The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore: hotel operators terminating leases on grounds of structural defects, citing conditions that the landlord either disputes or claims were known and accepted. The Dorint Hotel Kaiserslautern, the H-Hotels in Oberstaufen, the Sunderland in Sundern — each case involves fire protection deficiencies of some kind, and in each case the landlord’s position is that no formal closure order was issued. That argument is weaker than it sounds. A passed fire safety inspection is not a regulatory warranty. An operator who commissions a thorough independent technical assessment may legitimately reach a different conclusion — and a finding of that kind can, in certain circumstances, serve other purposes too. In buildings that are 40 years old or more, and that have never undergone fire protection upgrading, significant deficiencies are the probability, not the exception. Owners of older properties should be in no doubt about this. The deeper issue is a shared one: without an adequate CAPEX reserve, no older hotel can be operated sustainably. On that point, lessee and landlord are in the same boat — which makes it all the more important to establish, in advance, what the boat’s actual condition is.