The hotels and tourism sectors have experienced regular cycles of growth and development since the 1950s, but remain highly sensitive to the wider economic climate, and to trends in consumer spending. 


Today there are many challenges, as much geopolitical in nature as social, managerial, financial or even environmental. To assist you in meeting these challenges, CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre offers an approach based on an in-depth knowledge of your business sector, on synergies between our offices and those of other CMS firms, and on the practical and legal expertise of our lawyers.

Our Practice Areas

Whether you are a hotel operator, investment fund, real estate company, institutional investor, private equity concern or a family operation, you need to adapt to a world undergoing rapid change. The issues that arise in this changing environment relate to public law, economic regulation, taxation, real estate, business law or employment law. In order to give you practical and pro-active advice, our lawyers offer expertise in a number of specific areas:

• Negotiation of hotel contracts (management agreements, franchises, lease management) 
• Outsourcing operations (sale & lease-back and sale & management-back) 
• Hotel leases 
• Hotel taxation 
• Law relating to hotel real estate 
• Hotel regulation
• Joint ventures 
• Fund structuring 
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Hotel financing

Our approach

To guarantee you first class legal and tax expertise, our lawyers specialising in the hotels and tourism sector can rely on a multidisciplinary team with expertise in all areas of the law. They also work in close, regular collaboration with economists and specialist consultants. Our lawyers are well aware of the business and financial implications of their recommendations, and are committed to:

• Taking your strategy into account, and assessing the economic stakes of the steps they advise you to take;
• Bringing you effective and constructive help in the various stages of development of your transactions, and in negotiations;
• Advising you from a dynamic, long-term on both national and international levels.

Our clients

Organisations within the hotels and tourism sector are highly varied. We work as much with hotel operators, holiday villages and resorts as with tour operators, passenger transport or vehicle rental companies, restaurants and public or semi-public bodies. We support them all in their national or international operations, through teams working seamlessly with our various offices and those of other CMS members.

We guarantee high levels of service and professional ethics to all our clients, giving reliable advice tailored to their objectives

Our team

As every matter is different, we create ad hoc teams, made up of specialists in business and competition law, employment law and tax law, with excellent knowledge of the hotels and leisure sector. Each team is coordinated by a partner, who provides you with a single point of contact and guarantees quality of service, both generally and in relation to conflicts of interest and billing. 


All teams work in close collaboration with our expert lawyers based in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.