Roughly 135 of New York City’s nearly 680 hotels are housing illegal immigrants, a loss of 16,532 hotel rooms, according to a report in the New York Times. This represents approximately one out of five hotels.
The current level of lodging availability is 2,812 fewer hotel rooms than existed in the pre-pandemic period.
The loss of the hotel rooms has resulted in a spike for lodging costs. CoStar data has determined the average daily rate for a hotel stay in the city was $301.61 during 2023, up 8.5% from $277.92 one year earlier. At the end of the first quarter of this year, the average daily rate was $230.79, compared to $216.38 one year earlier.
Most of the hotels that have turned into migrant shelters are in the city’s Midtown Manhattan district, the Long Island City section of Queens and near Kennedy International Airport. Hotels are paid up to $185 a night per room by the city government – New York City’s government is projecting that it will spend $10 billion over three fiscal years on providing shelter to the illegal immigrants.
“During peak periods, try getting a hotel on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night in midtown Manhattan, and, if you can, you could end up paying dearly,” said Daniel H. Lesser, a co-founder of LW Hospitality Advisors, in an interview with the Times. “It’s all supply-and-demand related, and the migrant rooms have reduced the amount of supply.”
To date, no hotel that became a migrant shelter has transitioned back to being a traditional hotel. Exacerbating the situation is a new law passed last year to crack down on short-term Airbnb listings, thus further dwindling lodging options.
“It was expected,” said Jamie Lane, the chief economist at AirDNA, in the Times’ coverage. “That is why the hotel lobby was pushing for this law to happen, so they could have higher rates and increase profitability of their properties.”
Photo of the Roosevelt Hotel, a former luxury destination that is now housing illegal immigrants, by Billy Hathorn / Wikimedia Commons
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All we hear is we have a housing shortage then some misguided statements on affordable housing which you can’t build at today’s costs. When you bring in over ten million people in three years you take up over a million low income housing units and what is happening to hotel rates reflects all rental housing rates. The government pays top dollar so the citizens needing these units are priced out by the government actions
is the number going down? Likely not!
If hotels could full these rooms with full paying guest, they would not agree to rent these units to the city to house these immigrants. So this is a another false narrative and misrepresentation of the situation. This issue is complex. Solutions are needed but the Congress does not act and Republicans obstruct resolutions.
But one thing is true……..IMMIGRANTS ARE THE BACKBONBE OF OUR SOCIETY. They were in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. And it is true today. Affordable housing is another issue that could be easily resolved if anyone in this country decided to solve the problem. But instead we talk a lot and get nothing done. That is why America is on the downslide of history. so then, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE
Hotels will gladly take 100% occupancy at discounted rates, versus taking their chances on seasonal fluctuations. Tourism and business travel are way down in NYC versus pre-pandemic levels. They are making a killing off NY tax $$!
In 1880 the US population was 50 million, in 1900, 76 million. It’s now 330 million and we can’t afford to house the people who are already here. If the housing shortage can be easily resolved, let us know your solution. No one else seems to have the answer but you.
What are the occupancy rates over the past 3 years?
And whose is paying the bill????? Not the illegal immigrants, for darned sure. It is time to get illegal immigrants out of the public purse. They must be sent back to the countries from which they came. They are a gigantic drag on our national economy. And to one comment above: it is not 1800s or early 1900s when immigrants came legally.
I think they’re “undocumented immigrants” not “illegal immigrants” or they would have been shipped back, not housed.