Hotels

Whether it’s organising the purchase of a small B&B or looking after the portfolios of multi-national hotels, we provide specialist advice on the practical application of the law to the hospitality industry. This includes owners, operators, investors and managers of hotels and other licensed premises, recognising that there are often substantial overlaps in needs.

For smaller privately run hotels, our team has experience ranging from structuring the ownership of property and related income streams for tax purposes to advice on all aspects of asset acquisition and disposal. We provide specialist expertise on outsourcing the management of a hotel whether by way of management contract, lease or franchise and the legal and tax aspects of re-mortgaging, equity release and raising finance for refurbishment and premises extensions.

For corporately owned or operated hotels, the team can help with hotel acquisition, disposal, sale and lease-back, appointment and termination of management companies, appointment as a management company, appointment and termination of in-hotel concessions, staff accommodation issues, outsourced restaurant operations; franchising both as franchisor and franchisee; issues surrounding equipment leasing plus all aspects of IT law including negotiation and resolution of disputes involving contracts with systems suppliers, e-commerce and all aspects of Data Protection. We are experts in dispute resolution including recovery of delinquent debts, especially conference and banqueting no-shows and last minute cancellations; all aspects of employment law including measures to prevent time-consuming and expensive claims; living within increasingly complex employment legislation in a sector where there needs to be flexibility in staff rostering and deployment; practical advice on all tax aspects of hotel operations; and all aspects of licensing including casinos and special ‘one-off events’.

For hotel developers, we offer practical assistance in site assembly on green or brown-field sites whilst understanding that assembling sites, especially piecemeal, can take time and patience; all planning aspects; construction contracts at both main and sub-contractor level including advising on the resolution of disputes and handling collateral warranties; and tax advice, especially SDLT and VAT.

For institutionally owned and/or financed hotels, we advise on the investment, acquisition, disposal and securitisation of income streams; handling of security especially during development phases; and perfecting security if the business runs into difficulties and the extraction of your position. Our specialist corporate recovery team is used to working very closely with both lenders and other professional advisers in difficult times when the over-riding concern is usually to maintain the business.