Hotel Industry Takes Licensing Bill Fight to City Hall

The battle over a hotel licensing bill rages on.

Hundreds of hotel workers rallied outside City Hall today — both those in favor and against City Council member Julie Menin’s bill that would require hotel operators to obtain licenses and, in many cases, change the way they operate.

Menin has hailed the bill as a way to crack down on crime in hotels. But instead it has pitted union members against subcontractors as the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council pushes the bill and the hotel industry assails it as a back-door attempt at unionization.

“We want the bill to be passed because the hotels that aren’t union, they hire agencies and the people who are hired through the agencies get exploited,” said Karma Dadol, a houseman at the Ritz-Carlton. “They don’t have benefits, they can get fired for no reason. They have no protection.”

Dadol joined dozens of other union members who held picket signs and chanted “the workers united” while the newly formed Protect NYC Tourism Coalition — which includes subcontractors, hotel operators and owners — held a press conference on the steps of City Hall.

Around the corner, hotel subcontractors wore green T-shirts and carried signs for the Coalition of Hotel Subcontractors, another group just formed to oppose the bill, which would prevent hotels from contracting out certain tasks.

“In Covid, a lot of workers were out of a job. And by the time Covid calmed down, the majority of nonunion workers had a hard time coming back to work,” said Ocarey Spence, a houseman at Club Quarters Hotel in Midtown who is employed by a subcontracting agency. “I’m worried about not having a job.”

Under the new law, hotel operators would have to meet certain requirements to get a license from the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Unlicensed hotels would have to close.

After a backlash from the industry, Menin revised her bill, adding provisions to spare hotel restaurants, bars and nightclubs; eliminate staffing ratios; and clarify the definition of ownership to include real estate investment trusts.

Menin said last week that she continues to meet with stakeholders and will schedule a hearing on the bill after she has met with everyone who has reached out to her.

But American Hotel & Lodging Association interim president and CEO Kevin Carey said the measure should simply be scrapped.

“This bill would do great damage to the industry,” he said. “I think, given [hospitality’s] interdependence with so many different segments, that it would impact the economy in a negative way.”

The national trade group is not known to get involved in City Council legislation, let alone help organize rallies at City Hall. Its initial response to the Safe Hotels Act seemed to take Menin by surprise.

“We wanted to make sure there was an understanding of the breadth of opposition to this bill,” Carey said.