For the past 5 years, JMBM's annual hotel conference has been privileged to premier the annual survey of the hotel industry's preeminent thinkers on major issues affecting hotel investment opportunities and challenges for the coming year.

Here it is again, providing valuable insight on what industry leaders think. And like consumer confidence surveys, or other measures of sentiment within an industry, these gems are more important as indications of what may drive decisions in the coming months than as actual predictions of future outcomes . . . although we often become what we think.

The Lodging Industry Investment Council -- Hotel Industry Think Tank

Annually, the members of the hotel's industry's preeminent think tank, "LIIC - The Lodging Industry Investment Council", are surveyed to develop a list of the major hotel investment opportunities and challenges for the coming year.

This exhaustive survey results in the LIIC Top Ten; a highly regarded profile of investment sentiment and attitudes for the lodging industry for the forthcoming 12 months.

All together, the members of LIIC represent acquisition and disposition control of billions of dollars in lodging real estate. The hospitality industry's most influential investors, lenders, corporate real estate executives, REIT's, public hotel companies, brokers and significant lodging equity sources are represented on the council. LIIC serves as the leading industry think tank servicing the hospitality business ( www.liic.ws ).

This year's survey was compiled by LIIC's co-chairman, Mike Cahill. Mr. Cahill is president and founder of HREC - Hospitality Real Estate Counselors, a leading international hotel and casino advisory and brokerage firm specializing in lodging property sales, debt refinancing, consulting, appraisals and litigation support. ( www.hrec.com ).

I want to personally thank Mike Cahill and all of the LIIC members for this worthy contribution to thought leadership in our industry. To see the announcement of The LIIC Top 10.HotelLawBlog.com

This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer, signing off. We've done more than $50 billion of hotel transactions and more than 100 hotel mixed-used deals in the last 5 years alone. Who's your hotel lawyer?

 For more information, please contact Jim Butler at jbutler@jmbm.com or 310.201.3526.

Jim Butler is one of the top hotel lawyers in the world. GOOGLE "hotel lawyer" or "hotel mixed-use" or "condo hotel lawyer" and you will see why.

Jim devotes 100% of his practice to hospitality, representing hotel owners, developers and lenders. Jim leads JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® -- a team of 50 seasoned professionals with more than $50 billion of hotel transactional experience, involving more than 1,000 properties located around the globe. In the last 5 years alone, Jim and his team have assisted clients with more than 100 hotel mixed-use projects, all of which have involved at least some residential, and many have also involved significant spa, restaurant, retail, office, sports, and entertainment components -- frequently integrated with energizing lifestyle elements.