Los Angeles Hotelier Community Urges LA City Council to Vote “No” On Hotel Police Permits

By posted 5 months ago

On Tuesday, November 7, 100+ hoteliers attended the Los Angeles City Council meeting, where they asked council members to vote “No” on Hotel Police Permits (Agenda Item 35, Motion 22-0822-S2).

This issue stems from an earlier development when a petition was initiated to allocate vacant hotel rooms for unhoused individuals, which was initially slated to be decided by Los Angeles voters on the March 2024 ballot but was recently pulled.

AAHOA’s ongoing efforts to address the mandatory homeless voucher program for more than a year have resulted in a new provision to revise the homeless voucher program into a voluntary opportunity.

Unfortunately, the new provision, Responsible Hotel Ordinance, includes police permit language impacting the hotel permit section, which was added without the hotelier's input. This new language would require hoteliers to submit police permit applications every year to be eligible for business licenses, giving police power to determine whether a hotel permit application should be granted.

During the public hearing, AAHOA Members in attendance underscored the following key points:

Pandemic support for city programs: During the pandemic, the limited-service hotel industry provided their hotels to the city program. Since the pandemic’s end, hoteliers have continued providing hotels for shelter programs.
Separate ordinance needed: Short-term rentals and hotels are separate industries; grouping them together causes confusion and unintended consequences.
Supreme Court ruling (City of Los Angeles v. Patel): This case provides protections for hoteliers – pursuant to the Fourth Amendment. The court also ruled the hotel industry was not a closely regulated one.
Current mechanism for nuisance properties: The City of LA already has a mechanism to address nuisance properties via a zoning administrator, which includes a review process. A police permit is an unnecessary layer of regulation.
Inclusion of diverse hotel owners in decision-making: Include AAHOA’s 1,165 LA, limited-service, first and second-generation, people of color hotel owners’ for input; a “seat-at-the-table.” This measure was decided without hotelier input.

In a memo addressed to the Los Angeles City Council members and staff, AAHOA expressed, “We can understand the need to apply new regulations to the short-term Airbnb industry. However, for the hotel industry, we already have hotel signs, multiple rooms to rent, parking lots, and the police can easily recognize a hotel establishment. Thus, these new rules for the Airbnbs and short-term rentals should not be mixed in with the hotel industry since it only creates confusion and misunderstandings.”

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