15th Annual Legisl ativeActionSummit On Wednesday March 2, 2016, CH&LA, AAOHA, and CABBI hosted their 15th Annual Legislative Action Summit (LAS) at the Sutter Club in Sacramento, CA. Participants attending represented over 50 different hotels, resorts, universities, development companies, vendors, management, and hospitality groups. Speakers at this year’s summit included State Senator Mike McGuire, Michael Jacobson with the U.S. Travel Association, Chip Rogers with the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and Marty Wilson with the California Chamber of Commerce. The LAS highlights provided the opportunity for attendees to understand how the legislative process works in Sacramento and to learn what the critical legislative issues facing our industry are. After lunch, attendees went to the Capitol and focused legislators on the important contributions the hospitality industry makes to California’s economy and addressed the important issues the industry is following. CH&LA drew attention to two major issues being considered in Sacramento that are important to the industry and to workers and local communities where they operate. Huma n Tra ffick ing: Hotels play an important role in fighting human trafficking and have worked to increase awareness of this important issue. Through currently available resources, hotels are encouraged to establish procedures and policies to determine how to best address these terrible crimes. CH&LA is closely watching proposed legislation and looks forward to proactively ensuring that any final legislation is effective, while not being overtly onerous to the hotel and lodging industry. Short-Term Rentals : Hoteliers simply want a level playing field with short-term rental platforms. Short-term rentals are very much a commercial enterprise with as much as 40% of the revenue from platforms being derived by commercial businesses, which are essentially running illegal and unregulated hotels. Additionally, short-term rental platforms have largely refused to cooperate with local municipalities, compounding the issues of regulation and enforcement. The Legislative Action Summit once again gave hoteliers the opportunity to advocate on CH&LA’s behalf and let the legislators know how vital the hospitality industry is to California. 18 California Hotel & Lodging Association Spring 2016
CH_LA Lodging News Spring 2016
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