On the American Resort & Lodging Affiliation, advocacy on behalf of our 30,000-plus members is on the coronary heart of every little thing we do. Because of the assist of members such as you and the onerous work of our unimaginable crew, AHLA racked up a number of spectacular advocacy victories in 2023. Listed below are the highlights:
Advocacy Wins Throughout All Branches of the Federal Authorities
- After months of AHLA lobbying, the Normal Companies Administration in August introduced its fiscal 12 months 2024 per diem charges that may govern reimbursement for federal workers’ official lodging and meals bills. The rules included a $9 enhance to the lodging fee inside the continental United States, which is able to generate an estimated $300 million for hoteliers.
- The H-2B Workforce Coalition, which AHLA co-chairs, labored onerous to persuade the Biden Administration to make out there an extra 64,716 H-2B non permanent nonagricultural employee visas in fiscal 12 months 2024. It will practically double the yearly allocation of H-2B visas.
- In June, at AHLA’s request, the Small Enterprise Administration issued new Paycheck Safety eligibility tips clarifying that lodge house owners who utilized third-party administration corporations and took part in PPP are eligible for PPP mortgage forgiveness for payroll bills they paid by way of a administration firm.
- AHLA helped safe U.S. Senate introduction of the bipartisan Resort Charges Transparency Act in July. The invoice would create a single normal for necessary payment show throughout the lodging ecosystem—from lodges to on-line journey businesses, metasearch websites, and short-term rental platforms.
- In Could, greater than 200 hoteliers from greater than 30 states participated in AHLA’s Resorts on the Hill fly-in on Capitol Hill in Washington. The occasion included greater than 100 conferences with Home and Senate workplaces about how labor shortages are impacting lodges and what Congress can do to assist develop the lodge workforce.
- Hoteliers scored a giant victory this 12 months when the Supreme Courtroom started listening to arguments within the Acheson Resorts, LLC, v. Laufer case in October. The case entails a serial litigant who has sued lots of of lodges below the Individuals with Disabilities Act (ADA) with out having any intention of staying in these lodges. AHLA is hopeful the court docket will rule in favor of Acheson Resorts, thereby limiting future litigation to solely these circumstances with true benefit. It will present peace of thoughts to hoteliers, who now dwell in fixed worry of drive-by and click-by lawsuits from serial “tester” litigants searching for to make a fast buck off hardworking small-business house owners.
State and Native Advocacy Victories Across the Nation
- In Anaheim, the California Resort & Lodging Affiliation (CHLA) and AHLA labored to efficiently defeat a poll measure that might have mandated a $25/hour lodge and occasion middle employee minimal wage and double pay for the complete day if lodge room attendants cleaned rooms totaling above sure square-footage thresholds.
- Additionally in California, AHLA labored with CHLA to develop language in two payments (AB-537 and SB-478) requiring uniform price-and-fee shows for lodges and short-term rental properties. The payments degree the taking part in discipline amongst lodges and short-term-rentals like Airbnb by setting one common normal for price-and-fee show.
- AHLA and a number of other associate state associations across the nation teamed as much as cease or defeat laws in 12 states that might have prevented native governments from regulating short-term rental properties by the identical requirements as lodges. AHLA will proceed to battle for authorized and regulatory landscapes that deal with all lodging institutions equally.
- In Montana, AHLA labored with the Montana Lodging and Hospitality Affiliation to safe passage of a invoice that gives grant funding to lodges that home home violence and human trafficking survivors.
- AHLA labored with HospitalityTN to safe passage of the Defending Tennessee Companies and Employees Act, a regulation that may stop native governments from focusing on small-business lodge house owners and workers with expensive new purple tape. Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee signed the regulation in Could.
- In New York Metropolis, tens of hundreds of unlawful short-term leases have been faraway from the market due to an AHLA and Resort Affiliation of New York Metropolis-backed regulation that requires short-term rental companies to register with the town authorities and limits short-term rental companies to owner-occupied properties.
- And in Illinois, AHLA was happy to see passage of a regulation that enhances safety for lodges that take away or refuse to serve verbally abusive or disruptive clients. The Illinois Resort & Lodging Affiliation led advocacy efforts in assist of the “Be Form” laws, which was modeled on the same regulation that handed in Rhode Island in 2022.
Thanks to your steadfast assist in serving to AHLA obtain these noteworthy accomplishments. In 2024, we sit up for persevering with to work with companions, have interaction members, and put money into advocacy at each degree of presidency to guard hoteliers and maintain our business shifting ahead.
