Zeidel & Associates Creates and Maintains COVID-19-Related Waivers for National Third-Party Management Company

Situation

Zeidel & Associates represents one of the most respected third-party management hotel companies in the country, which currently manages more than 80 hotels. The management company, like all other hospitality companies worldwide, was impacted suddenly and severely by COVID-19 and was forced to implement major layoffs, pay cuts and other cost-saving measures. As new legislation related to hotel operations was quickly passed, our client wanted to ensure it complied with the complex and rapidly evolving legal landscape related to hotel operations and government “shut-down” orders implemented across the country. Our client quickly became overwhelmed with the large number of federal, state, and local requirements and directives and needed guidance on which of its hotels were permitted to remain open as an “essential service” and under what conditions and stipulations.

Approach

Zeidel & Associates’ client did not have the expertise or manpower to determine whether a guest was permitted to stay in its hotels by qualifying as an essential worker or meeting other criteria. Accordingly, it was decided that each guest would be required to confirm in writing that he/she was there for a permitted purpose under applicable laws and waive any claims against the hotel as a result of the guest’s noncompliance. The attorneys at Zeidel & Associates needed to research the voluminous and rapidly evolving legal requirements applicable to each locale where our client managed hotels in order to draft appropriate waivers that accurately referenced applicable regulations and that adhered to the general legal requirements for waivers. This, however, was not a single assignment. Throughout the pandemic, with constantly changing requirements and mandates, our client needed a legal partner who could quickly respond with new waivers and counsel to ensure ongoing compliance, mitigation of risk, and safety of its employees and guests.

Solution

Initially, we drafted waiver forms, tailored to the requirements of each state and local jurisdiction, that each guest was required to sign when checking into a hotel. This accomplished our client’s goal of creating a written record in case of enforcement by legal authorities. As the crisis evolved, so did the legal requirements affecting our client. As stay-at-home orders were replaced with re-opening guidelines that included social distancing, masks, physical barriers, and indoor capacity limits, which had little to no consistency between states or even between counties within the same state, new waivers were needed.

The waivers we originally created needed to be updated with the changing legal landscape, including increased activities and other reopening considerations, such as outdoor dining and small weddings and other events, which the hotels wanted for much-needed additional revenue.

We efficiently analyzed local ordinances that supplemented and were sometimes inconsistent with governors’ executive orders or city regulations or vice versa. For example, California established a “Blueprint for a Safer Economy,” which laid out opening requirements for various activities, including private events, based on a tier/rating system of COVID-19 positivity rates in a county, while at the same time counties such as Los Angeles and San Francisco imposed additional requirements. Therefore, these waivers could not be templated or customized by each of the hotels, so Zeidel & Associates handled all of the research and guidance to develop waiver forms that were specifically tailored to each local jurisdiction, which we updated regularly to reflect evolving requirements.

The magnitude and complexity of this project made it impossible for the hotel management company to navigate and implement without outside support. To date for this client, Zeidel & Associates has drafted waivers for 14 states and numerous local jurisdictions within each state.