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Who Will Run Your Franchised Hotel?
Management agreements provide the vehicle through which investors in hotels, restaurants, and other commercial properties engage professional managers to operate their properties. The practice began in the lodging industry after the end of World War II when hotel construction boomed in response to demand from middle-class American families for clean, moderately priced travel accommodations ' the same demand that spawned the Holiday Inn chain and other lodging industry franchises. Investors with no experience in hotel management fueled the boom in hotel construction with their capital, but professional managers generated the returns on investment the investors craved.
By the late 1960s, management arrangements between property owners and independent, professional management companies had become commonplace in the lodging industry. Nowadays, insurance companies, pension funds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs, which the tax laws prohibit from actively managing their own properties) own many of the large hotel and resort properties. These and other institutional investors invariably choose to rely on professional help to operate their properties instead of developing their own property management infrastructures.
The use of management arrangements in the restaurant industry developed later and remains an exception to the norm. One reason lies in the lower barriers to entry that prevail in major segments of the restaurant industry. Most quick-service restaurants do not carry the investment burden that even smaller hotels carry, and experienced food service operators can more easily access the capital normally required to develop restaurants that occupy less than 3000 square feet. Also, operating a quick-service restaurant is comparatively simpler than managing a hotel, and (with the training assistance that franchisors provide) novice operators can quickly acquire basic operating skills.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Anti-Assignment Override Provisions
UCC Sections 9406(d) and 9408(a) are one of the most powerful, yet least understood, sections of the Uniform Commercial Code. On their face, they appear to override anti-assignment provisions in agreements that would limit the grant of a security interest. But do these sections really work?