Lower-end hotels and hotels out by JFK have been used for years to house the homeless in New York.
The homeless in hotels reduced the spread of Covid-19 during the Pandemic. It was win-win, with hotels empty and seeing an opportunity for some revenue, and cities able to address a problem for less than it usually costs them.
New York spends a lot of money on homeless people, so they sent some of them to Hawaii with a plane ticket, rent money, and cash for furniture.
LA has a plan. The City Council voted unanimously to place a requirement on the ballot for hotels to give rooms to homeless people when they aren't full.
If it passes in 2024, the hotels will have to inform the city of the number of vacant rooms they have each day. The city would house individuals in the vacant rooms and pay for them with vouchers.
The program would not be voluntary, and managers could face lawsuits if they don’t comply.
The hotels would have to inform the city at 2 p.m. every day. Check-in time at most hotels is before that. Hotels keep selling rooms even after midnight when online channels can't accommodate this.
Last minute customers are booking more. You arrive in a city and book your room. If the city provides less than prevailing rates for these rooms it is a hit to a hotel's bottom line.
Airport hotels have their best rates at the last moment. Surges in bookings occur during weather events and other airline operational meltdowns which are not known until the day of the event.
All hotels will get the same rate. Is the homeless going to be put up at the Four Seasons? It will conflict with a property's brand experience that will diminish its ability to hold revenue premiums. A hotel's ability to repay debt is jeopardized by that. New hotel projects in LA are harder to finance due to riskier hotel debt.
You would need to believe that for this to work.
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