A difficult sentence

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Dela

#444360 Tue, 20 Nov 07 12:19 PM

A strong supply of management companies and a sudden decline in hotel demand led to owners gaining leverage in the management contract negotiation process, a change that was facilitated by the US real estate crash of the late 1980s.

I don't understand the meaning of the above sentence. Will somebody help me? Many thanks.

Dela

Joined on Tue, Aug 7 2007

New Member (37)

Many thanks for your help!

Marius Hancu

#444387 Tue, 20 Nov 07 01:11 PM

What exactly don't you understand?

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Pchuang

#444441 Tue, 20 Nov 07 03:16 PM

You should explain or paraphrase the sentence first, so everyone can see which part troubles you.

Pchuang

Joined on Sat, Nov 5 2005

Full Member (198)

Grammar Geek

#444463 Tue, 20 Nov 07 04:02 PM

Look, I'm a native speaker and *I* can barely understand this, so give Dela a break.

More context would make it more clear who the "management companies" are, and why they needed to negotiate with the hotels, but basically, with fewer people requiring the services of the hotels, the management companies are in a stronger position to bargain with the hotels. For some reason, the real estate crash (which I don't actually recall happening) made the management company's position in the bargaining even stronger.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (16,644)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Dela

#445086 Thu, 22 Nov 07 10:01 AM

The paragraph is:

During the early 1980s when the hotel industry was growing at a healthy pace, traditional management contracts tended to meet the needs of both owners and operators. However, owners throughout the hotel industry had been agitating for more voice in how their properties were managed.　A strong supply of management companies and a sudden decline in hotel demand led to owners gaining leverage in the management contract negotiation process, a change that was facilitated by the US real estate crash of the late 1980s. Many property owners lost their investments, some of whom had contracted the services of The X (a hotel management company).

Dela

Paragraphs, Whom

Pchuang

#445176 Thu, 22 Nov 07 03:01 PM

Dela wrote:
A strong supply of management companies and a sudden decline in hotel demand led to owners gaining leverage in the management contract negotiation process, a change that was facilitated by the US real estate crash of the late 1980s.

I don't understand the meaning of the above sentence. Will somebody help me? Many thanks.

1, there were many management companies on the market offering their severces.
2, at the same time, hotels were not in high demand any more.
3, as a result of 1 and 2, owners were gaining uphand in negotiations with management companies for contracts.
4, the change was brought about by the real estate crash occurred in late 1980's in the US.

The sentence itself is not difficult, as it is written in fairly simple grammar. I suspect you have trouble understand the content.

Pchuang

Grammar

Dela

#445387 Fri, 23 Nov 07 04:53 AM

You are right. Now I understand the part you explained. Thanks.

I still feel confused about the latter part:

the property owner is the hotel, right? If so, why they still lose money since they gain leverage in negotiation?

Dela