![\"\"](\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/hl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/contract-hand-shake-clipart-300x300.png\" "\\"contract-hand-shake-clipart\\"")
As the economy worsened and stricter oversight on government contracts were mandated, two pesky clauses became harder and harder to sign for without conversation and friction.\u00a0 Some years ago, more government agencies than not were able to sign almost standard cancellation and attrition clauses.\u00a0 Today, those agencies are in the dissenting minority.\u00a0 And it won\u2019t be long before those days are gone entirely.<\/p>\n
Indeed there is a substantial amount of risk hotels take on when entering into contracts \u2013 er, letters of agreement with the government.\u00a0 The government can cancel for convenience and the government shall take no liability when it comes to meeting their room performance obligations.\u00a0 So it begs the question, what can hotels do to mitigate their risk at least a little.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had success with softening the \u201cno cancellation, no attrition\u201d argument in a few ways.\u00a0For cancellation, agencies are still apt to sign non-binding rebooking clauses.\u00a0 In essence, there\u2019s no more legal liability here than if the contract were written to say, \u201cThe government can cancel for any reason without compensating the hotel any more notably than saying `nanny nanny boo boo\u2019\u201d and yet, hotel management is still often appeased by the general assurance of future business.\u00a0 All kidding aside, agencies who sign rebooking clauses, in good faith, more often than not will make good on this promise<\/p>\n
In the case of attrition, there\u2019s potentially even more hope for the hotel sales professional.\u00a0 While agencies are wary about signing for attrition because it may hold the government liable to pay for goods or services not rendered, there\u2019s hardly ever any buzz about the government signing for meeting room rental.\u00a0 Even egregiously high meeting room rentals.\u00a0 In this case, tying room rental to room performance by using a sliding scale is a wily way around the nuisance of an attrition clause and nearly satisfying it precisely.<\/p>\n
These solutions are likely not permanent, I caution.\u00a0 Scrutiny on government contracts will likely get even more fervent in the coming months and years \u2013 it just begs for increased creativity on the part of the hotel sales professional.\u00a0 That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the economy worsened and stricter oversight on government contracts were mandated, two pesky clauses became harder and harder to sign for without conversation and friction.\u00a0 Some years ago, more government agencies than not were able to sign almost standard cancellation and attrition clauses.\u00a0 Today, those agencies are in the dissenting minority.\u00a0 And it won\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n