Hotel Industry Gives Revised NYC Licensing Bill Zero Stars

After a backlash from New York City hotels, Council member Julie Menin revised her bill mandating they get licenses. But they gave it another bad review.

Menin amended the bill last week to address concerns from the industry, adding provisions to protect hotel restaurants, bars and nightclubs; eliminate staffing ratios; and clarify the definition of ownership to include real estate investment trusts.

Still, the industry wants her to withdraw it.

“This proposal is bad for everyone: hotels, NYC’s tourism economy, guests, and hotel employees,” said American Hotel & Lodging Association Interim President & CEO Kevin Carey. “The revised bill still imposes expensive and burdensome requirements on hotel owners and effectively prohibits hotel management companies from operating in the city.”

Menin said she is continuing to meet with interested parties and expects to make more changes to the bill.

“The whole point of creating a new version was simply to begin a dialogue,” Menin said. “We heard a lot of dialogue after the bill was introduced, and of course we’re open to additional feedback.”

Carey’s group, however, said the discussions “continue to exclude those who will be most affected by the legislation — hotel owners, management companies, sub-contractors, and tens of thousands of hotel workers.”

The latter reference was apparently to nonunion hotel workers. The industry suspects the bill is advancing the interests of the Hotel Trades Council, which represents workers at unionized hotels.

Should the measure become law, hotel operators would need a license from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and have to meet certain requirements to get one. Hotels with more than 100 rooms would need to have 24-hour front desk coverage and security — which are standard at union hotels.

Hotels would also have to meet certain sanitation standards and employ all of their core staff directly, effectively preventing them from using subcontractors for cleaning, maintenance and other tasks. The amended bill allows security jobs to be subcontracted.

Menin said her goal is to ensure the safety of hotel guests, employees and neighbors.

But hotel trade groups have called the bill an attempt to turn unionization into a government-enforced requirement by eroding the price advantage of nonunion hotels.

They also argue that the city can’t afford to properly implement the new rules and that restrictions on using subcontractors would harm those small businesses.

Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, emailed Menin that her changes to the bill are “wholly unacceptable” and would make it harder for hotels to obtain loans. Menin said she is working with several lenders to make sure it does not do that.

“The bill…remains an existential threat to the entire hotel industry,” Dandapani said.