Barclay Grayson is a senior vice president with BPM Real Estate Group in Portland, Oregon, where he directs wide-ranging development and investment activities. An established presence in the Portland community, Barclay Grayson has attended the annual Meet the Money conference, which focuses on hotel financing and investment.
A 2019 Meet the Money session on the topic of “Legal hotspots: The essentials every hotelier should know” brought focus to key areas in which hotel owners need to exercise caution. They include neutrality agreements, which are also known as labor-peace agreements, and are typically arranged with labor organizations in tandem with city governments. They cover aspects of operations such as wages, salaries, and bonuses, and are negotiated as a starting point to other regulatory aspects of launching a hotel, such as credit enhancements and entitlements.
Another topic covered in the 2019 session was hotel exposure to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims. One emerging area of focus is meeting ADA website compliance requirements, which mandate that those who are mobility-impaired should be able to book a room online in the same way as those who do not require an accessible room. Another aspect of this equation is ensuring that those with visual impairments are able to use screen-reader software to book rooms on the hotel website.
