Manhattan Councilmember Julie Menin is leading an effort to establish a licensing system for the 800 hotels in New York City, arguing the industry needs greater regulation to protect hotel workers and guests.

Menin’s effort is supported by the union that represents 40,000 hotel workers.

“While the vast majority of hotels are very safe places and important economic drivers, we do have some bad actor hotels, which is why we’ve had 39 murders at hotels, over 14,500 complaints to the NYPD in recent years,” she told NY1.

“Over 3,000 people its estimated are in human trafficking situations in New York hotels,” she added.

The Safe Hotels Act would establish a licensing system for hotels under the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, require on-site security measures for larger hotels, mandate hotel employee panic buttons, and make human trafficking recognition training mandatory for key hotel staff.

The CEO of the Hotels Association of NYC Vijay Dandapani emphasizes “there’s a statewide human trafficking law that every hotel has to comply with.”

The Safe Hotels Act would also require frond desk and housekeeping staffers to be employees of the hotels and not subcontractors.

Dandapani says some hotels can’t afford to hire their own employees to fill those roles.

“With these smaller hotels, it’s essentially a way of handling costs. The costs in the city are the highest in the country,” Dandapani said.

After intense opposition from several groups representing hotel owners, Menin canceled a recent City Council hearing on the Safe Hotels Act. However, she then rallied with supporters on the steps of City Hall, vowing to move forward.

The Manhattan lawmaker told NY1 she’s willing to make modifications to the bill.

“We will be scheduling a hearing in the near future and we welcome feedback on it,” Menin said.