Hotels and restaurants
Hotels and restaurants concentrate every area of business law on a single asset: a business, premises, a brand, large teams and a volatile clientele, under the gaze of platforms that capture both bookings and reputation.
We separate what the market conflates, the premises, the business and the brand: it is in how they fit together (lease, franchise, management agreement) that the value of an establishment is determined, and that its disputes are won.
Every week, the operator has to balance commercial, employment and contractual matters: a platform commission rate it did not negotiate, a lease coming up for renewal with an institutional landlord who knows the market better than a single operator, a devastating review at the top of the establishment’s listing. It deserves an adviser who sees these three fronts together.
Your experience
The rental value used by the tax authorities to calculate property tax and the business property contribution (cotisation foncière des entreprises) is rarely accurate for this type of premises, and once an error is in place it is carried forward every year until someone challenges it.
A large and often seasonal workforce multiplies the points of friction: reclassification of contracts, undeclared overtime, mass Employment Tribunal (conseil de prud’hommes) litigation as soon as an establishment restructures.
Our expertise
We review the rental values used by the tax authorities and challenge their errors.
We manage day-to-day employment exposure, from advice on the employment statuses specific to the sector to defence in litigation, and we negotiate leases knowing which of their mandatory provisions actually work in the operator’s favour.
We audit contracts with OTAs (Booking, Expedia) to rebalance commission clauses, and we choose between lease, franchise and management agreement according to the operator’s actual structure rather than a standard model. On the employment side, we anticipate the reclassification of seasonal contracts before it turns into mass Employment Tribunal litigation.
Consolidation continues, driven by specialist funds that buy entire portfolios and shift the risk to the operator. European law on intermediaries is finally making the balance of power with the major booking platforms negotiable. And environmental constraints are turning the energy performance of buildings into a matter of valuation as much as of leases: three fronts on which the advantage will go to those who negotiate well armed.
