If you ever feel unsafe in New York City, it is advisable to go to the nearest hotel. Hotels are always open, their reception desks are staffed 24 hours a day, and their lobbies are monitored by cameras. Many even have panic buttons.
But this summer, out of the blue, City Councilwoman Julie Menin introduced a comprehensive bill called the Safe Hotels Act.
Hotels are unsafe? Who would have thought?
However, it would be wrong to describe the name of the bill as misleading: absolutely no one was deceived.
Menin pointed out that complaints about hotels increased from 2019 to 2023. During the pandemic, when the city housed homeless and migrants in some hotels, complaints about everything increased. Naturally, neighbors called 311 about it.
However, hotels that accommodate tourists and business travelers are as safe as ever. Last year, only 315 complaints were received against the city’s 769 hotels – 0.4 per establishment. And these were concentrated in hotels and accommodations in the outskirts, which are particularly at risk.
The same is true for crime: The New York Police Department received 2,324 hotel-related criminal charges last year, just three per establishment (and 32 percent fewer than at the height of the pandemic in 2021). However, they were concentrated in a specific type of hotel, such as those with hourly rates or homeless residents.
The “hotel security” bill clearly had an ulterior motive. Not only are traditional hotels some of the safest places to stay, but a cursory reading of the bill reveals its true purpose: to force hotels to hire staff to perform tasks they currently outsource, such as laundry and security.
The intended beneficiary was equally obvious: the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the union that represents hotel workers.
The need for staff would ruin many of the city’s hotels because their overhead costs would skyrocket. Hotels save money by using contractors – often small businesses – rather than paying full-time staff who would have nothing to do during quiet times.
The bill contains other provisions that would hit hotel operators and owners hard, but the real story is its political background and botched implementation, which are a textbook example of how to botch a legislative campaign.
The measure dates back to before the pandemic, when Peter Ward led what was then the New York City Hotel and Motel Trades Council. He had increased the union’s political power, but Ward, who handed the reins to Rich Maroko in 2020, left the Safe Hotels Act on hold, realizing the bill was a bigger mouthful than the union could safely swallow.
Instead, the union focused on convincing the City Council and De Blasio’s administration to require special permits for all new hotels, which they did in 2021. This stopped the proliferation of non-union hotels and protected current owners from new competition.
The “safety” bill, however, would have destroyed the group’s informal peace with large hotel owners who rely on outsourcing labor. Before this summer’s chaos, the union and the Hotel Association of New York had tacitly agreed that the union would push the industry’s political agenda and the owners would stay out of everything except writing checks when necessary. The strategy worked, leading the city to crack down on Airbnb listings.
But over the past two years, the union’s political momentum seemed to wane, and it failed to organize workers in many of the city’s more than 300 nonunion hotels.
From this weakened position, Maroko inexplicably brought out the “security” bill and introduced it by Councillor Julie Menin. It was an unmitigated disaster.
The choice of Menin as a sponsor was odd at first glance. She had very few hotels in her Upper East Side district and was not very close to the union. But she is seeking to replace Adrienne Adams as City Council speaker, and the hotel workers union has the political weight to help or hinder her plan. When the union asked Menin to jump, she asked, “How high?”
As it turns out, it’s too high.
The law was so extreme that it raised alarm in the hotel industry. Even the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which normally leaves New York City matters to Vijay Dandapani’s local ownership group, went to great lengths to block it.
Menin was completely unprepared for this reaction and was forced to cancel a City Council hearing on the bill – an embarrassment that City Council insiders cannot recall. A hearing is a crucial step for any bill, because without it nothing gets passed.
Some bills sit on ice for years and never get a hearing because they are blocked by a committee chair or the speaker. Menin’s bill, which seemed to be on the fast track, could now fall into that abyss. She has tried to remove the most drastic provisions to save it, but the industry continues to staunchly oppose it.
The whole issue could hurt Menin’s chances of becoming speaker of the city council. Her rivals now have a vested interest in seeing her bill fail. While they want the union’s support for her candidacy for speaker, they also remember that the union’s support for the previous speaker candidate, Francisco Moya, did not lead to his election.
Whatever happens, the Safe Hotels Act’s rocky start is a reminder that there are many undercurrents in city politics that can push even experienced swimmers in unexpected directions.
This article has been updated to include data from the NYPD and identified the city’s 311 call center as the recipient of 315 complaints about hotels last year.
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