A bill set to be introduced Thursday in the City Council would require hotels to be licensed to operate in the Big Apple — a requirement that would fundamentally reshape the city’s hospitality industry.
Councilwoman Julie Menin, the legislation’s sponsor, told the Daily News securing the proposed licenses would hinge on requirements aimed at addressing several problems now facing hotels as well as the neighborhoods where they operate.
Tops among those requirements would be a prohibition against hotels using subcontractors to carry out their core functions, the adoption of minimum hygiene standards and a commitment to policies aimed at preventing prostitution and human trafficking.
Menin, who previously served under former Mayor Bill de Blasio as his consumer affairs commissioner, said the licenses would be issued by the agency she once oversaw, the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs and Worker Protection, and that hotels would be required to fulfill several obligations in order to secure them. If they do not meet those obligations, they would be prohibited from operating in the city under the bill.
The new legislation stems in part because complaints to the city about hotels have more than doubled in the last four years, Menin said.
“People are complaining about public safety issues, they’re complaining about a lack of cleanliness, they’re complaining about a lack of front desk security, sanitation issues,” she said. “All of these issues can be addressed through licensing.”
She described the bill as three-pronged in what it aims to address.
One of the goals is to cut into what Menin described as “high levels of crime” around some hotels, including rapes, robberies, assaults and human trafficking. Under her bill, hotels would be required to have employees stationed at front desks to keep a look out for criminality and provide “panic buttons” for hotel employees should they encounter dangerous situations.
The provision on subcontractors would apply only to “core” hotel services such as cleaning and security, not businesses like restaurants, gyms or spas.
Menin and Rich Maroko, president of the NY Hotel Trades Council, said that part of the legislation is necessary to protect non-unionized workers employed by subcontractors, which sometimes task them with work they’re not trained to do and which do not always equip them with the proper tools, such as cleaning supplies.
“Customers and workers should never have to put up with an environment that fosters dangerous crimes, public health issues, or substandard working conditions,” Maroko said. “This legislation will help protect guests, workers and local communities by ensuring that hotels live up to reasonable standards in order to do business in this city.”
It’s unclear whether or not Mayor Adams will ultimately back the bill, but he’s been an ally of the Hotel Trades Council. It was one of the first big labor unions to endorse him in his victorious 2021 run for City Hall.
The bill, which would apply to some hotels now being used as migrant and homeless shelters, also aims to protect workers by instituting sanitary protocols and standards. Under it, hotels would have to submit a “sanitation policy” as part of the license application process.
Menin, who described some of the subcontractors currently operating in hotels as “fly-by-night,” described the sanitation provisions as dovetailing with those proposed for subcontractors.
“You don’t know who these people are,” she said of the subcontractors. “There are outrageous complaints about some of these hotels. People check in, the room is filled with bedbugs, with cockroaches, it hasn’t been cleaned. It’s completely unacceptable.”
Sabrina, a hotel housekeeper who asked only to be identified by her first name out of fear she could lose her current job, told The News that the staff job she worked for under a subcontractor in 2021 “was the worst experience of my life.”
The subcontractor, Green Magic Excellent Cleaning Corp., did not provide her with rags to clean the bathrooms at Homewood Suites by Hilton in Times Square and instead instructed her to use the guests’ dirty towels, sheets, pillowcases and used soap to do the cleaning, she said.
“They don’t use nothing to disinfect,” she said. “If the guests use the soap and there’s some left, you can use that. If they don’t use the soap, you’re not allowed to use that … It was disgusting. I never want to work in a place like that again.”
In addition, she claimed Green Magic withheld pay she was due and refused to pay out overtime — despite their demands that she work longer hours.
“They said they don’t pay overtime,” she recalled.
Alejandro Vereara, a payroll officer with Green Magic, said employees are paid OT if they work more than 40 hours a week and that the hotels are responsible for supplying cleaning materials, not the subcontractor.
Nick Rambajue, a spokesman for Homewood Suites, called Sabrina’s claim “absurd.”
“I’m not sure what her experience was,” he said. “We offer every single supply Hilton requires.”
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