One often doesn't know the extent of one's insurance coverage until a calamity occurs. So it is with force majeure provisions in contracts. Typically, force majeure provisions are included in contracts to excuse a party from contractual obligations if some unforeseen event beyond its control prevents performance of its contractual obligations.
Overtourism is now a term that is frequently used to describe the negative impacts of excessive tourism on a destination. The impacts of overtourism are numerous and even if the term is quite new, we can find traces of this concept already among scholars in the beginning of mass tourism. Plog, for example, related the evolution of the number of tourists in a destination to the type of tourists visiting that same destination.
Can a hotel ever truly achieve flawless performance? And, if so, how would one measure this accomplishment?
On May 25, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in an effort to protect consumer data for all citizens of the European Union and the European Economic Area.
The Tourism/Visitor industry is a one of the world's great industries. Large industries, however, mean that there are large cash flows and large amounts of cash often mean multiple lawsuits and other legal problems. Often local CVBs or tourism offices are unaware of their own nation's laws and obligations. This ignorance of the law can be very costly. Tourism Tidbits does NOT give legal advice, and it strongly encourages all readers to ask specific questions to a licensed tourism legal professional. Please note that the information found below is only meant to be useful in helping tourism/travel professionals to obtain the correct needed legal advice to stay out of court or to defend oneself once in court. -Take the time to ask you legal team to develop a series of questions about tourism law? What questions are you not asking? In what areas of the law are you ignorant or ought you to have more information? Then do a tourism law legal assessment with your legal staff, professional or department? With what laws are you failing to comply? What are the consequences of a compliance failure?-Review the statues concerning your aspect of the tourism industry on a regular basis with a qualified legal expert. Often tourism bureaus hire lawyers and legal experts who have never studied their part of tourism law. As tourism and terrorism become more intertwined it is essential to know your city's, state's or nation's legal requirements. For example, there is a section of the US PATRIOT act and published in the Federal Registry of Friday May 9th,2003 (Vol.68, Number 90m p.25092) which specifies casino's legal duties in anti terrorism. Casinos that chose to ignore this act may be faced with a very difficult situation. -Develop a tourism/travel legal information exchange. Tourism law is so complicated and changes so quickly that many legal experts are simply overwhelmed by it. Therefore there is no "one stop legal shopping". Instead develop with other local professionals a listing of who is an expert in various aspects of tourism law. Develop tourism law exchanges and remember that a legal mistake in any one part of the tourism industry can impact the entire industry. Do not forget to include the local police departments in these seminars and work with its members so that the local police department does not act (or fail to act) due to legal confusion. -Review your obligations and duties with your legal staff. How are these different within different types of law such as maritime law, international law, airline codes, local property law, contract law or statutory law? Then make sure that you understand legal subtleties. For example you should know if there are differences between a local person as a guest in your hotel or a visitor as a guest? Do you know your rights and obligations with a trespasser? How are you expected to treat a VIP and is there a clear definition of who is and who is not a VIP? -Know what help can you expect from a government regarding damages? In some nations, tourism is considered a critical asset and governments have special agencies to help with recovery. For example, in the US Homeland Security and FEMA may be able to provide funding which will aid you in avoiding a costly lawsuit. The smart tourism/travel professional takes the time to meet with government agencies to learn of all of their services and what legal help these agencies can provide.-Know what types of damages can you be accountable for and for which types of damages can you not be held accountable!. Tourism is different from other types of laws in that the victimizer and the victim may not be in the same community? What are your rights and obligations if you are sued from a different locale? How can you protect your community from someone who comes into it, victimizes it and then leaves? Are there different laws dealing with how locale interacts with physical damages or financial damages or emotional damages caused by a ruined vacation? -Do you know what are your assets? Many tourism assets are non-tangible assets? For example, is your locale's reputation an asset? How much damage someone coming to do harm might do to the reputation of the locale? What is the asset damage multiplier effect? If your business goes under how much are other tourism related businesses impacted by your error or having suffered an attack? -Make sure that you understand the differences between a criminal act and a terrorist act. These two negative events have very specific definitions in different nation's laws and the legal consequences are determined by how the courts may define the event. It is essential that you review with your legal team these differences and understand what your rights and responsibilities are should either of these two events occur. -Take the time to review what is happening in the world. Are you aware of the tourism risks that your particular industry is facing? All too often tourism/travel professionals are stuck in the old paradigm that stated that tourists were afraid of security and the less mentioned the better. Today's world is different. It is essential that your visitors understand that you locale worries about all aspects of security, from food safety to terrorism, from mismanaged property to crime on the streets. The best way to avoid or win a lawsuit is to take the time to do good risk management and know what are your obligations.Again, please consult a licensed legal professional before making any decision. The above is merely to present questions for you to consider with your legal professional.
Nothing irks people more than paying for something they don't need or use. I once paid $50 for a pair of pants I never ended up wearing—but that's on me. I'm to blame. It's another thing altogether when you are forced to pay for a pair of pants that you didn't want in the first place.
Hotel Lawyer: We hate to say "we told you so" on Resort Fee litigation
Look at these two coffee mugs. Both say Pantone Universe (trademarked) on the surface. But one is a knockoff. Can you tell which one?
Change is inevitable, and more so in an industry as dynamic as hospitality. Market performance, lending environment, number of players, owner and operator objectives, costs and margins, and customer profile are all changing almost constantly, and so are hotel management contracts that have evolved remarkably in India in the past decade. Once an operator stronghold, hotel management agreements had little to no room for negotiations, leaving an inexperienced owner (with no expert advice) with a sub optimal contract. However, the game is now changing!
On August 1st, the city of Miami Beach, Florida will require all hotels to implement "Employee Safety Devices, AKA Panic Buttons, AKA Staff Alert" in their properties. Miami Beach is important because it will induce a 12-month domino effect, in which all hotels across the USA will be required to implement Employee Safety Devices.
The hotel business is unique with owners, brands and assets all vying for their individual needs and attention. All the while this delicate balance has some interesting business characteristics that are essential for hospitality financial leaders to understand. It's not terribly complicated, quite the opposite. It hides out in plain sight, so it can be easy to miss if you're not looking for it. I can remember an old boss telling me his thoughts on what I call "owner spend." I thought at the time he was full of whatever, yet the concept was bold and incredibly clear. It also struck me in that moment that no one else had ever spoken of this, in exactly this way in my many years working inside a large brand. Owner spend is the key to understanding the relationship between the owner and the brands and it plays out inside each individual asset on a daily and annual basis in a managed hotel.
This is a special case that I've been waiting to write about since it hit the airwaves here in Canada in late October. Most interesting here is that it has a few powerful implications for the fight traditional hotels are facing against industry disruptors coming in the form of home sharing.
Now in its fourth iteration, it is time once more for some awards season fun. As I continue to traverse the world and experience the countless variations and regional nuances within the hospitality industry, my hope is you will find some learnings from these honors.
With the millennial generation leading the charge in striving to be the most exercise-obsessed demographic to date, it would seem as though a fitness center is primed to become a major selling feature for hotels beyond the cursory amenity addition that it is often inscribed for most properties built during the 20th century.
Committing to preventive maintenance in the hotel industry involves an extensive knowledge of the hotel's systems, equipment, and utilities, as well as the most effective routes of intervention. Above all, care must be taken not to interrupt the flow of hotel guests. Out of all types of existing maintenance, preventive maintenance is the most effective asset of hotel managers, as well as, directly related to satisfaction of the guests.
Great news came out of the Annual Conference of the Leading Hotels of the World held in Shanghai earlier this month: a distinguished hotelman was picked by the membership and the board to be given the 2018 Leading Legends Award. Congratulations PAUL ZUEST.
On a basic level, the hospitality business is simple - as is often said, it amounts to putting heads in beds. But finding the heads to put in the beds is a complex process and requires hotel companies to find out a great deal of information about their guests. Gathering and processing that information provides not only opportunities, but creates obligations, one of the most basic of which is ensuring the security of guests' personal information.
In life, few things make us less productive and more distant than other people's expectations of us. Expectations are everywhere, at work and at home. People detest others expectations.Uncommunicated expectations were not productive, especially when real work and strong relationships were required. Yet uncommunicated expectations were cast everywhere and they were weak.If I had a complaint in my world, it quickly became an expectation that someone else needed to fix. I tended to fixate over the injustice and in doing so I created my expectations. What I saw was that this was completely ineffective for getting things to change. Complaints were very easy to ignore and diminish; however, requests were not easy to ignore. Once we made a request we were heading in the right direction, because on the other side of a request we now have the ability to make an agreement.Let's take a hotel example. Currently, I was having a very hard time getting other managers to prepare detailed monthly forecasts and get these to me by the 30th of the month. I sent a schedule and reminders. I spoke at the department head meetings about the deadline, but I still didn't get a high success rate on submissions. It was always a struggle to get others to do what I expected. Without the forecast, I was left with two very unattractive options: do it myself or go without it. Both options meant I was shortchanged because others were not living up to my expectations.Now, I had two alternatives: 1) Complain about it, which I had done for years without results, or 2) Make another request. This was the pivot point.If I was willing to admit that my current status was due to my expectations, and I could bring myself to ask the other party for agreement, the conversation might go something like this."Peter, will you help me? I want to include your numbers, not mine, as part of the detailed forecast. Will you complete your part and get it to me by noon on the 30th?"Now it might not be easy for Peter to say, "Sure, no problem."But now the exact expectation was known because it was what was asked for. Or the request might get reviewed in a different light like, "I could, but that means I'm going to have to rearrange my week because my assistant is on holiday and our second office computer is dead."This was what I wanted to hear. This was the foundation of an agreement as now both parties asked for something. It was no longer the case of my having a single expectation. Now there were multiple balls in the air; some were mine and some belonged to other people.Turn the unmet expectation into a request and the request into an agreement like this: "OK, so I will send the systems person to your office today to switch out the second computer, but I'm not sure what I can do to help you rearrange the rest of the week."To which Peter replied, "No worries, with the computer replaced I can manage. I will gladly get you my forecast by the 30th."Let's break it down and figure out what happened in this example:
The housekeeping department more often than not represents the heart of a hotel's operations as a clean room is an essential part of guest service delivery. Moreover, it's backbreaking work with wages that aren't exceedingly high, while the room attendants themselves can be put in compromising situations as they roam the corridors by themselves.
Although a layman's perception of hospitality is overwhelmed by the notion of "guest-oriented services", the scope of hospitality management in India has drastically expanded in recent years. There must be more to an industry with an annual revenue worth $1 trillion and over 8 million employees globally. The share of travel and tourism within the Indian economy is around 10% and steadily growing. More importantly, the industry claims to create nearly 8% employment in India which is expected to grow in the future. Within the next ten years, the hospitality sector will create nearly 70 lakh new jobs directly and nearly 1 crore jobs indirectly.