This article discusses early termination rights in hotel franchise agreements under circumstances where the reputation, goodwill, or business of the hotel, the brand, and/or the franchisor could be negatively affected, and where the safety of hotel guests or staff could be in question.
Background
According to a post by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) on X, in early January 2026, a Hampton Inn by Hilton in Lakeville, Minnesota allegedly and repeatedly refused service to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, canceling their reservations and allegedly asking them in a Jan. 2, 2026 email to “pass on this info to your coworkers that we are not allowing any immigration agents to house on our property.” DHS posted about the incident on Jan. 5, 2026, causing immediate media and social network attention. While both Hilton (the franchisor) and Everpeak Hospitality (the franchisee, as well as the owner and manager of the hotel) that same day issued public apologies, a video was released the morning of Jan. 6, 2026 of an influencer allegedly posing as a DHS agent at the hotel and being told that the hotel still was not serving ICE agents. Following this video, Hilton quickly posted a new notice that day, stating, “We are taking immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems,” resulting in the hotel being officially removed from the Hilton system less than 24 hours after the initial posts began circulating.
The Hampton Inn Lakeville situation came on the heels of rapidly rising tensions in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas. In early December, ICE announced an minneapolis-st-paul-airport-during-ice-protest/” title=”100 clergy arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport during ICE protest”>immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities, which would be called Operation Metro Surge. Tensions between activists and ICE agents rose quickly, with multiple documented conflicts occurring between activists working to impede ICE operations and ICE agents. By mid-December, DHS announced that ICE had arrested more than 400 illegal aliens, many with criminal backgrounds.
After the Hampton Inn Lakeville incident, DHS announced on Jan. 6, 2026, that it was launching “the largest DHS operation ever” in Minnesota and planned to send approximately 2,000 ICE agents into Minnesota. There have been almost daily protests in Minneapolis since the deployment, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara both criticized the surge and the methods of ICE agents. In addition, multiple clashes continue to take place between activists and ICE, including an activist getting shot and killed on Jan. 7, 2026, during an altercation with ICE agents. Tensions are extremely high, and the army recently put 1,500 soldiers on standby for possible deployment into Minnesota given the situation.
As part of the protests, many activists have allegedly been targeting hotels in downtown Minneapolis-St. Paul where ICE agents are staying. It has been reported that the activists have been purposefully generating loud noise at night outside such hotels in an attempt to keep ICE agents from sleeping. As of Jan. 19, at least two hotels in Minneapolis-St.