008 09:56 )
Pandemics: The Legal Issues for the Hospitality Industry
Monday, 13 October 2008 02:38
administrator
 Seasonal influenza is a common - highly infectious disease that afflicts millions of people every year and causes - on average - about 38,000 U.S. deaths annually.
For most of us, however, the flu is ordinarily little more than an inconvenience, and its effects upon business are relatively modest. But the influenza virus is exceptionally versatile and mutates readily. The so-called H5N1 virus, as it exists now, spreads readily from bird to bird, but only with difficulty from birds to humans, and so far only quite infrequently and after intense interpersonal exposure from human to human (“HTH”). If the organism, currently a large-scale threat only to birds, should mutate so as to permit efficient HTH transmission, the consequences could be devastating. Such a change would replace the annual, seasonal flu epidemic with a mortal threat on a global scale.
When hospitality becomes inhospitable!
Monday, 13 October 2008 02:25
administrator
 The incidences of psychopathic behavior around the world have substantially increased in the last 10 years -
It is reliably estimated that 10% of managers or co-workers exhibit and engage in psychopathic behavior of some type. Psychopathic incidences are rising rapidly in the workplace where pressure is common place in order to survive.
Biz Momentum has found that the area of hospitality, law, accounting and construction are some of the worst areas where these behaviours have been exhibited.
We have assisted business owners and employees in the hospitality industry with minor to major incidences such as rape!
Room Keys and Security
Monday, 13 October 2008 02:21
administrator
 Control of guest room keys is one of the cornerstones of what hotels must do in order to provide the safety our guests have a right to expect under common law.
We, as hoteliers, have an obligation to take reasonable care that our guests will be safe in their rooms from intrusions by people who may have room keys.
The following policies should be considered by all hoteliers who do not have key-card lock systems:
Hotel Identity theft, how to safeguard your guests
Monday, 13 October 2008 02:17
administrator
 Did you hear the one about the guest who checked in to a luxury hotel room, and found a guest folio print out for the previous guest in the waste paper basket in the guest room?
This happens all too often in large and small facilities.
Personal information was located on the guest folio and was in the hands of a stranger who had ample opportunity to steal the previous guest’s identity.
During my recent visit to a 5-star hotel, I walked by an empty meeting room with the door wide open. On a table just inside the door was the daily guest recognition report that showed the arrival dates of all the VIPs and celebrities in the hotel including personal comments about the guests.
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In his 2-part series of articles on "speed bumps" in the road to hotel bankruptcies Bob talks about an issue that hotels, resorts, marinas, sports facilities and other hospitality-related assets will likely present to many lenders seeking to use the expedited relief from bankruptcy stay provisions available to creditors in certain "single asset" bankruptcy cases.
