NEW YORK CITY— When it comes to touching all the legal bases during the 24th Annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference here this year, a case was clearly made that it takes considerably longer than 75 minutes to address the plethora of litigation concerns currently besetting the lodging industry and its practitioners. Drawing on the expertise of a quintet of attorneys representing some of the hotel arena’s leading law firms, Bickel & Brewer’s John Bickel shepherded panelists (and audience) through a session intended to fully explore such issues as: the proprietary nature of guest information; the ramifications of shared technologies and systems; the increasingly volatile matter of rebates, commissions, and kickbacks; and the latest nuances involved in the drafting of management agreements. In the course of extensively/exhaustively examining guest information concerns, including how it’s collected as well as who ultimately owns it, the relevance of “fiduciary duty” was breached— an axiom whose relevance would be mulled repeatedly (but not completely) as the late-morning discussion session wore on. Indeed, after the close of the session, a number of those in attendance expressed to HOTEL BUSINESS® an (at that point unsatisfied) interest in the pending CTF Hotel Holdings suit lodged against Marriott International and the impact such an action might ultimately have on contractual agreements of all kinds.—Michael Billig
