In a recent HopSkip webinar, industry experts Sean Whalin (Co-founder and CEO of HopSkip), Barbara Dunn (Partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP representing groups), and Lisa Sommer Devlin (Devlin Law Firm, P.C. representing hotels) discussed the common practice of attaching company addendums to standard hotel contracts.
In a recent HopSkip webinar, industry experts Sean Whalin (Co-founder and CEO of HopSkip), Barbara Dunn (Partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP representing groups), and Lisa Sommer Devlin (Devlin Law Firm, P.C. representing hotels) discussed the challenging issue of high hotel deposits for event bookings.
Barbara shared: hotels are now demanding heftier and more frequent deposits, even from those with sterling credit. “Leverage is everything,” she advised, hinting that savvy negotiators could reduce subsequent deposit demands after the initial payout.
But Lisa Sommer Devlin painted a stark picture of the hotels’ perspective, revealing a deep-seated fear of unpaid bills that has only intensified in recent years. Her advice? A solid payment history and glowing recommendations could tip the scales in your favor.
As the conversation heated up, both experts dismissed the idea of escrow arrangements as a costly and impractical solution, underscoring the delicate dance of negotiation needed to balance trust and security in these high-stakes dealings.
The information provided in this video does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information in this video may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. Readers of this website should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.
Hotel contracts are like high-stakes bets on the future, and the unpredictability of economic cycles can make these bets even riskier. Both hotels and meeting planners aim to mitigate risks, but how can this be done when economic downturns are factored in?
In our recent webinar, Sean Whalin (Co-founder and CEO of HopSkip) sits down with legal experts Barbara Dunn (Partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP representing groups) and Lisa Sommer Devlin (Devlin Law Firm, P.C. representing hotels) to discuss the complexities of incorporating economic downturn clauses in hotel meeting and event contracts.
The information provided in this video does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information in this video may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. Readers of this website should contact their attorney to obtain advice concerning any particular legal matter.
In this video, Sean Whalin (Co-founder and CEO of HopSkip) sits down with Barbara Dunn (Partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP, representing groups) and Lisa Sommer Devlin (Devlin Law Firm, P.C. representing hotels) to discuss why it’s important to include renovation plans in your hotel contracts and how to approach this topic with your hotel partner.
This is Part 2 of a series of posts where we will be sharing transcripts from our “Looking Forward” webinar featuring Legalease With the Ladies- powered by HopSkip.
The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This website contains links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser; HopSkip, its blog authors and contributors do not recommend or endorse the contents of the third-party sites.
Readers of this website should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.
Lisa Sommer Devlin: Let me jump in on that one first. There’s potential value, but the thing that you need to understand is that waivers are extremely difficult to enforce. The law on preinjury waivers varies from state to state, which also makes it more complicated if you’re having attendees coming from all over.
But in general with something of this nature or something that is an illness that someone could get as a result of being at your event, it’s probably going to be very, very unlikely that you’re going to be able to enforce that waiver now. Does that mean you shouldn’t do it? Not necessarily, because sometimes just the fact that somebody has signed a waiver is enough to deter a claim. As Barbara said, anybody can see you anytime, for any reason, good or bad, and sometimes if they have agreed in advance that they aren’t going to make a claim, it’s enough to deter them.
The other thing you want to think about is the optics. Do you really want to have people coming either into your hotel or into your event to have to sign a document that says, “hey for coming here, you might get this disease and drop dead?”
So, you might not want to approach it that way. I think the more positive approach is requiring things like masks, distancing and vaccines. Barbara, what do you think?