The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) convened in Washington, D.C., as both business pressures and labor pressures appear headed for a collision course.
AAHOA’s Fall National Advocacy Conference centered around a set of issues that affect hotel administrators, including loan limits, credit card fees, and labor costs.
This as a nationwide strike has hit several major hotels.
According to the organization, AAHOA member-owned hotels make up 60 percent of the American hotel market, generating more than $51 billion per year.
But hotel advocates say increasing costs are straining the industry. Credit card processing rates rose more than 15 percent in the past year, or $22 billion, according to AAHOA’s advocacy list. With rising costs, AAHOA is lobbying to double the loan limit from the Small Business Association from $5 million to $10 million, in order to reflect inflationary costs since the initial rate was established in 2010.
Furthermore, AAHOA pushed against the Department of Labor’s Overtime Rules established earlier this year, which annually increases the minimum salary to qualify for overtime pay. AAHOA members worried that the new rules would raise already high costs of hotel operation, especially for smaller hotels.
The conference comes in the midst of hotel strikes nationwide, USA Today reported. Yesterday, workers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village — the largest Hilton branch in the world — began an indefinite strike, citing insufficient wages and overwhelming working conditions. A total of 4,000 workers are on strike in Honolulu, San Francisco and San Diego. That’s on top of the 10,000 workers that have held two-three day walks outs at hotels in cities like Boston, Honolulu and Seattle. Many laborers, according to USA Today, work multiple jobs to compete with the state’s notoriously high cost of living.
“The hotel industry is making record profits by cutting the hospitality experience for guests and leaving workers behind,” Gwen Mills, international president of hotel, food, and casino union UNITE HERE, said to USA Today. “We’re in a new stage of this fight, with thousands of hotel workers ready to stay on strike until we win what our families need.”
Earlier this month, 1,500 hotel administrators marched against The Safe Hotels Act, a proposal in New York City that mandates all hotels undergo licensing, including measures that ensure 24-hour front desk staffing and prohibit contract labor for certain operations, according to Hotel Dive. AAHOA called the move from the city “devastating.”
“New York City’s hospitality industry is a cornerstone of its economy, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and generating billions in revenue,” AAHOA President and CEO Laura Lee Blake said in an AAHOA press release. “The Safe Hotels Act, if passed in its current form, would do more harm than good, threatening the livelihood of countless hotel owners and workers.”
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