Mayor Eric Adams signed off on the controversial new hotels bill Monday — which critics had once assailed as a “nuclear bomb” on the industry — but the fight seems far from over.
Hizzoner was flanked by the powerful Hotel Trades Council along with lawmakers who helped see the bills’ safe passage through the City Council last month.
“Employees and visitors should feel safe working and staying in the greatest city in the world. So today, we’re making our hotels safer so everyone can enjoy the magic of New York City,” Adams said.
Adams said the new legislation will set “stronger standards around safety, staffing, and cleaning in our city’s hotels, as well as licensing requirements to help enforce worker and guest protections.”
The bill, known as the Safe Hotels Act, will require Big Apple hotels to obtain licenses for two years and adhere to strict licensing requirements or rack up fines as high as $5,000 for infractions.
Arthur Kremer, an outspoken critic of the bill who reps the Minority Hotel Association, called it a “dramatic misuse of the City Council’s powers.”
Kremer, a former state lawmaker, said association-retained attorneys are checking “the pros and cons of litigation.”
He also accused the mayor of a quid pro quo — with the recent slew of federal investigations and Adams facing a five-count indictment.
“The mayor is clinging to his job by his fingernails, and he was hopeful, probably, that the hotel union will back him up if he should get to the primaries,” Kremer said.
“I think the mayor caved in, just like the city council did, because he wants the support of the hotel union.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The City Council approved the controversial new hotel regulation last month which will now require hospitality businesses to cough up $350 for licenses.
The plan saw a landslide victory at City Hall, with pols voting 45-4 in support of the legislation that had been substantially amended since it was first proposed in July — eventually securing buy-in from many hotel owners.
The law requires lodging businesses to staff front desks at all hours and provide panic buttons to employees as well as training for staff to identify human trafficking.
Council member Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), the bill’s sponsor, thanked advocates Monday who helped get the bill across the finish line. She pointed to NYPD reports of 39 murders at NYC hotels since 2009 and the more than 14,000 criminal complaints between 2019 and 2023.
“That is why the five district attorneys, the New York Attorney General, the PBA, and many others signed on to support this bill on public safety grounds,” Menin said.
The bill’s safe passage through the council was clinched when a deal was brokered between the Hotel Trades Council and the Hotel Association of New York City after they had initially opposed it.
