Leisure & Hospitality

Leisure and Hospitality

Salans’ Leisure & Hospitality sector group handles all aspects of hotel, leisure and resort development, construction, and financing. Our services are based on a thorough understanding of our clients’ objectives in each particular type of project, backed by our experience for which we are independently recognised as leaders in the market.

Projects undertaken in the leisure and hospitality sector often require resources and local experience across multiple areas of law. To meet the needs of our clients, we have built cross-disciplinary teams across borders, jurisdictions, and practice areas. Our Leisure & Hospitality group members are drawn from our Real Estate, Corporate, Tax, Employment, and Banking & Finance practices across our 22 offices worldwide.

Hotel Sales and Acquisitions

Salans regularly advises international hotel operators and investment funds with respect to the sale and purchase of hotels and hotel portfolios, including trophy hotels as well as prime buildings to be converted into hotels, through corporate structuring.

We advise on sale or purchase transactions carried out either by way of direct purchase of the assets or by acquisition of the entities owning the real estate assets and/or the operating business concern.

Management and Franchise Agreements

We advise international hotel operators and investors on setting up management agreements or franchise agreements either for key individual hotels or for hotel portfolios comprising over 50 hotels.

Our experience in these matters ranges from integrated management, whereby the owner of the hotel remains in control of the operations and the manager receives management fees, to fully outsourcing the management, whereby the manager has full control over the operations and pays the owner out of operating profits.

Hotel Leases

Salans’ Leisure & Hospitality group also advises hotel operators and investors with respect to the leasing of either existing hotel buildings or of buildings undergoing redevelopment for a hotel. The key feature of such leases is the need to reach a balance between (i) the hotel operator’s need to secure full control of the operation of a business that it owns in a dedicated building for a long and fixed term and (ii) the landlord’s need to achieve a long-term return on the investment carried out upon re-conversion of the asset, with a possibility to sell and achieve capital gains.

Hotel Financing

We regularly advise investors with respect to the initial financing of the purchase of hotel portfolios and the subsequent debt push down, non-recourse and re-financing.

Tax Structuring

We regularly advise international hotel operators and investors by setting in place efficient tax structures for the acquisition and holding of hotels and hotel portfolios (buildings and business concerns) and their operations, using both onshore and offshore management.

Employment Law

We have developed a notable employment practice specifically for the leisure and hospitality sector, and now have over 30 years of experience helping investors, owners or managers to meet the challenges presented by frequent changes in complex laws and regulations governing employment and workplace conduct.

We advise on employment law and social protection in a broad range of contentious and non-contentious issues involving both individual and collective relations. We also assist in preparing and implementing strategic initiatives such as mergers, acquisitions, disposals, complex restructuring, closures, relocations and downsizing.

Our Clients

We represent many of the largest and best-known property developers and real estate private equity funds, as well as domestic and international hotel operators. We represent hotel management companies and owners and have a notable specialisation in hotel and labour law issues and operating agreements.