S.F. makes daily hotel cleaning rule permanent

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to make mandatory daily cleanings of hotel rooms permanent beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

A 60day emergency ordinance passed in July established the measures before hotels reopened and was strongly supported by Unite Here Local 2, the union that represents hotel workers. Hotel owners sued to invalidate the requirements in July.

Supervisors and supporters called the measure a way to boost tourist confidence as the city continues reopening, while hotel groups said it would add significant financial burdens and endanger workers by potentially exposing them to guests who are infected. They support cleaning hotel rooms once after a guest leaves.

Hotels were allowed to reopen for leisure

travelers on Sept. 14, a sign of progress after being shuttered in midMarch, with the exception of some hotels providing housing for homeless people and essential workers.

“The last few months have been very difficult,” Kevin Carroll, CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, told The Chronicle last week. “Financially, it’s been devastating.” Carroll estimated that hotel occupancy rates are 15% compared with 85% a year ago.

Guests can decline to have rooms cleaned and disinfected daily but cannot receive any financial incentives to do so. Hotel worker unions opposed programs that rewarded fewer cleanings, which were established before the pandemic and often touted environmental benefits. Workers have said they struggled to clean rooms that weren’t tidied up for days.

The average 250room hotel would pay an additional $220,000 per year to comply with the measure, according to Hotel Asset Value Enhancement, a hotel adviser.

San Francisco is projected to lose $10.7 billion in tourism spending in this year and next year after leisure and business travel froze for six months. Leisure and business travelers are expected to drop to 12.9 million this year, less than half of last year’s recordhigh.

The measure also requires hightraffic common areas in office buildings over 50,000 square feet to be cleaned multiple times a day, which building managers said would be a financial burden at the same time the office market is softening.