Hotels, hospitality & leisure

Our team has expertise in Hotels, hospitality & leisure that is rare for the Russian legal market. We represent our clients, including hotel property owners and international hotel operators, and provide comprehensive support in their projects.

We have a deep understanding of the industry and extensive experience in real estate, urban planning, and intellectual property. This combined experience allows us to provide comprehensive services for structuring and supporting projects in this area, identifying and minimising our clients’ risks.

Areas of Expertise

• Legal structuring of projects considering the specifics of urban zoning and other issues of real estate ownership
• Representing investors in negotiations with international hotel operators and international hotel operators in negotiations with hotel owners
• Drafting, performing legal review of and negotiating hotel management agreements and franchising agreements under Russian and English law
• Advising on construction, reconstruction, real estate transactions and the operation of cultural heritage sites in hotel projects
• Legal structuring of third-party ownership of commercial premises in hotel projects managed/branded by a hotel operator
• Advising on issues related to the rights to the hotel operator’s brand for the hotel’s operations

Recent projects

• Representing the owner of a building (which includes hotel premises and non-residential apartments) in negotiations with Accor, an international hotel operator. Full legal support of: aligning the hotel management agreement and related agreements with Russian law and negotiating the agreements, legal structuring of apartment transfers, drafting agreements and related documents governing management of the apartments by Accor
• Providing overall legal support for the investment project for reconstruction of a building as a hotel complex in St. Petersburg’s historic centre on Voznesenky Prospekt, including drafting and negotiating the agreements for hotel management by an international hotel operator
• Providing overall support for the transaction to buy and sell an apartment hotel in central St. Petersburg. The hotel was built under a lease agreement on investment terms for adaptation as a five-star hotel
• Advising an international independent hotel operator on the legal justification for the hotel owner repudiating four (4) hotel management contracts in Sochi
• Advising on structuring the relationship and management of one of the first apartment hotels in St. Petersburg; advising on the transaction to acquire an industrial site in St. Petersburg’s historic centre for redevelopment and further housing construction
• Advising on structuring the participants’ relationship in a project to adapt a federal cultural heritage site as a five-star hotel with apartments on the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg (including international hotel operator Capella Hotels and Resorts)
• Providing legal support in selecting and acquiring the rights to land plots for construction of a hotel chain in different regions of Russia for a major Italian hotel operator

Rankings

Kommersant

• Tourism and sports. Resolution of key disputes in the industry. Federal ranking (Band 1: 2023)
• Tourism and sports. Advising industry leaders. Federal ranking (Band 1: 2023)