Duff on Hospitality Law

This week’s OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending January 27, 2017 is below. Not a lot of news to report this week; surprisingly little came out of this past week’s Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles.

Our weekly client OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending January 20, 2017 is below. Not a lot of significant developments this past week, but next week’s Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles may produce a few interesting announcements. If you are attending ALIS and interested in connecting, shoot me an email.

Our weekly OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending January 13, 2017 is below. This week’s update offers something from everyone.

Our first client OTA & Travel Distribution Update for 2017 is below. Not a lot to report this week, so we will keep the Update short.

• • Short-Term Rentals’ Share of Lodging Industry Expected to Continue Growing [Short-Term Rentals]. In the latest report attempting to predict the long-term effect of short-term rentals on the lodging industry, financial analyst Susquehanna International Group (SIG) predicts that by 2018 short-term rentals will make up nearly 20% of the overall global lodging market. SIG further predicts that Booking.com and Expedia (and their broad range of offerings, including short-term rentals) stand the most to gain from the continued growth in the short-term rental industry.

My final client OTA & Travel Distribution Update for 2016 is below. It has been a quite week in the world of distribution. Here’s to a 2017 filled with much success and happiness. Happy New Year.

Loyalists More Likely to Use Airbnb [SHORT-TERM RENTALS]. According to a December 22 report issued by Morgan Stanley, hotel loyalty program members are the most frequent users of Airbnb. Apparently, this phenomenon remains true even if you consider the fact that Airbnb users are likely to be those that travel most frequently. Just imagine what might happen if Airbnb created an effective loyalty program . . .

Our weekly client OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the short week ending December 22, 2016 is below. This week’s update is brief one.

Long-Awaited Outcome to US Airways Suit Is Finally Here [GDS]. A federal jury found last week following an 8-week trial that Sabre had restrained trade by forcing unfavorable contract terms on its supplier, US Airways, and awarded US Airways $15 million in damages. At issue were the terms and conditions contained in Sabre’s GDS contract, including the contract’s “full content” provision that required US Airways to provide Sabre access to all of US Airways’ seats. 

This week’s OTA and Travel Distribution Update for the week ending December 16, 2016 is below. This week’s Update contains an update on one important recent court decision involving OTAs.

California Supreme Court Issues a Potentially Troubling Opinion [OTA / Tax]. Although I don’t often comment on the multitude of OTA tax decisions issued across the country, I felt that the recent California Supreme Court decision finding (once again) in favor of OTAs warranted some discussion. Although the California Court, like so many courts before it, based its decision on the rather uncontroversial conclusion that the OTAs were not “Operators” (the party expressly obligated to collect the occupancy tax under the applicable San Diego Municipal Code) of the subject hotels, language found elsewhere in the decision caught our attention.

Our weekly client OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending December 9, 2016 is below. Nothing too earth shattering this week, so we will keep things short . . .

Hello all,

With the new year, we plan to post portions of the OTA & Travel Distribution Updates that I prepare and circulate among our hospitality clients each week. Although the posts will be a week or two behind the initial client updates, we hope that the information will nevertheless be relevant to those of you working in the digital marketing / e-commerce / distribution world. We hope you enjoy and benefit from these new posts. Below is the weekly update ending December 2nd, 2016.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Fourteen lawsuits were filed last week against employers at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for paying less than the $15 minimum wage approved by Sea-Tac voters in 2013. Defendants include baggage handling firms, rental car agencies, food-service establishments and logistics firms. These lawsuits have been filed by defendants represented by Attorney Duncan Turner of Badgley Mullins Turner and seek class action status. The lawsuits currently cover about 40 plaintiffs, although Mr. Turner estimates this could grow to 1,500 plaintiffs and that total back-pay sought could be $14 to $21 million.

Alaska Airlines and three other plaintiffs had filed a lawsuit arguing that the Sea-Tac minimum wage should not apply to the airport. The State Supreme Court ruled against them in August, 2015, and in December, 2015 rejected a request to review the case.

If you have any questions about these lawsuits, would like to review a copy of one of the complaints, or would like to discuss applicable wage & hour issues, please feel free to contact Greg Duff.