Its been a while since I have sourced anything or reviewed a contract, but about a year and half ago, hotels were requiring a separate COVID clause as they didn't want it to be included or they didn't believe that it should be included in the Force Majeure clause. We had standard clauses for the force majeure because they vary greatly from hotel to hotel and some are not mutual and only protect the hotel.
With that said, I wouldn't ever sign a contract without a force majeure clause in it. That is a bad practice on the hotel's part because most don't use force majeure unless it falls within the guidelines of the clause. Good example was when there were airline cancellations that were not necessarily directed to the airport closest to our event, however, the cancellations caused over 50% of our attendees to be stranded or they weren't able to attend the conference. This is outside everyone's control. We enacted force majeure for out client so they wouldn't be hit with attrition.
On a side note, many organizations use force majeure as their cancellation policy. Force Majeure doesn't replace the event cancellation policy that should be purchased to cover the event/organization in the event there is a cancellation.
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Lindsay Buchanan
Meetings Management Consultant
Intent Strategy Group (A Division of M&IW)
M +1 262.488.4537
lbuchanan@meetings-incentives.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 04-14-2022 14:35
From: Jacqueline Ward, CMP
Subject: Post Pandemic Hotel Contracts - The Demise of Force Majeure
Before the pandemic, it was standard practice to have a "force majeure" clause in vendor contracts. Have you dealt with a hotel that refuses to add the "force majeure" clause into a new contract? If so, how did you handle it?
#Miscellaneous
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Jacqueline C. Ward, CMP
Director, Continuing Education & Special Events, UNC-Chapel Hill
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