It’s a common practice in some destinations across the country whereby hotel staff will call other properties to check occupancy levels and rates. However, MLTA recently learned that such “call arounds” are coming under increased scrutiny by a variety of state attorneys general.
The AGs believe such phone calls can be “a potentially anticompetitive practice in which competing hotels exchange current room rate and occupancy information that can be used to fix prices.”Such activities can be judged to be a per se’ violation of state or federal anti-trust laws.
Here’s an excerpt from recent news article in which Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, characterized his action as "a wake-up call to the entire hotel industry -- signaling that ‘call-arounds’ to set room prices are illegal and must be stopped."
MLTA suggests that you proceed with caution if you are considering engaging in this practice. While we understand that this practice might be legal, and under certain circumstances is clearly legal, we believe that it can create serious risks and that it is inadvisable to engage in this practice without the advice of legal counsel.
In short, when dealing with state or federal anti-trust laws, it is better to be safe than sorry!
Lodging Industry Targeted By Dept. of Labor Urge Your Members of Congress to Demand End to Assault
Washington, D.C., June 21, 2010 – The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association have learned that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is planning an initiative that specifically targets every hotel, motel and resort in the United States for audits by the department’s Wage and Hour Division. This is a federal threat arising from Washington DC.
Without contacting AH&LA or providing any justification, DOL has labeled the lodging industry as a “high-risk industry” where violations of federal wage and hour laws are most likely to occur. The department has chosen to consider employees in the lodging industry as “the most vulnerable workers” in the country. As a result, you will be subject to a DOL audit, covering all of your employees.
Despite the lack of contact by DOL, AH&LA learned of the department’s plans and is currently seeking more information from DOL on why the actions are being taken and attempting to further inform the department about the true nature of our industry and its practices.
We need you to contact your members of Congress today.
They need to hear from as many hoteliers as possible that these actions by the Department of Labor are not justified and that they need to contact the department on your behalf to insist that they be stopped.
It only takes two minutes to make a huge difference.
MLTA members with 51 rooms or more are automatically members of AH&LA and can immediately proceed to AH&LA’s grassroots website. Hoteliers can contact their House and Senate lawmakers by taking action through AH&LA’s hotelLOBBY grassroots Website. You can quickly send your legislators a short message stating your strong opposition to DOL’s actions and asking them to help.
MLTA members with 50 rooms or less are not automatically members of the AH&LA, but can still contact their members of Congress by clicking here. Fill out the form and a dialog box will open in which you can cut and paste the letter below. Even properties that are not members of MLTA should get involved by using the access point in this paragraph and the letter below.
I have learned that the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is in the planning stages of a “Hotel and Motel Resort Pilot Initiative.” I understand that DOL has decided without justification to label the lodging industry (along with a few other selected industries) as a “high risk” industry and target hoteliers with audits, penalties, sanctions and other actions.
As a citizen, an employer and voter, I am outraged about this assault. Not only do I provide jobs to many workers, I pay them a good wage and benefits in a good working environment.
Despite the recession which has hit the lodging industry harder than most, I have struggled to keep as many of my employees on the job as possible. In doing so, I comply with all the burdensome federal laws and regulations that are mandated in order to provide those jobs.
DOL’s actions are an outright attack against me and my industry. I urge you to contact the White House and the Department of Labor and demand that they end their attack against the lodging industry and explain why they considered those actions in the first place.
I respectfully request that you please provide me with a copy of your correspondence to the Department of Labor and White House and their responses as soon as possible.
Serving the needs of Michigan’s Lodging & Tourism Industries….
Term Limits Impact to be Dramatic
On December 31, 2010 Michigan’s Governor, twenty nine members of the thirty eight memberState Senate and thirty four members of the 110 member House of Representatives will be termed out of office.This represents a huge loss of institutional knowledge about Michigan tourism in general, and the importance of Pure Michigan funding specifically.
Amidst all the primary campaigns, and media coverage of partisan politics, MLTA is still actively involved in monitoring and acting on legislation affecting your future.Here’s a brief summary of legislative positions taken by MLTA’s Board of Directors at their June 10th meeting:
Pure Michigan Funding remains Top MLTA Priority
Passage of legislation providing consistent annual state funding of at least $30 million for Pure Michigan continuesto be MLTA’s topmost priority.At its June meeting MLTA’s Board embraced a proposal to keep the issue of Pure Michigan funding high on the Legislature’s list of priorities.
Michigan’s Constitution requires that the State’s budget be adopted on or before October 1, 2010.That means that our industry must keep this issue in front of the current legislators who will determine the 2011 budget for Pure Michigan.At the same time we must educate candidates on the issue of Pure Michigan funding who are running to replace termed-out policymakers at all levels.It is essential that we keep this issue in front of the media and the general public as well.To do that, we must work to make the issue of full and permanent Pure Michigan funding part of the conversation in all campaigns for Governor, Senate, or the House.
It is equally important that MLTA position itself to maintain and grow its current small base of members.All of this must be accomplished within the confines of MLTA’s limited financial and staff resources.
“Pure Michigan Mondays” to air on Major Radio Stations
To achieve this, MLTA’s Board voted to invest $10,000 and to seek industry partners to match this investment to buy radio ads designed to educate policymakers and build support for passage of legislation providing full and permanent funding of a year-round and nationwide Pure Michigan campaign.The ads will run on two of the state’s biggest stations and radio networks and will be produced by two of Michigan’s most well-known radio personalities.Stay tuned for additional news on this initiative. MLTA works creatively and tirelessly for you!
MACVB pursues legislation to amend PA 59
The Michigan Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (MACVB) plans to initiate legislation which would amend the statutory cap on the assessment from 2% to 5%.MACVB has retained a multi-client lobbyist and is in the process of securing a legislative sponsor for this proposed legislation.In recent weeks, MACVB has requested all member CVB Directors to approach their respective Boards of Directors to seek adoption of resolutions of support or neutrality on this proposed legislation.If enacted into law, any increase in a CVB’s assessment would still be subject to a referendum of local hoteliers.
MLTA’s Board voted unanimously to adopt a position of neutrality on this legislative proposal unless the legislation is amended to redirect funds to purposes other than local community destination marketing, or in such a way that would present a clear and obvious threat to full and permanent funding of Pure Michigan.
Great LakesBay Region’s CVB – HB 6206
The Saginaw County CVB, and the Midland and Bay County CVBs hope to merge operations and create a jointly-funded tri-county convention and visitor bureau.Legislation has been introduced to achieve this end.HB 6206 moves away from the bed tax approach originally proposed to legislation which authorizes Bay and Midland counties to increase their room assessments from 2% to 5%.
The legislation mirrors PA 59, 1984 with several exceptions: 1) It narrowly defines (by population) municipalities contiguous to a hotel tax county (PA 263) that appears to include only Bay and Midland Counties; 2) does not require a majority of innkeepers on their board of directors; 3) must have a full time CEO, two employees and 5 years of existence; 4) also defines ‘Director’ as the CEO of the MEDC; 5) defines transient lodging facility as having 2 or more rooms; 6) defines a 1.5% per month interest on overdue assessments and a 10% per month delinquency charge for assessments over 90 days.The proposed legislation does not appear to require a referendum by local hoteliers before going into effect.
MLTA’s Board unanimously voted that the association should adopt a position of neutrality on HB 6206 unless the legislation is amended to extend beyond its current limited geographic scope or in such a way that would present a clear and obvious threat to full and permanent funding of Pure Michigan.
SB 1204 - Public Act 82, 2010 was signed into law by Governor Granholm deleting the ‘fourth class city’ language from PA 59, 1984 and allowing the opportunity for Mackinac Island to create a 2% room assessment district. The Act further amends the reference to ‘Director’ being the Director of the (extinct) Department of Commerce and changing it to ‘President of the Michigan Strategic Fund’ which is the President of the MEDC (Greg Main).
Similar to the positions adopted above, MLTA took a position of neutrality on this legislation, and would have opposed the bill only if it had presented a clear and obvious threat to full and permanent funding of Pure Michigan.
Save the Dates!
Friday, August 27th
MLTA Government Affairs Golf Outing
Timber Ridge Golf Club
Wednesday, September 22nd
Michigan Lodging and Tourism Legislative Conference
