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Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) has filed a $2.6 million lawsuit against one of its New York City-based franchisees for allegedly breaching its contract by turning the hotel into a shelter for illegal immigrants.

According to a Gothamist report, the 18-story, 283-room Pride Hotel in the Jamaica section of Queens was scheduled to open last November as part of Marriott’s budget-friendly Aloft and Element hotel brands. However, the lawsuit said the hotel’s principals jettisoned its agreement with Marriott and started operating as a shelter. The lawsuit said the hotel’s owners kept the Marriott signs and brandings while operating as a shelter, adding that it failed to pay Marriott the agreed-upon franchise fees.

Attorneys for the Pride Hotel sent Marriott a letter last August seeking a new agreement that would have enabled the property to become a migrant housing site, claiming it wasn’t “economically feasible” for the property to function as a hotel because of “the poor state of the economy and continued slowdown in the hospitality industry.” The letter added, “New York City is pressuring hotels in the metropolitan area to participate in its migrant housing programs.”

More than one in five New York City hotels are now operating as shelters to accommodate the influx of illegal immigrants that burdened the city. The city government is paying up to $185 per night per room for the hotels-turned-shelters.

Booking.com

Photo: Kidfly182 / Wikimedia Commons

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