JINSA Report #565 "Hilton's Response to Your Response"

JINSA
1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Suite 515
Washington, DC 20036

202-667-3900
202-667-0601 Fax

April 21, 2006

JINSA Report #565

Hilton's Response to Your Response

Thank you for the literally thousands of e-mails generated to the
management of the Hilton Hotels Corporation on behalf of Fran O'Brien's
Stadium Steakhouse and the troops. You were so effective that they
closed the e-mail addresses we published. You can still reach them
through the Hilton Honors website - hhonors@hilton.com

In the meantime, Hilton has been hitting the "Reply" button. Some of you
received a note that comes partially from a message posted on the Hilton
website - "For strictly business reasons related solely to the inability
to reach a new lease agreement, the Capital Hilton has elected to
terminate the lease with the operator of Fran O'Brien's restaurant at
the hotel. This decision was not at all related to the Friday night
dinners for disabled veterans but rather a result of lease negotiations
that failed."

This requires illumination. As we pointed out, the restaurant is not ADA
compliant. JINSA talked to (for now anonymous) management at the Capital
Hilton (not the corporate people in Los Angeles, but in the actual
building). The manager said, "The (wheelchair) lift is in the 2007
budget. We've taken three bids for the elevator." Since Fran O'Brien's
lease was up in 2005, any agreement they could have reached would have
required the restaurant to agree that the elevator not be installed for
a minimum of 12 months.

The lawyers among us please enlighten us, but our understanding is that
since ADA was passed during the span of the previous lease it didn't
require immediate repairs, but a new lease would have kicked in the
upgrade. A "negotiation" predicated on the owners agreeing to maintain a
dangerous, and perhaps illegal, situation is a) not serious and b) bound
to fail. "We compromised on just about everything else, but we said,
‘You have to do the lift," owner Hal Koster told a journalist. It seems,
then, that Hilton decided to terminate the lease, leave the building
empty until 2007 and then find another tenant.

The Hilton's missive also said, "The hotel offered to host and sponsor
the May 5, 2006 dinner and expressed interest in working closely with
the veterans to continue the Friday night tradition." Illumination: The
original message on the Hilton's website said, "sponsor," and they had
talked about letting the soldiers use an upstairs room for a price. Only
after we pointed out that there are already "sponsors" that pay for the
dinners - including a great many of you - did Hilton add the word "host"
as in "pay for." And only once. And "working closely with the veterans"
doesn't mean much; the veterans are guests of the restaurant, not the
organizers of the event.

Fran O'Brien's isn't about food and Hilton doesn't get it. Italian
Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta gets it. As many of you know, the
Finmeccanica companies of Italy and North America have been among Fran
O'Brien's most important sponsors. The Ambassador has offered his
Embassy and his personal chef. Talk about good allies and good friends!

Hal and Marty have ensured that the soldier dinners will continue even
if the venue changes - but there is still (limited) time for the Hilton
to do the right thing.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3381

___________________________________________________
Have a comment on this JINSA Report? Send an email to feedback@jinsa.org to let us know.

Access past JINSA Reports at: http://www.jinsa.org/

If you would like to receive JINSA Reports by e-mail, please sign up online at
http://www.jinsa.org/lists/subscribe.html

To be removed from JINSA Reports distribution list, please go to the following page on the JINSA website
http://www.jinsa.org/lists/unsubscribe.html

If you would like to support JINSA, please click on the following link
http://www.jinsa.org/member/member.html