Hotels

We provide full commercial, property, planning, construction, property finance, property litigation, environmental, property tax and property-related corporate services.

We negotiate:

• asset sales and purchases of hotels, as well as M&A, corporate acquisitions and disposals where the target entity comprises hotels or other operational assets
• lettings, acting for landlords and hotel operator tenants
• management agreements, acting for owners, branded operators and unbranded white-label operators
• franchise agreements, acting for franchisors and franchisees
• the range of necessary ancillary contracts to the above – including technical services agreements, non-disturbance agreements, property owner agreements, trademarks licensing agreements, chain services contracts and many more
• financing facility agreements acting for lenders, owner investors, and hotelier borrowers

We specialise in:

• transactions involving hotels, serviced apartments, serviced residences, branded residences as part of a hotel’s inventory, restaurants and other f&b concepts
• leading negotiations of operational contracts for hotel and serviced apartment operations located all over the world: UK, East Africa, North West Europe, Middle East, the Americas – our last count was 27 countries
• assisting some of the biggest and most globally well-known names in the industry – hotel owners, operators, investors, funders, banks and other stakeholders, from all over the world
• dispute resolutions acting for landlords, tenants, owners, investors and operators

Our Hotels team engages with our clients, prospective clients and the market generally through podcasts, LinkedIn and regular postings on our hotels-dedicated TikTok channel @maplesteesdalesuitcase, through which we provide hotels news in situ (i.e. in front of or inside the applicable hotels to which the news relates), opinions and reviews; our most popular posting to date attracting over 66,000 viewers.

Members of our Hotels team include:

• the current Chair of the Property Litigation Association (2023/24);
• a two-time ranked ‘Rising Star’ in the Legal500 Hotels and Leisure rankings;
• a leading construction lawyer in the Chambers rankings over the past 12 years; and
• a partner who has spent over 5 years as in-house corporate counsel for a range of hotel operators.

Relevant experience

• Fragrance Group – we advised Fragrance on the negotiation of franchise agreements (and land owner deeds) with Accor and management agreements with RBH for 3 Accor-branded UK hotels in the Fragrance hotels portfolio, with split propco-opco ownership.
• Salaam Properties Management EURL – we advised Salaam on the negotiation of management agreements for serviced apartments and hotels operated by a globally leading international operators for a properties in Djibouti, East Africa
• Bob W Technologies UK Limited – assistance with HMA negotiations and provision of pro-forma contracts for client’s internal onward use
• ICVC (fund managed by BMO Real Estate) – Forward commitment on a Travelodge hotel and Starbucks drive-thru development in Bury St Edmunds for £9.5m. The 80-bedroom hotel, was let to Travelodge on a 25-year lease and the site also includes a 1,800 sq ft drive-thru Starbucks. Following the pandemic and Travelodge’s CVA, BMO took back the Travelodge lease and the hotel was converted into a Premier Inn on a 30 year lease.
• Interglobe Hotels – advising Interglobe on the redevelopment of Hotel George, Kensington

Whilst you are here, please click though to our Hospitality & Leisure sector page to look at the ways we assist our occupier clients in the food, beverage and leisure spaces and maximise the values of their occupied leasehold properties.