Suffolk tweaks bill banning hotel hourly rates to combat sex trafficking

Suffolk County no longer plans to outlaw hourly rates at hotels and motels but will instead try to enforce a six-hour minimum to help law enforcement combat human and sex trafficking, a Suffolk lawmaker leading the change said.

The bill introduced last month — which could be approved as early as Dec. 16 — is undergoing several revisions after feedback from the hospitality industry, which argued there are legitimate reasons hotels offer rooms for less than an overnight stay, and advocates for sex trafficking victims who praised the legislation as an effective tool.

Legis. Chad Lennon (C-Rocky Point), the bill’s lead sponsor, told Newsday Friday while the legislation "is not going to resolve the issue in its entirety," it’s a way to help eliminate a "safe haven" for traffickers.

"Every place they want to run to to do their illegal activities, I’m going to make sure that we go after all of them," he said.

Suffolk law enforcement officials who focus on human trafficking have described hotels and motels as businesses that traffickers notoriously use as a base to operate. The shuttered Sayville Motor Lodge, for example, faced complaints for years before a slew of federal arrests in 2022 on sex trafficking charges.

Lennon said the revised bill, which he said will likely be publicly available Monday, doubles the fines originally listed of $250 and $1,000 to $500 and $2,000 and adds an exemption for hotels that offer a pool or cabana for guests to use during the day. He said the bill would add a photo ID requirement for guests to gain access to those services.

That change is meant to accommodate businesses that offer short stays through online apps that have grown in popularity like Dayuse and ResortPass.

The bill’s recordkeeping requirements would remain with hotel and motel owners required to keep digital copies of photo identifications of guests for five years and maintain security footage for a minimum of 90 days.

The Suffolk County Department of Consumer Affairs would be tasked with enforcing the regulations, according to the bill.

Lennon said lawmakers considered adding training requirements into the bill, but will instead circle back to that as separate legislation next year after conducting more research into accredited agencies and how the process would work.

Industry pushback

The Suffolk Legislature held a nearly two-hour public hearing on the bill Nov. 25. The bill will likely go back before the legislature’s Public Safety Committee next week and lawmakers could vote to approve it at the Dec. 16 meeting, Lennon said.

Dorothy Roberts, president of the Long Island Hospitality Association based in East Northport, disputed the notion that hourly rates directly equate to illicit activity. Through travel apps, people can reserve rooms for short blocks to use a hotel’s facilities for a variety of reasons, such as using a swimming pool or an airline passenger resting during a layover, she said during the public hearing.

In an interview days after the hearing, she told Newsday the industry would support a minimum number of hours required to book.

"There’s many reasons why people go to hotels for the day or want to use the hotel for the day," she said.

Roberts said it was "productive conversation" with lawmakers to reach a compromise that doesn't hurt legitimate businesses while also advancing the goal of reducing human trafficking.

"As I stated at that hearing, the hotel industry already has practices and processes in place and training for human trafficking or prevention of human trafficking in the hotels," she said.

Legis. Trish Bergin (R-East Islip) said during the hearing her fellow lawmakers feel the industry has not done enough to be proactive on the issue and are now "forcing the hand."

Roberts said she couldn’t provide a breakdown of how much revenue hotels and motels in Suffolk generate from hourly rates. She said each hotel could report revenue differently and there’s "no real study" examining such a breakdown. She said there are about 250 hotels and motels across Suffolk. 

Mickey Ahir, a hotelier, urged a "collaborative and informed approach" to the problem and said hotel and motel staff are often the first to identify suspicious activity.

"Tying the hands of legitimate businesses through rigid financial rules will not solve this complex problem," he said during the hearing. "But strengthening the relationship between industry and enforcement will."

Ahir is part of an ownership group that turned the former Lakeland Inn in Bohemia into the SkyBreeze Inn in 2023.

Advocates support bill

Stephanie Muller, who works directly with sex trafficking victims in Suffolk County, told lawmakers she believed the bill "would make a very big difference."

"I do not think that this is simply a feel-good bill or virtue signaling," she said at the hearing, when some lawmakers questioned the effectiveness of eliminating hourly rates.

Muller is the program supervisor for Safe Harbour, which focuses on caring for children who have been or are at risk of sexual exploitation. The program is part of the social service agency EAC Network based in Garden City.

She said her organization is willing to work with the industry and assist in training, adding when the organization has reached out to hotels and motels previously it has frequently resulted in a "dead end."

Anne Oh, chief counsel for the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, told lawmakers she’s seen the same patterns emerge in her current role and her previous position as an assistant district attorney.

"The significant percentage of commercial sexual exploitation of minors and adult trafficking in this county occurs in hotels and motels," she said.

She said poor record keeping and hourly rates are "common denominators" in cases of human and sex trafficking.

Near the end of the hearing, Legis. Dominick Thorne (R-Patchogue) posed a question to Oh: "Is this law going to save lives?" Oh replied, "Yes, sir."