1.  Do you sometimes feel as though you are living through some familiar reruns?  Or as Yogi Berra said �It�s déjà vu all over again�?  When the large franchise companies trumpet the headline �Reorganization Aims to Improve Licensee Services�, it usually means to cull those properties that �are not meeting quality standards�.  My impertinent questions are seeking pertinent answers:

• Will the franchisor give reasonable notice and time for a cure period?
• Will they impose liquidated damages?
• Will they deal on a case-by-case basis to help franchisees come up to speed?
• Will there be special bias against exterior corridor properties?
• Will the franchise advisory councils be involved in these decisions?

3.  When do rebates become kickbacks?  How about the preferred vendor list imposed on franchisees by hotel franchise companies?  Do franchise companies collect rebates from these suppliers, wholesalers and vendors?

4.  Can you believe that Hilton is about to acquire Hilton International in a $6.3 billion deal from the Bristish company Hilton Group Plc?  In what some have called the �worst hotel deal of the century�, Conrad Hilton sold the Hilton International Company to Trans World Airlines in 1967.  Mr. Hilton had previously struck very favorable management contracts with foreign governments to build and manage wonderful hotels in San Juan (Caribe Hilton 1947), Madrid (Castellana Hilton 1953), Mexico City (Continental Hilton 1956), Istanbul (Istanbul Hilton 1957), Bermuda (Castle Harbor, Bermudiana, St. George) and many more.  Believe it or not, the Hilton executive who led the worldwide expansion is Curt Strand who lives in Colorado where he skis and hikes.

5.  Hasn�t the time come for all hotels to provide free high speed Internet access in their guest rooms?  I just returned from the International Society of Hospitality Consultants conference in San Diego where we stayed at the Wyndham Emerald Plaza Hotel.  The cost for in-room HSIA was an exorbitant $12.95 per day.  Columnist Joe Sharkey (On the Road, NY Times) in a 10/11/05 column headed �Resentment Flares Over Fees For Internet Access At Hotels� writes, 
 

6.  In the United States in the summer of 1900:

• Only 14% of the homes had a bathtub
• A three- minute call from Denver to New York cost $11.
• Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California
• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower
• 90% of all U.S. physicians had no college education.  Instead they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as �substandard�.
• There were about 230 reported murders annually
• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 and a mechanical engineer about $5000.
• The American flag had 45 stars.  Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn�t been admitted to the Union yet.

Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC
[email protected]
917-628-8549