City Council Passes Controversial Hotel Bill
Members of the New York City Council passed a bill on Wednesday that requires all hotels to get a license and mandates that most of the city’s hotels use union labor in key roles.
Council members passed Int. 991, known as the Safe Hotels Act, on Wednesday with 45 votes in favor and four votes against. The bill now awaits Mayor Eric Adams' signature.
The bill requires hotels to apply for and renew licenses on a recurring two-year basis with a $350 fee, requires hotels to install panic buttons, and mandates human trafficking training. Hotels would also have to directly hire housekeeping workers, front-office associates and concierges, rather than employing them via subcontractors.
Upper East Side City Council Member Julie Menin introduced the bill this summer with the stated aim of reducing the role NYC hotels play in human trafficking.
So thrilled to have @NYCCouncil pass The Safe Hotels Act by a vote of 45-4. This crucial bill licenses hotels - bringing NYC in line with other large cities to protect guests, workers and communities by ensuring that hotels live up to reasonable standards pic.twitter.com/9W8LRbnwzP
— Julie Menin (@JulieMenin) October 23, 2024
The legislation has had the backing of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, one of the city’s most powerful labor unions, but it initially met with vociferous opposition from hotel owners and operators.
Legislators, the union and hotel owners groups worked to negotiate with the hotel industry to create a version of the bill that hotel owners would accept.
That includes a carve-out for hotels with fewer than 100 rooms — a key sticking point after dire warnings that the original bill would kill small hoteliers' business, particularly those operating in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, where margins are smaller.
“The biggest change is the exclusion of 100 rooms and below from the core employee requirement for single employer hires — something I personally worked out with the hotel union and the sponsors,” Hotel Association of New York City President and CEO Vijay Dandapani told Bisnow in an email.
Additional changes mean that the legislation defines core employees as only housekeeping workers, front-office associates and concierges, meaning that all hotels can continue to use subcontractors for roles including maintenance, valet parking, security, laundry and more.
The changes mean smaller hotels will remain competitive, Dandapani said in a statement.
“The legislation passed today by the City Council will create a fair and practical standard for hotels that will protect both our industry and employees,” he said.
The bill also grandfathers in existing contracts that were signed before the law's effective date, as long as the contracts have an end date.
But even the version of the bill that passed has still drawn criticism from other hotel groups, including from the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Kevin Carey, the organization’s interim president and CEO, told Bisnow in a statement that the Safe Hotels Act “caps a legislative scramble and special interest power play that will do irreparable harm to the city’s hotel industry and tourism economy.”
Mukesh Patel, a hotel owner and member of the NYC Minority Hotels Association, said in a statement that the changes don't mitigate the harm the bill will do to small businesses.
“The so-called ‘Safe Hotels Act’ will do nothing to make New York safer, but it will force many smaller, minority-owned and family-run hotels to close, kill thousands of jobs, and cause room rates across five boroughs to skyrocket, eliminating affordable options for New York City’s millions of annual tourists and visitors,” Patel said.
