Understanding Legal Issues in

the MEEC Industry

prepared by: Rose Ann Cua

Negotiation
Is the process by which a meeting planner and a
hotel representative reach an agreement on the
terms and conditions that will govern their
relationship before, during, and after meeting,
convention, exposition, or event.

 While many believe that the goal of a negotiation

is to create a win-win situation, in fact the real
winner may be the party who is better
prepared entering the negotiation and who has a
good idea of what he or she wants.

 Many hoteliers, particularly those who have

been in the industry for many years, sum up
meeting negotiations with this simple maxim:
Dates, rates, and space you can only have
two Following this maxim, the planner can get
the dates and meeting space he or she wants for
a meeting but may have to give a little on the
rate.

 In reality, what is negotiable includes not only

space, room rates, and meeting dates but also
such things as complimentary room ratios, cutoff
dates. Rates after cutoff, attrition or cancellation
clauses, meeting or exhibit space rental, comp
suites, staff rates, limo service, audiovisual rates,
VIP amenities, parking fees, and food and
beverage provision.

One Negotiator has offered these tips:

Do you Homework:
Keep your eyes on the prize:
Leave something on the table:
Do not be the first one to make an offer:
Bluff, but do not lie:
When there is a roadblock, Find a more creative
path:
Timing is everything:
Listen, Listen, Listen : and do not get emotional.

If a meeting planner is going to successfully

negotiate with a hotel, the planner should:
Understand the competitive marketplace in
which the hotel operates, for instance, its
strengths, weaknesses, and occupancy patters.
Understand how a hotel evaluates business.
Understand the meeting in its perspective,
using detailed information to support this
approach.

To understand how a hotel approaches a meeting

negotiation, the planner must first know about
the hotel. Some of the necessary information is
obvious.
Location. Is the hotel downtown, near an
airport, or close to a convention center?
Type. Is the hotel a resort with a golf course,
tennis court, and other amenities? Is it a
conevention hotel with a great deal of meeting
space or a small venue with limited meeting
facilities?

Information
As indicated, a hotel may base its evaluation of a
meeting, especially one its has never hosted
before, on its perception of the industry or
profession represented by the meeting sponsor.
Thus the sponsor can counter any negative
impressions, or buttress positive ones, by
providing the hotel with as much information as
possible on the sponors meeting history.

The planner should:

o Sleeping rooms
o Meeting rooms
o Catered rooms
o Equipment rental
o Business services
o Recreational events
o Historical information on group

Data comes in two forms

Hard
Soft

Flexibility
A planner can also gain some bargaining
leverage with a hotel by being flexible in his or
her request.

Contracts
Is an agreement between two or more persons
consisting of a promise or mutual promises
which the law will enforce, or the performance of
which the law recognized as a duty.

 A contract need not be called a contract but can

referred to as an agreement, a letter of
agreement, a memorandum of understanding,
and sometimes a letter of intent or a proposal.
Following are the essential of a contract:
An offer by one party
The acceptance of the offer as presented
The consideration

Offers can be terminated prior to

acceptance in one of several ways:
At the expiration of a specified time
At the expiration of a reasonable time period
On specific revocation by the offeror

 A rejection of the offer by the offeree or the

proposal of a counteroffer terminates the
original offer, but a request for additional
information about the offer is not construed as a
rejection of the offer.

 Often, a meeting contract proposal from a hotel

will contain a specified termination period for
the offer, these offers are usually couched in the
phrase tentative first option or in similar
wording. Because the meeting sponsor pays or
promises nothing for this option it is nothing
more that a contract offer, which must be
specifically accepted by the meeting planner.

 In a meeting context, the hotel or other venue is usually

the offeror that is, the written agreement is generally
proposed after some preliminary negotiation by the
hotel.
In order for an offer to be accepted, the acceptance
must be unequivocal and in the same terms as the offer.
Any deviation from the offers terms is not acceptance,
it is a counteroffer, which must then be accepted by the
original offeror in order for a valid contract to exist.

 Acceptance must be communicated to the

offeror using the same means as the offeror
used. In other words, if the offer is made in
writing, the acceptance must be in writing. Mere
silence on the part of the offeree is never
construed as acceptance.
As indicated, consideration is the price
negotiated and paid for the agreement.

Following general rules will help with the negotiation of a

meeting contract:

Go into the Negotiations with a plan.

Always go into a contract Negotiation with an alternative
location or service provider in mind.
Do not assume anything.
Be specific.
Beware of language that sounds acceptable but is not
specific.
Do not accept something just because it is preprinted on
the contract or the proposal is given to you by the other
party.
Read the small print.
Look for mutuality in the contracts provisions.

In addition to theses general rules apllicable to all

contract negotiations, there are some special rules about
hotel contracts that should also be kept in mind

Remember that a meeting contract provides a

package of funds to a hotel.
Never sign a contract in which major items are
left to future negotiation.
Specify special room rates- such as for staff and
speakers- and indicate any upgrades for them.
Remember that while it is preferable to have
specific meeting and function rooms designated
in the contract.

Provide the ability to cancel a meeting without penalty or

damages if:

Hotel ownership, management, or brand

affiliation .
The meeting outgrows hotel space or
substanially shrinks in size.
The hotel does not perform satisfactorily at an
earlier meeting.

Every meeting contract should contain the

following provision, usually as the introductory
paragraph:
This agreement dated______is between (official
legal name of entity), a (name of state)
(corporation) (partnership) doing business as
(name of hotel) and having its principal place of
business at ( address of contracting party, not
hotel ) and (name of meeting sponsor), a (name
of state) (partnership) and having its principal
place of business at (name of meeting sponsor).

Attrition clauses
Clauses dealing with attrition provide for the payment
of damages to the hotel when a meeting sponsor fails to
fully utilize the room block specified in the contract.
Most hotels regard the contracted room block as a
commitment by the meeting sponsor to fill the number
of room nights specified. However, in at least one case,
a court determined that the room block did not
represent a commitment by the meeting sponsor: that
decision was predicated, in part, on contract language
that indicated that room reservations would be made
by individuals and not the meeting sponsor.

Cancellation Provision
Provides for damages should the meeting be
canceled for reasons other than those specified,
either in the same clause or in the termination
provision. More often than not, this provision in a
hotel-provided agreement is one-sided- it provides
damage to the hotel in the event the meeting
sponsor cancels.

Termination
Sometimes called a force majeure or act of god
clause, the termination provision permits either
party to terminate the contract without damages
if fulfillment of the obligations imposed in the
agreement is rendered impossible by
occurrences outside the control of either party.

 Inappropriate or impractical situation

referred to in the discussion of cancellation
provisions. However, many hotels seek to limit
termination to situations where performance
becomes illegal or impossible, so some
negotiation is usually required.

Risk all risk falls into the following four

categories:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Contractual risk
Operational risk
Negligent occurrence
Act of god

Americans with Disabilities Act

Federal legislation makes it illegal to
discriminate against or fail to accommodate
people with disabilities. The legislation resulted
in passage of the AMERICANS WITH
Disabilities Act (ADA), which places
responsibility on the owners and operators of
public facilities to make reasonable
accommodations for people with any types of
disabilities.

Intellectual Property
Many meetings and trade shows feature events at which music is
played, either by live musicians or through the use of prerecorded
CDs.
Music may be provided as a background or as a primary focus of
attention. At trade shows, individual exhibitors as well as the
sponsoring organization can provide music.
Regardless of how music is provided, it is important to remember
that under the federal copyright act, the music is being performed ,
and according to many court decisions, the organization sponsoring
the event is considered to be controlling the
performance.

Recording or videotaping of speakers

An organization sponsoring a meeting will often
want to make audio or video recordings of
certain speakers or programs, either for the
purpose of selling copies to those who could not
attend or for archival purpose.

 Speakers or program participants have a

common law copyright interest in their
presentations, and the law prohibits the
sponsoring organization from selling audio or
video copies of any presentation without
obtaining the written permission of the
presenter.

 Permission can be obtained by having each

speaker whose session is to be recorded sign a
copyright waiver, a simple document
acknowledging that the speakers session is
going to be recorded and giving the sponsoring
organization permission to sell the recordings
made of the speakers presentation.

Ethics
1. The study of standards of conduct and moral
judgment, moral philosophy.
2. The system or code of morals of a particular
philosopher, religion, group, profession.etc..

THANK YOU !!!