Safe Hotels Act: A public safety measure or blow to NYC’s hospitality industry?
The New York hotel industry is at odds with the NYC Council over a new public safety and worker protection bill that critics say could possibly kill jobs and throw the Big Apple’s tourism economy into turmoil.
Manhattan City Council Member Julie Menin introduced the “Safe Hotels Act” on July 18 which would require the city’s nearly 800 hotels to be licensed by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP).
Citing an increase in violent crime in and around hotels, Menin said the bill, if passed into law, would require hotels to employ hotel staff for front desk and housekeeping — not contracted workers — and have panic buttons for workers who are, at times, found in dangerous situations.
“There are so many incidences of hotel workers, who largely tend to be female, with real issues of sexual assault,” Menin said. “It also protects guests, because at the end of the day, we don’t want guests coming to our great city and having an experience in one of these bad actor hotels.”
Menin said DCWP currently licenses 45,000 businesses in NYC, but hotels are one of the few industries not regulated and licensed by the city.
“The reason this is important is because it’s a public safety issue,” said Menin, a former DCWP commissioner. “There have been 39 murders in recent years at hotels.”
