An ongoing hotel worker strike affected hotels in major cities across the United States over the Labor Day holiday and continues into this week.
While these strikes are now starting to die down — more details below — visitors to several major U.S. cities, including Honolulu, Boston and San Francisco, should still brace for potential disruption to their hotel stays as thousands of hotel workers seek new labor contracts with their employers.
Across the country, unions representing hotel workers have been negotiating for higher wages, improved working conditions and more employee protections. After many hotel labor contracts expired on August 31, local chapters of Unite Here, a major union focused on the hospitality industry, voted to authorize strikes and agreed to stay on strike until a new deal is reached.
“People who come to Hawaii have to save up for months, even years, to go on vacation and have certain experiences,” said Cade Watanabe, president of Unite Here Local 5, the union representing striking hotel workers in Honolulu. “I think our short-term strike not only helps visitors feel what it’s like to have a labor issue, but more importantly, the value of the contributions we make every day to make hotels successful.”
Which hotels are considering striking?
During the Labor Day holiday, more than 10,000 hotel workers went on strike at 23 hotels across eight U.S. cities.
Unite Here 2 (a union representing more than 15,000 hotel service workers in San Francisco, San Mateo County, and the East Bay and North Bay areas in California) has provided the following list of hotels currently on strike.
The specifics of each strike often vary depending on the individual business or group of workers participating in the strike.
It’s also worth noting that the details of the strike could change at any time, and more strikes could be announced in the coming days. The national organization Unite Here noted on Monday that strikes have been authorized and “could begin at any time in New Haven, [Connecticut]Oakland, [California] and Providence, [Rhode Island]”
| City | Strike Day | Affected Hotels |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | September 1-3 | Fairmont Copley Square
Hampton Inn Boston Seaport District Hotel Homewood Suites by Hilton Boston Seaport District Hilton Boston Logan Airport Hilton Boston Park Plaza Hotel |
| Greenwich, Connecticut | September 1-3 | Hyatt Regency Greenwich Hotel |
| Honolulu | September 1-3 | Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort
Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa Royal Hawaiian, a luxury resort, Waikiki (Marriott) Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (Marriott) Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort (Marriott) Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa Moana Surfrider, Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach (Marriott) |
| Kauai, Hawaii | September 1-3 | Sheraton Kauai Resort (Marriott) |
| San Francisco | September 1-3 | Grand Hyatt at SFO
Grand Hyatt San Francisco Hotel Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel Westin St. Francis San Francisco Hotel at Union Square (Marriott) Palace Hotel, a luxury hotel, San Francisco (Marriott) |
| San Diego | September 1-2 | Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel |
| San Jose, California | September 1-3 | DoubleTree by Hilton San Jose Hotel
Signia by Hilton San Jose |
The Fair Hotel Website There is a tool that allows you to enter your destination and see a list of hotels “at risk” of being attacked, as shown in the Honolulu image below.
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This is an updated list and we recommend checking the Fair Hotel website if you are planning a holiday in any of these areas.
If you are concerned that your hotel may be affected by the strikes, consider contacting the hotel directly to confirm what is going on and determine your options for cancelling or rebooking. The hotel may also mention any contingency plans in place for guests who must remain on the premises.
Please note that while strikes may be imminent, hotels are not required to notify guests of disruptions, even if they severely alter the overall hotel experience (i.e. no housekeeping or restaurant closures).
What if my hotel goes on strike?
A hotel staff strike during your trip or vacation can throw your plans into disarray, so there are a few things you should know about the situation.
First, while a hotel going through a strike may technically remain open, it will likely be operating with extremely lean staff and simple operations, which will significantly impact your stay—especially at full-service resorts with multiple restaurants, beach services, etc. At the hotel, striking workers will likely be outside marching instead of inside doing their regular jobs.
Back in 2018, during a major strike at Marriott hotels across the United States, TPG readers who stayed at striking Hawaii hotels told TPG that they experienced “terrible service,” received no compensation, and felt the situation “ruined” their Hawaii vacation. Others reported switching hotels after seeing firsthand how bad the service was.
Michael D’Angelo, vice president of labor relations at Hyatt, Americas, told TPG via email that “Hyatt hotels have contingency plans in place to minimize [the] impact on hotel operations related to potential strike activity.”
“Hilton makes every effort to maintain a cooperative and productive relationship with the unions that represent some of our Team Members, and we remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements that benefit both our valued Team Members and our hotels,” a Hilton spokesperson told TPG.
A Hilton spokesperson added that the company is “fully committed to providing our guests with our signature hospitality” and that “our hotels have contingency plans in place to ensure operations continue to run as smoothly as possible.”
Representatives for Marriott and Accor did not respond to requests for comment before publication time.
While not absolutely necessary, if your hotel is on strike, you should consider rebooking at a hotel that is not involved in a labor dispute. This can help preserve your trip or vacation by ensuring access to all the amenities and services you would expect from a hotel while preventing you from being accused by striking workers of crossing picket lines.
For travelers who may be affected, Unite Here has has created a guide to preparing for hotel strikes.:
“A strike means that workers who would normally clean rooms, scrub toilets, change sheets, cook meals and help you with your luggage are instead protesting outside the hotel,” the guide says. “Hotels may suspend services while they attempt to operate with reduced staff, and picket lines will extend outside the hotel for up to 24 hours a day. Do not eat, hold meetings or sleep at a hotel that is on strike.”
If you booked directly with the hotel, call your hotel as soon as possible and see if you can cancel your stay. Even if you booked a non-refundable room, let the hotel know that you have heard about the situation and would like a good-faith refund without any cancellation fees or penalties.
Before rebooking, find out if any other hotels in the area are also on strike to avoid a similar situation.
If all else fails and you feel like your trip is falling apart, it might be time to ask for their help. travel insurance policyWhether booked independently, through the hotel, or as part of your credit card, to determine whether a hotel strike is covered under your specific policy.
Why hotel strikes are ending — for now
While the current strike has died down, there’s no telling how long the threat of future strikes will hang over the U.S. travel landscape. Unite Here’s local unions will hold out as long as necessary to secure a meaningful contract for workers “calling for higher wages, equitable staffing and workloads, and a reversal of COVID-era cuts.” But for now, the strikes are less disruptive to hotel operations than the 2018 hotel worker strike, when more than 7,700 workers at 23 Marriott-affiliated hotels in the U.S. walked off the job from October to early December of that year.
“We’ll see what happens, but we want to do our best to highlight the systemic issues we’re having to deal with everywhere, with limited staff and cuts during Covid,” Watanabe said. “But more importantly, we’re in the hospitality business. We want customers to come back.
“Our strikes are also about customers, and we need employers to respect us and respect our customers,” he continued. “Obviously we’re willing to do whatever it takes to win, and we’ll see what happens in the coming days and months about what that needs to look like.”
That means that, with contracts expiring and the threat of future strikes, potential hotel disruptions could emerge during the busy fall tourist season. But there is still time to strike a deal before the worst-case scenario unfolds.
“Our colleagues are the heart of our business, and Hyatt has a long history of working with unions that represent our employees, including Unite Here,” D’Angelo said. “We remain optimistic that mutually beneficial agreements can be reached without the need for a strike, and we look forward to continuing to negotiate contracts that are fair and recognize the contributions of Hyatt employees.”
