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Hotel Leisure & Tourism

Services provided to our clients are delivered by lawyers from a number of different disciplines within the firm all of which have a direct relevance to this business sector.

Because each member of the team is experienced in their own areas of practice, they are able to be proactive in delivering practical advice and assistance to their clients, whatever the client's specific needs may be. 

Business Sales and Purchases

If you are buying or selling a business in this sector our lawyers will guide you through the whole process.  Agreeing initial heads of terms; advising on the terms of any financial arrangements; advising on any employees that may be transferred; helping you in the due diligence and pre contract investigation process; advising on any real estate aspects of the transaction; preparing or approving the contract documentation for the acquisition or disposal of the business, be it the shares in a limited liability company or the trading assets and goodwill.

Where necessary we will work closely with your bank and any other professional advisers involved in the transaction to ensure that the whole process goes as smoothly as possible for you.

Contact Guy Bottard

Planning and Licensing

Planning permission, liquor licensing and site licensing arrangements are an integral part of the regulatory framework within which any hotel, holiday park, caravan park or camping site must operate.  Whether you are buying an existing business or setting up a new one advice in the early stages on the planning aspects of what you are proposing to do can save you time and money later on. 

Our planning team can help you with this and wherever possible to ensure that matters are agreed in principle with the planning authorities before a planning application is formally submitted thus giving the whole process some certainty and avoiding rejection.

If planning is refused we can advise and help you with an appeal, be that by way of written representations or a full blown public enquiry. 

Having some certainty over planning permission for a new project is invaluable for a client who wishes to put forward a business proposal to a potential funder when seeking financial support for their business. 

Hotel restaurant and other leisure facilities are usually licensed to sell alcohol and owners may require help on liquor licensing. We can provide specialist advice to overcome hurdles that you may encounter with the local authority in making your application for licensing arrangements.  If in doubt, consult us before making your application to avoid having it delayed or rejected altogether.

Contact Nadine Seymour for planning and Clive Williamson for Licensing

Development and Land Acquisition

Land acquisition for the purposes of establishing new facilities needs careful planning and specialist advice taken at an early stage regarding the location, size and construction proposed can help make the process proceed smoothly to completion, avoid delays in construction brought about by delays in planning or building regulation consent.  Our legal specialists are at your disposal to help with this process and save you time and money.

Contact Nadine Seymour

Employment

Whether you employ 2 or 200 you have a responsibility to get your employment contracts and procedures right.  Failure to do so could ruin your business. 

Stones professional team of employment lawyers understand the pressures of hiring and firing during the holiday season and that seasonal staff come and go throughout the year with a varied degree of reliability.  However, are you aware of all the regulations surrounding the rights of your employees, even the seasoned workers?

Stones BOLDER service is accessible and affordable for businesses of all sizes providing a complete employment law service.

Business employment advice;

Online access to forms and precedents;

Legal advice from qualified lawyers;

Dedicated free phone confidential help line (direct to lawyers, no call centre);

Employment Tribunal representation;

Review of employment documents and procedures;

The average unfair dismissal claim is £8,000 with discrimination claims averaging £13,500 plus your own legal costs of at least £7,500 plus VAT. 

Can you afford not to be covered by BOLDER?

Contact Terry Falcao

Intellectual Property and Information Technology

A business may spend time in building goodwill that is associated with a particular design or logo.  Unless you protect this, you could find yourself in a situation where somebody else is using a similar or identical trade get up or logo but because they have registered it as a trade mark they could force you to stop using your long established unregistered marks and make you rebrand at considerable expense to your business.

We can advise and help you to register marks at the UK Intellectual Property Office or if you have no marks at present, we can assist you in preparing and designing a mark specifically with a view to having it registered as a trade mark once it has been drawn up.  The use of certain marks and certain words can be difficult to register as trade marks and seeking early advice on this can save you from wasting time and money.  Stones' specialists in this area will be happy to guide you.

Most businesses have a website on which they advertise and take enquiries and bookings. There is a complex legal framework governing the information you must provide to users of your website, particularly when offering goods and services, and if you fail to comply you can find that your terms of business are void and that you are liable for a fine. The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) governs the processing of personal data, which includes, for example, the information that is taken when a person books a hotel room. Stones offers specialist advice on your duties under all e-commerce laws and the DPA.

Contact Hywel Walters

Contractual Matters

Any business in this sector will become involved in a variety of contractual relationships. These will range from contracts with customers to bank, supplier, booking and referral agencies, Certification and Accreditation organisations, restaurant pub camping and hotel guides, equipment leasing and hire purchase. 

Our lawyers are experienced in dealing with commercial agreements of all descriptions and if you have any questions or you want some quick advice on a contract, contact one of our team who will be happy to help you.

You will probably need contracts drawn up for use in your own business, and again one of our team will be glad to help you with this.

Contact Guy Bottard