Hotel Ordinance Toolkit

Houston City Council approved an ordinance that requires hotels to train their employees, post signs and certify with the city’s regulatory agency that they have complied. We know that traffickers often use hotels to facilitate trafficking in persons, be it for sex trafficking, moving a sex trafficking victim from city to city to exploit them or to use sub-contracted labor that is then exploited. We also know that traveling sales crews (groups of teens and/or young adults) that are forced to sell products such as magazines often stay at hotels. In a study conducted by a US-based trafficking think tank, 75% of sex trafficking victims surveyed reported being at a hotel during their victimization. Furthermore, local news often details the alleged victimization of women and girls being sold for sex near hotels. The materials used in this toolkit include the final ordinance and supporting documents such as Director’s Rules, Policy, and FAQ’s for the regulatory agency that has oversight of the ordinance’s requirements.