HOLLYWOOD BEACH, Florida — Pebblebrook Hotel Trust President, CEO and Chairman Jon Bortz said hotel owners are speaking with a unified voice more today than ever before in the industry's history, and during the spring conference of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association, he stressed the need for owners and asset managers to develop relationships with politicians to advocate for their needs.
He said this is especially important at the local level, as various larger cities are adopting rules favored by hotel industry labor unions.
"Politically, we are under attack locally and on a state level," said Bortz, who also leads AHLA's Hotel PAC. "The legislative issues are larger at the local level."
Speaking during the same keynote as Bortz, AHLA President and CEO Chip Rogers said local politicians in many large cities are handing over the reigns to labor unions, and unions are leaning on local politicians to circumvent contract negotiations.
"They're like, 'Why waste all that time [negotiating] for this one big hotel, when I can just go to the city council and get them to do whatever I want?'" he said.
Both Bortz and Rogers said the best way to counteract this phenomenon is to forge one-on-one relationships and better express the needs of hotel owners.
"The thing I like to tell everyone in the industry is to adopt a politician," Rogers said, who was an elected official in his home state of Georgia, including a four-year stint as Georgia Senate Majority Leader. "I know it sounds really ugly, but please do it."
He said those types of relationships yield benefits on both sides, with elected officials able to lean on hoteliers for expertise when needed, and giving hoteliers a point of contact if they have government-related issues.
"Whether it's a city council person, a county commissioner, a state representative, a mayor, whatever, just find somebody where you can become the resource for them for anything hospitality," he said. "Any elected official I know worth their salt has either an actual Rolodex or a mental Rolodex of who they know in each industry, and when anything comes up in that industry, they call that person."
Several major markets, particularly across California, are adopting pro-labor rules that restrict things like how many square feet housekeepers can clean in a day, Bortz said. He cautioned even hotels outside of major markets are likely to see similar regulations.
"If you haven't experienced that, welcome to the future, because this is coming to your market," he said. "Basically, what it is, is it limits the number of rooms than an employee can clean. And you can't really pay them for extra work."
Bortz said spending energy and money tackling these issues is a more useful allocation of owners' and asset managers' time than many of the other things they do on a day-to-day basis.
"When you think about what you do every day trying to find pennies, nickels and dimes all day long, all week long, and we have folks creating legislation specifically targeting the hotel industry that will cost us $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 a year per room, you have to think about where you spend your time," he said.