Hotel Lobby Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Checks and Balances Project

2016-12-16

Will Hotel Lobby Giant Bring Money Home? The new, widely-popular, and more sustainable method of hospitality offered by home sharing is under attack by the hotel lobby. As we continue to examine the hotel lobby’s campaign, one giant of the industry keeps turning up. It’s the largest hotel chain in the world: Marriott International. Marriott… Read more »

Was NYC Council Member Rosenthal’s Toronto Trip Worth More Than a Phone Call?

2016-12-2

During the week of October 24, 2016, Ms. Rosenthal traveled to Toronto at the behest of the “concerned citizens” group known as Fairbnb.

Will Dean Crouter Enforce Penn State’s Ethical Standards?

2016-11-22

C&BP Writes to Dean Crouter for Help to Get Prof. O’Neill to Follow Established Policy In October, we posed a series of questions to Penn State Provost Nicholas Jones about the School of Hospitality Management’s (SHM) and Professor John W. O’Neill’s relationship with the hotel industry lobby. On November 9th, the University finally responded in… Read more »

Hotel Lobby President Katherine Lugar Refuses to Discuss Model Legislation to Tax Home Sharers

2016-11-21

C&BP Executive Director’s Questions Rebuffed at AH&LA Board Meeting. We traveled to New York City last week to pose some important questions directly to Katherine Lugar, the leader of the hotel lobby, about efforts to penalize the sustainable, home sharing economy. During a break at the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s (AH&LA) board meeting at… Read more »

Hotel Lobby Proposes $1.25 Billion Tax on Home Sharers

2016-11-9

Model Legislation by Hotel Lobby Also Proposes New Regulatory Scheme While Hotels Receive Billions in Corporate Welfare. As readers know by now, we’ve begun looking into the hotel industry’s efforts to slow the growth of the home sharing industry, a more sustainable form of travel. Only hours after we published a new report on how major… Read more »

Welfare Checks to Hotel Lobby Totaled $3.6 Billion Since 2008

2016-11-2

Luxury Hotels Got Especially Large Amounts When industries mature, they use expanding profits to grow their lobbying influence and obtain not just favorable policies, but government largess in a variety of forms. In our newly launched look into the hotel industry’s influence peddling, we’re quickly finding this industry is following the path worn by the… Read more »

Is Professor John O’Neill Using Penn State to Run His Private Consulting Practice?

2016-10-31

Penn State needs to not just have ethical standards, but take their own ethical standards seriously. It appears that when it comes to Professor John O’Neill and what appears to be a lucrative consulting practice, the University has once again looked the other way.

NY Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal: Release Communications with Hotel Lobby

2016-10-28

Today, we sent a letter to New York Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal – sponsor of recent anti-home sharing legislation – that asks for her to voluntarily release all communications with relevant hotel lobby players. They include New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council (HTC) President Peter Ward or any other representatives of HTC; Neil Kwatra, Austin Shafran,… Read more »

4 Ways Penn State Pledged to Operate in a Strong Ethical Environment

2016-10-19

On October 7th, we sent a letter to Penn State University’s Provost Dr. Nicholas P. Jones that asked for his help so that our readers could better understand the School of Hospitality Management’s (SHM) relationship with the hotel industry lobby. Among other things, we asked about Penn State Professor John W. O’Neill, former director of… Read more »

Peter Ward’s Union Gave $100,000 to the Hotel Association of NYC

2016-10-14

How does Mr. Ward square giving $100,00 of union funds to an industry that opposes HTC’s attempts to organize many hotels and raise the pay for hotel housekeeping staff – particularly the Fight for $15?