Hansen Hospitality provides counsel to the world's leading hospitality brands and owners and developers of iconic hotel and residential assets. Founded by Wendy Hansen, we focus exclusively on hotel management, branded residential and food and beverage transactions.
Schedule a ConsultationWe advise hotel owners and brand operators in the negotiation of hotel management and licensing agreements across the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.
Our deep understanding of the financial and operational aspects of running a hotel was honed from years inside an international luxury hotel group that both owned assets and managed for third parties. We understand firsthand which contract provisions enhance the value of the contract for the hotel owner, and which provisions the operator must hold firm to protect the brand.
A hotel management agreement also marks the start of a twenty-plus year relationship. It is not a single transaction where the parties sail off into the sunset upon signing - it takes skill and care to negotiate terms that protect a client without damaging the partnership they'll depend on for years to come.
We guide developers and operators through all phases of the branded residential lifecycle.
Branded residences generate significant sale premiums for developers and help pencil the construction of an adjacent luxury hotel. From the operator’s perspective, residences are now an important component of their business model. They are not just a financial opportunity, however, they are an extension of the brand into their most valued guests’ lifestyle.
We help you negotiate the marketing license, technical services, pre-opening services and property management agreements as well as advise on the governing documents that lay the foundation for the residential structure, enabling the brand promise to be delivered throughout the life of the project.
Hospitality is not just a real estate business; it is an experience business.
Hotel owners and operators recognize that food and beverage is no longer a service tucked beside the front desk - it is often the reason a guest, or a local who never books a room, walks through the door in the first place. Partnering with chefs, restaurateurs, and entertainment operators who bring their name, following, and creative vision can activate restaurant, bar and entertainment spaces, elevating the guest experience.
Hansen Hospitality assists hotel owners and operators on the agreements that make those partnerships work - food and beverage management agreements, celebrity chef licenses, and consulting services agreements.
Having spent fourteen years as in-house counsel to a global luxury hotel group and a decade advising owners, developers, and brand operators at top-tier law firms, Wendy Hansen has sat on both sides of the table — a dual vantage few counsel can match. She uses that insider view to negotiate agreements that create revenue, manage operating costs, and mitigate risk, whichever side of the deal her client sits on.
Wendy founded Hansen Hospitality after more than twenty years in hospitality and real estate law. She began her career at Kirkland & Ellis, practicing commercial real estate with a focus on hospitality, private equity, and restructuring, before spending nearly fourteen years at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. There, she rose to Vice President & Legal Counsel, The Americas, running all legal matters for the company's hotels and residences across North America, South America, and the Caribbean, and handling the Group's food and beverage agreements globally. She went on to lead the U.S. hospitality practice at Eversheds Sutherland for several years before founding her own firm.
She writes and speaks regularly on hospitality law, with recent essays in Hotel Executive on risk management, restaurant operating models, and branded residences, and recent panels with the Academy of Hospitality Industry Attorneys and Questex's Brand x Residential conference.
Hansen Hospitality welcomes inquiries from hotel owners, developers, operators, and hospitality entrepreneurs - about a deal, a retainer, or a legal department that could use a second set of hands.