UPDATED Outlook: Economic Uncertainty Certain
According to the most recent survey of economists, a recession in the coming months looks increasingly likely.
By Jamie Mageau, Director of Research Products, U.S. Travel Association
Opinion Articles
Hotels Are Now Required to Provide Workers With Panic Buttons Under New California Law
Over the last few years, numerous states and cities across the U.S. have worked to reform hotel on-property safety by implementing enhanced workplace safety standards and regulations. Many of these initiatives were brought to life in the wake of the AHLA’s 5-Star Promise, a voluntary commitment made by American Hotel and Lodging Association members to enhance policies, training, and resources surrounding hotel safety and security. The 5-Star Promise was announced in September 2018, and since then, over 20,000 hotel properties have pledged to protect their staff and guests better.
By Parminder Batra, CEO, TraknProtect
ADA Defense Lawyer: DOJ Issues Website Accessibility Guidelines On Website Accessibility
Recently on March 18, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a “Web Accessibility Guidance” statement for state and local governments and public accommodations (including businesses) under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
By Stuart Tubis, Lawyer, JMM
How Will ADA Guidelines Impact Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations?
Many hotels have opted to include Electric Vehicle Charging Stations as an amenity for guests as the cars become more and more common. And while hotels may be very aware how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to their property, are they considering the requirements for disabled guests at these charging stations?
By Martin Orlick, Chair, JMM
The Cost of Waiting to Make a Large Gift: Compounding Your Tax Savings
If you are planning to make a large gift as part of your estate plan, you should consider taking advantage of the current tax exemption in effect until the end of 2025. After this time, the exemption will revert back to approximately one-half of its current value. This has potentially huge implications for hospitality executives and other high-net-worth individuals. Gordon Schaller, managing partner of JMBM’s Orange County office, explains below.
By Gordon Schaller, Managing Partner, Orange County Office, JMM
ADA Defense Lawyer: A victory against serial plaintiff: The “Reservation Rule” Lawsuit Against California Hotel Dismissed
Serial ADA litigants are continuing to face challenges in the courts as dozens of cases alleging a failure to include accessibility information on hotel websites are being dismissed. Martin Orlick, Chair of JMBM’s ADA Compliance & Defense Group, describes one such case faced by a JMBM client below. This successful outcome is good news for hotels worried about Reservation Rules lawsuits.
By Jim Butler and Martin Orlick
Hotel Lawyer: 5 Tips for your next Hotel Management Agreement (HMA)
As the hospitality industry moves toward recovery, many hotel owners are re-evaluating the management of their properties. A good manager can bring great value to a property; a poor manager can reduce its value.
By Jim Butler and Robert Braun
How does the Supreme Court’s Google v. Oracle case impact the hotel industry (beyond software)?
The recent ruling in Google v. Oracle has altered the definition of "fair use" when it comes to functional works such as code. While the use of existing creative works must still be transformative in order to avoid violating copyright laws, it will now be much easier to claim fair use when building on existing functional creations. JMBM's Entertainment Litigation Chair Jeff Goldman explains the case below and discusses its potential impact on the hotel industry.
By Jim Butler and Jeffrey Goldman
Hotel Lawyer: New rules for anti-money laundering compliance? FinCEN seeks comments on new Federal Anti-Money Laundering Law
The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is currently accepting public comments on a provision in the recently enacted Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) which requires some privately-held business entities to disclose ownership information directly to a law enforcement agency. Interested parties should consider commenting before the May 5th deadline, and companies who may be impacted should take this opportunity to review their anti-money laundering compliance programs. Vince Farhat and Samuel Buchman of JMBM's White Collar Defense and Investigations Group have written an article detailing this legislation below.
ADA Defense Lawyer: California’s Central District tries to curb ADA lawsuits
California has seen an explosion of ADA cases in the past few years, leading the state to impose strict pleading standards and high filing fees for serial litigants. Litigants have previously found their way around this by filing in federal court, but the courts have made it clear that they will decline supplemental jurisdiction in these instances. Martin Orlick, Chair of JMBM's ADA Compliance & Defense Group, explains below.
By Jim Butler and Martin Orlick
ADA Defense Lawyer: Whitaker v. Tesla Motors – the end of cookie-cutter ADA complaints?
For many years, businesses classed as public accommodations under the ADA have been the subject of "cookie-cutter" complaints that allege discriminatory conditions without providing any specific examples. Thousands of nearly identical complaints have been filed in federal courts nationwide, and their lack of detail makes it difficult for courts to provide a remedy that will prevent future harm. Martin Orlick, Chair of JMBM's ADA Compliance & Defense Group, summarizes the recent decision in Whitaker v. Tesla Motors which may put an end to these fill-in-the-blank cases.
By Martin Orlick, Chair, JMM
ADA Defense Lawyer: Hotels Must List Accessible Features On The Web Or Risk Lawsuits
As we've discussed in previous blogs, there has been an uptick in lawsuits filed against hotels alleging a failure to list accessible features on their website as required by the ADA. While many of these cases have been successfully defended in federal courts, new filings continue to surge and many plaintiffs are turning to state courts which have different requirements for dismissal. Martin Orlick, Chair of JMBM's ADA Compliance & Defense Group, explains why we should expect these cases to continue in 2021 and what hotels should be looking out for.
By Martin Orlick, Chair, JMM
New Challenges for Hotels: The New California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act of 2020
On November 3rd, Californians voted to approve Proposition 24 which amends the California Consumer Privacy Act to include expanded consumer rights and greater privacy protections. Bob Braun, senior member of JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® and Co-Chair of the Firm's Cybersecurity & Privacy Group, explains the major provisions of the Act and discusses the challenges hotels face as they look to address its requirements.
By Robert Braun, Partner, Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP, JMM
Hotel Insurance Costs on the Rise
As of the writing of this article we are in the early stages of evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the U.S. lodging industry. Owners and operators are discussing the potential use of business interruption insurance (BI) to cover expected losses in profits. Business interruption insurance covers the loss of income that a business suffers after a disaster. It is designed to put a business in the same financial position it would have been in if no loss had occurred. Owners and operators are encouraged to review their BI policies to determine if their businesses are covered from any losses attributable to the COVID-19 virus.
By Robert Mandelbaum, Director of Research Information Services, CBRE Hotels
Tourism Tidbits: “Tourism and the Law”| By Peter Tarlow
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.
By Peter Tarlow, President, Tourism and More
The So-Called Minimum Legal Requirements for Panic Button Mandates
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.
By Einar Rosenberg, CIO, Creating Revolutions
Guest Privacy - It's Your Business | Robert Braun
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.
By Robert Braun, Partner, Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP, JMM
Staying Aware of New Housekeeping Legislations
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.
By Larry Mogelonsky, Partner, Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited
Proposition 65 Defense Lawyer: Is your hotel ready for the new Prop 65 regulation deadline?
For many years, businesses operating in California have been plagued by "bounty hunter" and government lawsuits brought under Proposition 65 — the California law that requires warnings about hazardous substances. The technical disclosure requirements have bedeviled many legitimate businesses for some time. From our continuous interaction with members of the hotel industry, it appears to us that many are not aware of new requirements they must meet by August 30, 2018.
By Jim Butler and Jodi Smith
ADA Compliance & Defense Lawyer Update: 99 ADA lawsuits dismissed as fraudulent and malicious
On October 26, 2017, a judge dismissed 99 ADA lawsuits, ordered an in forma pauperis plaintiff (a person without funds to pursue the cost of a lawsuit) to pay filing fees of $38,300 and authorized the defendants to file fee and sanction motions.
By Martin Orlick, Chair, JMM