Room costs in NYC soar as 1 in 5 hotels converted into shelters for illegal aliens, homeless Travelers interested in booking a hotel room in New York City this summer might be shocked at the price now that 20% of the city's hotel rooms have been converted into shelters for illegal aliens and the homeless, draining the city's supply of available rooms and sending costs through the roof.
According to a recent report from the New York Times, NYC has approximately 680 hotels. Of those, 135 have been turned into shelters.
The city currently has 2,812 fewer hotel rooms than it had just before the COVID-related government shutdowns of 2020. That drop in supply has coincided with a sharp increase in demand now that tourists are returning to NYC at about pre-COVID levels
These economic changes combined with a significant decline in short-term Airbnb rentals has caused rental costs to soar. In the year after NYC began accommodating large influxes of illegal aliens, the average cost of a hotel room in NYC rose 8.5%, from $277.92 in 2022 to $301.61 in 2023.
Many of these rooms are in hotels that were once frequented by middle-income tourists, and some believe that such tourists are likely to be hit the hardest by the changes.
"I really believe it’s enabled two-, two-and-a-half-star hotels to be a little more emboldened, to take advantage of the situation and charge prices that perhaps they wouldn’t otherwise be able to," said Sean Hennessey, a hotel industry adviser and clinical associate professor at New York University..............
https://www.conservativereview.com/room-costs-in-nyc-soar-as-1-in-5-hotels-converted-into-shelters-for-illegal-aliens-homeless-2668454486.html