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By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
A bill, being pushed by the New York City Council to require hotels to have a license to operate in NYC, is being stalled, following outcry from hotels and business groups.
As reported by Crain’s NY, Manhattan Councilwoman Julie Menin, the bill sponsor, agreed to postpone a hearing on the bill. The bill, which was backed by a powerful hotel workers’ union —the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, would have required hotels in NYC to obtain licensing and would limit their hiring of subcontracted workers, strengthening the hotel union’s power. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday regarding the bill, but it was postponed, due to the overwhelming response. Hotel, real estate and restaurant groups were quickly preparing to rally at the hearing in full force. On Sunday, as a result of the backlash, Menin announced that she had decided to postpone the hearing to allow for more negotiations, slowing down her energetic efforts to pass it.
Sources for Crain’s said that the Hotel Association for New York City, an industry group that represents owners, contacted the union on Sunday to open up negotiations and to propose a delay in the hearing until mid-October. “This is a very positive development that the parties now have an open line of communication to negotiate the bill,” Menin said in an interview on Monday.
The New York Hospitality Alliance and the Real Estate Board of New York along with the hotel association had planned to rally against the bill on Tuesday. Hotel executives have heavily lobbied lawmakers against the bill. Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the hotel association, had likened the bill to “a nuclear bomb” that would “destroy a major segment of the industry.” Kevin Carey, interim president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, said the hearing delay would help “avert an economic disaster.”
Menin has said the bill would work to regulate hotels, and noted that similar licensing requirements are already in effect in Chicago and Boston. In order to qualify for a license under the bill, hotels would be required to directly hire housekeepers, front desk workers, cooks, food servers and security guards, instead of contracting out those personnel. Those new requirements would benefit the HTC union, which has for years been pushing different versions of the bill. Most non-union hotels hire subcontracted workers, and HTC said those employees are generally paid less and have less stringent safety and cleanliness standards. “Most hotels are great operators — we’re not looking to do anything that would hurt their bottom line,” Menin said on Friday, before delaying the hearing. “This is a public safety bill.”
The hotel industry says the bill will make it much more expensive for hotels to operate in NYC. They note that the city’s hotels are already at a very precarious time, when hotels are still working to recover after the pandemic, and when so many hotels are being used to house migrants, falsely inflating occupancy rates. Industry leaders warned that the bill could force hotels to charge more for rooms, when nightly rates are already up. Restaurants and other related industries have also fought back, saying they would be hurt by the bill as a domino effect.
Per Crain’s, Menin has been in the news of late, for mulling a run for City Council Speaker, to replace current Speaker Adrienne Adams once her term-limit is reached in 2026.

