Garvey Schubert Barer - HospitalityLawyer.com®

Clamping Down on “Apartment-Sharing” Website AirBNB

by Malcolm Seymour in Lodging, Travel. Posted August 3, 2015

New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, has made waves in recent months by subpoenaing the popular “apartment-sharing” website AirBNB for information on more than 15,000 of the website’s hosts in New York City. The subpoenas were issued as part of Schneiderman’s campaign to enforce a 2010 New York law that took effect last year, clamping down ...

BrandVerity’s Latest Study on the Use (and Abuse) of Branded Keywords in Paid Search

by Greg Duff in Hotel Development. Posted July 23, 2015

Our friends (and former contributors) at Seattle-based BrandVerity produced an infographic showing that the average hotel brand is losing 26,500 website visitors on direct web traffic each month, leading to a real loss in revenue as these bookings are made elsewhere. Their findings are based on the information found in the hotel selection of their quarterly report on The State of Branded Keywords ...

Competition & Markets Authority Recommendations for Online Reviews

by John Crosetto in Risk Management. Posted July 18, 2015

The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), which investigates business practices and enforces anti-competition and consumer protection legislation in the UK, just released a report and call for information that signals more scrutiny for online reviews and endorsements. Though the report does not identify companies or sites that will be the subject of investigation, it expresses a ...

Keeping Your Undocumented Employees Authorized for Employment

by Gregg Rodgers in Human Resources, Legal. Posted May 15, 2015

In today’s post, Gregg Rodgers, Chair of GSB’s Immigration Practice Group and member of our Hospitality, Travel & Tourism practice team, provides us with the latest updates regarding the federal processes that authorize employment for certain undocumented persons. In my previous blog post, I discussed how recent Presidential Executive Actions had made it possible for certain people who reside in ...

The Challenges that Hotel Brands Face in Paid Search

by Sam Engel in Hotel Development, Lodging, Technology. Posted May 6, 2015

When you type the name of a hotel brand into a search engine, you’ll probably encounter a large number of text ads placed by online travel agencies (OTAs). Bidding and placing ads on variations of hotel brand names is a very common practice and has even led some in the hospitality industry to refer to ...

Don’t Forget Copiers, Scanners and Fax Machines in Your Data Security Program

by Benjamin Lambiotte in Legal, Safety & Security, Technology. Posted March 23, 2015

Current generation multifunction printer/scanner/copier devices are convenient, inexpensive, and very popular. Often overlooked is the fact that most modern printers, copiers, and scanners have many of the same attributes of computers, and are just as vulnerable to the same kind of cyber exploits and attacks as computers. A truly comprehensive data security and privacy risk ...

How Does the NLRB’s Ruling on Non-Business Use of Email Affect Your Business?

by Victoria Slade in Human Resources. Posted March 4, 2015

As you may have heard, the NLRB recently ruled that employees who are given access to their employer’s email system for their jobs must be permitted to use that email system during nonworking time to engage in protected activity, such as forming a union or discussing terms and conditions of employment. This ruling applies to ...

Full Disclosure: The Impact of New Food-Labeling Regulations

by Dan Vecchio in Food & Beverage, Hotel Development. Posted January 5, 2015

What is the impact of the FDA’s New Food-Labeling Regulations? The new rules cover any restaurant or “retail food establishment” selling “restaurant-type food.” Does that include the wide array of retail and hospitality businesses, including bakeries, cafeterias, coffee shops, convenience stores? Dan Vecchio, a litigator in our Seattle office, has been watching the latest developments. ...

Guest Room Privacy and the Fourth Amendment

by Roger Hillman in Legal, Lodging. Posted September 25, 2014

Hotels are faced with a delicate balancing act when it comes to maintaining guest privacy. Hotel staff must comply with police investigations when noncompliance would constitute obstruction of justice. At the same time, hotel employees must recognize their guests’ Fourth Amendment right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. If hotel employees comply with ...

Hotel Rebranding: Time for a Change?

by Claire Hawkins in Hotel Development, Legal, Lodging. Posted June 17, 2014

Is hotel re-branding trending, and is that a further sign of the recovering lodging industry? There have been a number of announced changes in hotel names and brands in the last few months, and while this may or may not signify an economic uptick, you can be assured that there has been a lot of ...

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