OPINION:
What if I told you D.C. leaders were shutting their constituents out of the legislative process to appease special-interest groups and enact policies consumers don’t want?
Well, that’s exactly what D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and most of the District’s council members are doing.
In an unprecedented move — the Council of the District of Columbia approved an “emergency” measure on April 5 granting Ms. Bowser the regulatory authority to develop rules dictating how District hotels operate.
It’s curious that more than 24 months into the pandemic the mayor now asks for “emergency” powers. If an emergency existed, why wouldn’t she have addressed it sooner? The answer is politics. Here’s why:
The “Hotel Enhanced Cleaning and Notice of Service Emergency Amendment Act of 2022” will mandate services that most consumers don’t want and saddle hotels with cumbersome requirements to continually notify guests of routine events outside of hotels’ control. Both of these ill-advised mandates have the potential to drive tourists away from the District and threaten well-paying hotel jobs at a time when area hotels are still struggling to recover from the pandemic.
Understanding how this rushed vote occurred, it’s clear the legislation is less about an “emergency” and more about padding the coffers of Big Labor. With the backing of UNITE HERE Local 25 and the politics of a looming mayoral primary election, the Council pushed through this backroom deal, denying hotel proprietors any opportunity for an open legislative process or hearing. Hoteliers, who have struggled to stay in business during COVID-19, were not allowed an opportunity to put their concerns on the record or to have an open dialogue about the negative impacts these mandates will have on hotels and their employees.
This highly unprecedented approach bypassed the standard legislative process that allows for open hearings, review and stakeholder feedback.
The bill requires the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to implement rules that would mandate hotels provide daily cleaning of rooms, unless a guest opts out, as well as provide the public with notice of actual or potential disruption of services that guests may use. At its core, it’s at odds with the interests of consumers and unfairly targets hotels. Consider the facts:
A recent survey from Morning Consult commissioned by AHLA found that nearly 7 in 10 adults do not want daily room cleaning at their next hotel stay, with most preferring room cleaning only when requested or at the end of their stay. Furthermore, a recent AHLA member survey found that 93% of hotels provide daily room cleaning upon request. So even though most consumers don’t want daily room cleaning — the D.C. Council and mayor want to force it upon them anyway.
The bill’s notification requirements are also problematic. They would require hotels to continually notify guests about nearby events, such as construction on nearby buildings and roads or protests, rallies and demonstrations — all of which are nearly daily occurrences in the District. Aside from the fact that complying with this mandate would be a logistical nightmare for hoteliers, the policy would in many instances drive guests away from D.C. hotels and toward competitors in nearby Virginia and Maryland, directly impacting hotel jobs in the District.
The hotel industry in D.C. was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and has a long road to recovery. Hotel business travel revenue in the District is still down nearly 60% from pre-pandemic levels, with D.C. hotels projected to lose more than $842 million in 2022 compared to 2019.
As we all adapt to the new post-pandemic environment, filling open jobs is the hotel industry’s top priority. Hotels in the D.C. area are actively hiring for more than 3,400 open positions, with housekeeping staff being the top need. Saddling D.C. hotels with requirements that add to the already severe labor shortage they are facing will only make matters worse.
Instead of granting themselves unprecedented “emergency” powers to direct operations of hotels and do the bidding of union bosses, I ask that D.C. leaders take the time to listen to their constituents: the D.C. hoteliers and their employees who have struggled for two years to keep their doors open.
If they do, they will realize that burdensome and unnecessary regulations from the government will only hurt the hotel industry’s recovery and our ability to bring employees back. For the sake of our workforce and our industry’s recovery, I urge D.C. leaders to change course on this misguided ordinance.
• Chip Rogers (@ChipAHLA) is president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association
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