NYC hostels prepare for the sequel

Hostel operators from around the world will be in New York next week to lobby City Council for new regulations that will get them back on the good side of the law.

In 2010, City Hall, amid a larger effort to curb Airbnb, passed a law with the unintended consequence of making most city hostels illegal.

While in the Big Apple, the global hostel operators will be searching for appropriate sites — most of which will be in the less-expensive outer boroughs, where regular hotel flags fear to tread.

Other than those operating as nonprof- its or as cheap budget hotels with facilities that meet different standards, true hostels are currently illegal. About 50 of them closed in the wake of the 2010 law, causing an abrupt end to a annual revenue flow of an estimated $230 million.

Former Councilmember Mark Weprin, who left his post in June 2015 for a job in Gov. Cuomo’s administration, introduced hostel-friendly legislation in 2015 now being championed by Councilmembers Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), Karen Koslowitz (D-Queens), David Greenfield (D-Midwood), Jumaane Williams (D-Flatbush) and Rafael Espinal (D-Bushwick).

The Weprin bill would formally legalize the industry through a licensing and regulatory scheme handled by a new Office for Licensed Hostels within the Department of Consumer Affairs.

To that end, a group of hopeful hostel operators — led by Feargal Mooney, chief executive of Hostelworld Group, and including executives from Clink Hostels, Yellow Hostels, Meininger Hostels and Generator Hostels — are expected to meet next week with New York City officials.

Buoyed by the possibility of getting hostels’ porch lights on sooner rather than later, the execs also will be touring commercially zoned areas and sites with brokers from Cushman & Wakefield.