Hotel lawyer on hotel and hotel mixed-use development. Wasn't it only “yesterday” that a few hundred million dollars seemed like a lot of money and made the headlines? After Blackstone's $39 billion purchase of Equity Office Properties deal was topped in deal size by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts’ bid for Texas Pacific Group (TXU) for about $45 billion, it almost seems like everyone yawns at “mere” billion dollar deals, much less something smaller. For example, did you notice any major headlines in the past couple of weeks about Winston Hotels being bought by Wilbur Investment for $850 million, or Apple Hospitality being bought by ING Clarion Partners for $890 million, or Hilton selling its Scandic Hotel chain to a private equity group for about $1.1 billion?

Guestroom Design & Amenities - In the September 1912 issue of American Homes & Gardens, writer and futurist Harold D. Eberlein presented his predictions of the impact of air travel on American cities. Eberlein foresaw a proliferation of roof gardens on top of large hotels to provide pleasing views for guests. He also predicted that travelers could expect to find “clerks and bellboys posted on the top floor ready to attend to the immediate wants of tourists who have just arrived by airplane. “Aerial taxicabs” will circle like vultures over the hotel, “he wrote, waiting for a doorman to signal one of them to alight and pick up a departing guest.”

Loose Cannon at Hotel Business Magazine - The recent printed apology by Jerry Merkin, Publisher Emeritus (Hotel Business January 7-20, 2007) regarding his gross misstatem ents about Lodging Econometrics put us all on notice that his opinions are often suspect. It was patently unfair for Merkin to confuse construction starts with forecasts for new openings. Question: Why does the otherwise on-target Hotel Business continue to publish Merkin’s offtarget opinions?

Hospitality Lawyer on state of the hotel industry and its prospects. We are enjoying great times in the hospitality industry and the prospects are excellent that the good times will continue for at least several more years. But how good is it, and how good can it get? Let’s take a look!

Although hotel development in China and India dominated the dialogue, speaker after speaker told the record attendance of 2,500 at The Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles, that both the U.S. and global economy were good and all agreed that this was a very good time to be in the lodging business.

Hotel Lawyer on hotel fundamentals. One of the things that has fascinated me about the hospitality industry for more than 20 years now, is the close — almost intimate — relationship of industry performance to the U.S. economy’s performance. Some might say this is intuitive, that when the economy does well, all business does well. But that is not always true. There are some businesses which do better in hard times, like discount and bargain stores, and there are some that seem impervious, like ultra luxury goods. However the relationship of the lodging industry’s performance to the general economy, has been carefully documented by the experts, and it is worth noting. The implications are interesting.

Had Don Vito Corleone been a hospitality Sales professional, you could be certain he would have kept a very close eye on his primary competition - - who are their clients, what are they planning and where are they vulnerable?

Hotel Lawyer on what the top names in the industry are saying now. In my recent blog entries, we have looked at how every hospitality company could be in play — from InterContinental Hotels to Marriott, Hilton and Starwood, the most interesting features of 2006, explored financing hotel projects in 2007, and talked about the explosion of international hotel investment - particularly in places like Mexico, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, China, India, and Europe.

Hotel Lawyer on hotel finance. History is being made. The biggest leveraged buy out ever keeps getting bigger. Sam Zell has orchestrated an auction for his Equity Office Properties. And the latest bid from the Blackstone Group is $54 per share, bringing the deal value to $38.3 billion and topping the prior bid from Vornado.

When the spotlight is on recources, the issues generally tilt toward the financial or natural ones. Yet the most challenging shortage now might be of human capital. Human resource issues in the hotel business have traditionally been about training to provide guest satisfaction, which has a direct correlation with price/value, return guest ratios, brand reputation and ultimately, financial performance. There has also been a spotlight on employee satisfaction, since a happy worker presents a picture of contentment to hotel guests, which results in better delivery of service.