HospitalityLawyer.com Blog

The 2011 Hospitality Law Conference is set for Wednesday, February 9, 2010 - Friday, February 11, 2010.

What?

The annual Hospitality Law Conference is the only hotel law and restaurant law conference of its kind.  Industry leaders offer in-depth analysis and insight into the latest international legal, safety, and security trends and issues affecting the hospitality industry.   

Who Should Attend?

Hotel and restaurant in-house counsel and private attorneys practicing in the hospitality industry who want the most current, in-depth legal developments should attend. 

Executives of lodging, real estate, restaurant, and club operations will be interested in our Lodging, Real Estate, and Food & Beverage Tracks. 

Hotel risk managers and hotel loss prevention directors won’t want to miss the Loss Prevention & Risk Management Track. 

For IT professionals, comptrollers, accountants, and CFOs, the conference offers the only Information Protection and Privacy (including PCI-DSS) Workshop for hotels, restaurants, and country clubs.

Where?

The Hospitality Law Conference will be held at the Omni Houston Hotel, Houston, Texas

Details and Speaking Opportunities

This year’s conference begins with the Preconference Workshop on Wednesday, February 9.  The two-day Hospitality Law Conference begins on February 10.   

Attend the conference and receive opportunities to win a $1000.00 American Express gift card and a $500.00 American Express gift card.  If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please email HospitalityLawyer@hospitalitylawyer.com or call (713) 963-8800.

For updates please visit, www.hospitalitylawconference.com. 

HospitalityLawyer.com, the industry’s web-based resource for legal, safety, and security solutions, today announced that the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference was an incredible success, receiving excellent reviews from attendees.

Three hundred attendees from across the country and around the world attended this one-of-a-kind conference in Houston, Texas. The two-and-a-half-day conference focused on the following core topics:

• Current Real Estate Issues in the Industry
• Information Privacy & Protection, including PCI-DSS
• Lodging & Fundamentals of Hospitality Law
• Food & Beverage
• Labor & Employment; and
• Loss Prevention & Risk Management. 

“The conference gives attendees the information and resources they need to stay ahead of the fast-changing laws pertinent to our industry,” said Stephen Barth, founder of HospitalityLawyer.com, noting conference attendees include hotel and restaurant in-house counsel, hotel and restaurant lawyers, loss-prevention personnel, risk managers, and hospitality owners and operators.

For the complete release on the conference, please click here.

Couldn’t make it to the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference? To purchase conference materials (Conference Summary Notebook and USB Drive with papers and PowerPoints) for $199.00, please contact Claudia Aslin.

National labor and employment law firm Fisher & Phillips offers the following tips for businesses, as they begin to deal with the aftermath of the winter storms:

In the midst of finding childcare for children unexpectedly home from school, coping with business disruption, power outages, and dangerous streets, we often forget that winter storms, like hurricanes, pose special workplace hazards especially when employers begin to clean up and restore business. Many fatalities, injuries, and OSHA citations occur as employees perform non-routine tasks after the storm eases.

For the complete article, including OSHA-related information on falls, electrocutions, personal protection equipment (PPE), hazard communication, equipment operation, and more, please click here.

For more information on Fisher & Phillips, including labor & employment resources, please click here.

Don’t miss the only conference devoted exclusively to legal, safety and security issues impacting the hotel, restaurant, and travel industries.

Early registration ends today, January 11. Register today to receive discounted registration rates.

Program Topics:

• Information Protection and Privacy, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards Workshop
• Hospitality Real Estate Transactions Workshop
• Hotel & Restaurant In-House Counsel Workshop (in-house counsel only)
• Food & Beverage Breakout
• Human Resources & Labor Relations Breakout
• Lodging and Fundamentals of Hospitality Law Breakout
• Loss Prevention and Risk Management Breakout
• General Sessions, including:
  • Information Protection & Privacy: The New High Stakes Game
  • Critical Issues in Payment Card/Merchant Relations
  • It’s Not Easy Being Green
  • The Franchise Debate
  • A Primer on Representing Airlines and Cruise Ships
  • An Ethics Sampler - Five Top Mistakes to Avoid

HRCI and CLE Available.

Helpful links:

Conference Brochure

Conference Website

Conference Agenda

With most of the United States in the midst of an arctic blast, HospitalityLawyer wanted to share some tips and suggestions for dealing with the cold weather.

Gallagher Hospitality Services has provided some helpful information. Matt Krell, Senior Vice President and Risk Control Consultant with Gallagher Hospitality Services, shares, “Every winter hotel properties battle the cold weather elements, and the threat of burst pipes is significant, even in the warmer climates. The pipes burst when water that is in the pipes freezes, then expands bursting the pipe that holds the water. The outcome of a burst pipe often includes guest dissatisfaction, rooms out of order and costly insurance claims.”

Below is a list of ideas you can implement to reduce the possibility of a burst pipe at your properties:

• Locate thermometers in hard-to-heat areas housing vulnerable equipment.
• Check heating equipment to make certain it will maintain building temperature above 40°F at the coldest points in the building (e.g., corners at the windward end of a building, at the eaves and in spaces with no direct heat).
• Check heat-tracing systems to make sure they are working properly.

Click here for the complete list. The link also contains the following information:

• Develop Winter Strategies: This operations checklist will assist you in preparation for severe winter weather
• Cold Weather Procedures: You should develop cold weather procedures to protect our associates and our assets.
• Your program should include: Cold weather tips for properties with vans or for those who drive

Should you have questions or need assistance, please contact Matt at (303) 889-2552 or by e-mail at matthew_krell@ajg.com.

Please also see “Are You Prepared for Winter?” and a sample “Snow and Ice Treatment and Removal Log” from the Front Line November 2009 Risk Bulletin, featured in the November Loss Prevention Newsletter.

Early registration for the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference ends January 11. Don’t miss the only program devoted exclusively to legal, safety and security issues impacting the hotel, restaurant, and travel industries. Register Now to take advantage of discounted rates!

The 2010 Conference will kick off on Wednesday, February 3, with a Pre-Conference Workshop and will feature the following sessions:

• Information Protection and Privacy, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards Workshop – including PCI compliance, forensic investigations, and data security
• Hospitality Real Estate Transactions Workshop – including workouts, special service providers and how recent economic events have affected the real estate industry.
• Hotel & Restaurant In-House Counsel Workshop – including bargaining with credit card companies, protecting proprietary data, unions, and antitrust issues

The Hospitality Law Conference will shift into full gear on Thursday, February 4, with breakout sessions on a host of relevant and timely topics:

• Lodging and Fundamentals of Hospitality Law - including management contracts, OTAs, taxation issues, and more
• Food & Beverage – including the tip credit, Truth in Menu, selling alcohol, and alcohol sponsorship issues
• Human Resources and Labor Relations – including wage and hour issues, sexual harassment, OSHA, and the Fair Labor Standards Act
• Loss Prevention & Risk Management – including bed bugs, insurance litigation, claims, and various liability issues

Don’t miss the Wine Tasting & Product Showcase on Thursday, February 4, to be eligible to win a $1,000 American Express gift card. Stay until the end of the conference to be eligible to win a $500 American Express gift card, which will be drawn during the Closing Remarks on Friday, February 5.

Accreditation:

MCLE accreditation for up to 16.0 hours (including 1 hour of ethics) is available.

This program has been approved for 4 (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Helpful Links:

• Online Registration
• Conference Brochure
• Conference Website
• Conference Agenda

In light of the recent issues at Miami’s EPIC Hotel, which has moved guests after a European guest died from Legionnaires’ disease, HospitalityLawyer.com wanted to provide resources for hotels on Legionnaire’s disease. For more information on the developing story in Miami, please click here.

The 2009 Hospitality Law Conference featured the panel “Something in the Water,” which explored Legionella, Norovirus, and other agents that can be issues for hotels. For the conference excerpts on Legionella, please click here.

The HospitalityLawyer.com Loss Prevention Newsletter archives also has an article discussing a 2000 Legionella outbreak in Ocean City, Maryland, which resulted in litigation.

Need a solution? Forensic Analytical is a great resource for Legionella issues.

Earlier this month, Avis Budget Group, Inc. announced that beginning in October 2009, its entire fleet will be smoke free.  Avis Budget Group operates Avis and Budget rental cars.

The company has instituted a new inspection process, and a cleaning fee will be assessed if a vehicle is returned with a tobacco odor or residue, guaranteeing each vehicle is clean and smoke-free.

When he learned of the Avis and Budget smoke-free fleet, Hospitality Lawyer Stephen Barth said, “This is a big step for the smoke-free challenge.  Every hospitality segment in the world, whether hotel, restaurant, or rental car company, should be smoke-free.  Inside and out.  It is the right thing to do for your employees and your guests, for your risk tolerance, for your property, and for your bottom line.”

In December 2007, Stephen Barth issued a challenge to the entire hospitality industry to go smoke-free.

The annual Hospitality Law Conference is a one-of-a-kind opportunity designed for participants to share legal insight and best practices, and to gain a better understanding of the latest industry developments. It is the only program in the country and in the world devoted exclusively to legal, safety and security issues impacting the hotel, restaurant, and travel industries.

“I have found the Hospitality Law Conference to be the best in the country,” said Dale Kingman, Former Presenter and Partner at Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell.

Adding to those sentiments, Matt Brokl, Associate General Counsel for BuffaloWild Wings, said the 2009 conference was “the best conference I attended this year.”

Private attorney, David Denney, with the Law Offices of David T. Denney, P.C., has said, “The information presented and relationships developed at the conference benefit my practice all year long.  I make a special effort to attend each year to refill my bank of resources and renew my contact with other industry professionals.”

For the complete Conference Agenda, please click here.

For the complete Conference Announcement, please click here.

In the wake of renewed global concern of a H1N1 pandemic, hotel lawyer Stephen Barth urges the entire hospitality industry (specifically, hotels, restaurants, clubs), as well as all places of public accommodation to be smoke free, both inside and outside.

There should not be smoking in places of public accommodation.  Period.  Smoke-free means zero smoke on the grounds and the facility, which includes no smoking in the parking lots, garages, pool-side, on balconies or verandas, or anywhere in the facility.

Secondhand smoke drifting from outdoor areas can easily find its way into the hotel facility. Those that smoke in an outdoor area (especially those in close proximity to other smokers and, accordingly, their smoke) bring third-hand smoke (smoke residue) back into the facility on their clothes, hands and hair. Both secondhand and third-hand smoke can greatly diminish the air quality in the hotel’s public area and guest rooms.

The fire hazard in and of itself, especially in hotels, should be enough to warrant the prohibition of smoking.  But now, with the very real threat of a pervasive pandemic and the viral nature that is transmitted via second and third-hand smoke, it is incumbent upon all places of public accommodation to be completely smoke free.  Guests and employees need to be prohibited from smoking on the entire property of the public place of accommodation (i.e., hotels, restaurants, clubs, airports, and cruise ships).

The health and safety of their employees and guests demand a smoke free environment.  Any other approach is a gross disregard for the safety and welfare of those constituencies.

As AH&LA states in its bulletin on the H1N1 pandemic (available here), in the case of a pandemic, hoteliers should “be sure the ventilation and all air movement systems are not moving contaminated air into other parts of the establishment.”

Additionally, smoking outside is not a solution.  The smoke does not dissipate immediately.  It lingers.  It gets blown into nonsmoking areas and sucked into air circulation systems.

It is imperative that all places of public accommodation consider whether they are truly smoke-free.