COVID-19 Accomplishments

Amnesty For Fines

The NYC Hospitality Alliance helped lead the charge to enact legislation that established an amnesty program for restaurants, bars and other small businesses that will provide a 75% reduction on many unpaid violations small businesses received during the COVID-19 restrictions, and a 25% fine reduction on many pre-pandemic violations going back eight years, while waiving late fees and interest. 

Covid Recovery Surcharge

The NYC Hospitality Alliance successfully advocated for the COVID recovery surcharge. This legislation was enacted to give restaurants the same right as every other industry in NYC to use a clearly disclosed surcharge, if they choose, to help generate revenue to pay for increasing expenses such as PPE, outdoor dining expenses, labor costs, rent, etc - a policy that some restaurants have wanted to experiment with.

Covid-19 Restrictions Lifted

The NYC Hospitality Alliance joined Governor Cuomo and leaders from around New York on June 15, 2021 to announce that 70% of our state’s adults have been fully vaccinated or received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This important news meant that we hit a critical threshold in which essentially all the state’s remaining COVID-19 New York Forward guidelines for eating and drinking establishments were lifted. After months of shutdowns, limited occupancy, social distancing, barriers, no bar service or standing, enhanced cleaning and disinfection requirements, temperature and health screenings, collection of contact information for tracing, posting of COVID-19 related  signage, and many more restrictions, this was a momentous day.

DEP Water Bill Amnesty Program

The Alliance advocated and helped secure a water bill Amnesty Program that offered customers like restaurants up to 100% forgiveness of accrued interest if they pay all or part of their outstanding debt and enter into a payment agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection.

Drinks To-Go

The NYC Hospitality Alliance successfully advocated to allow restaurants and bars to sell “alcohol to-go” at the start of the pandemic and the Governor extended the policy every month for more than one year. The alcohol to-go policy was very popular with customers and provided a critical revenue stream to struggling restaurants and bars. 

However, when the policy abruptly ended in 2021, it dealt a financial blow to many restaurants and bars. Since that time, the NYC Hospitality Alliance fiercely advocated for the return of this popular and important policy. Then on April 7, 2022, the Governor and Legislature agreed to reinstate the “drinks to go” policy for restaurants and bars. A major victory for the NYC Hospitality Alliance and our industry!

Grants and Rent Relief

Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature announced an agreement on the state’s FY 2022 budget, which includes $1 billion in small business and arts relief and recovery assistance for which the NYC Hospitality Alliance and others advocated. Here is an overview:

• COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program: Provides $800 million in grant funding for small businesses including for-profit arts and cultural institutions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• New York Restaurant Resiliency Grant Program: $25 million in grant funding to support restaurants that provide meals to distressed and under-represented communities. 
• Restaurant Return-To-Work Tax Credit: Provides up to $35 million in tax credits to support restaurants hard hit by the pandemic through 2021.

Paycheck Protection Program

The NYC Hospitality Alliance successfully advocated with organizations around the nation for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans/grants. While the well-intended, the original PPP was very helpful to businesses around the country, it didn't work for the hospitality industry, and we successfully advocated with Senator Schumer and the New York Congressional Delegation to pass the PPP Flexibility Act, which included several improvements for the hospitality industry such as: Extending the expense forgiveness period from eight weeks to 24 weeks; Reducing the payroll ratio requirement to 60% from 75% for forgiveness; Increasing the loan repayment period from two to five years; Allowing payroll tax deferment for PPP recipients; And, extending the rehiring deadline.

Personal Guarantees In Leases

A law was passed and later extended suspending the enforcement of personal liability guarantees in commercial leases.

Restaurant Revitalization Fund

The NYC Hospitality Alliance successfully advocated with Senator Schumer and the New York Congressional delegation to help include the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) in the American Rescue Plan, which provides $28.6 billion in debt-free relief for small and mid-sized restaurants and bars. The RRF provides up to $5 million in grants — not loans — for individual restaurants, caterers, breweries and tasting rooms or, alternatively, up to $10 million for qualified restaurant groups, to help cover pandemic-related revenue losses. This is the most monumental relief enacted to save countless eating and drinking establishments and jobs in New York City and around the country affected by Covid-19.

Shuttered Venue Operator Grant

The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program was established by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, and amended by the American Rescue Plan Act. This grant provides emergency assistance for eligible venues affected by COVID-19. The program includes over $16 billion in grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance.

Sidewalk Cafe Fees Waived During Covid-19

City waived sidewalk café fees to restaurants and reimbursed payments.

Suspension of Personal Liability Guarantees in Leases, Eviction Moratorium, and Harassment 

The NYC Hospitality Alliance successfully advocated to pass a critically important law suspending the enforcement of personal liability in commercial leases, so small business owners could not have their personal assets seized by their landlords due to their inability to pay rent because of Covid-19 and the severe government restrictions placed on their operations. We also helped secure and extend the state’s Commercial Eviction Moratorium so small businesses could be kicked out of their space. Another important law was enacted that increased penalties to landlords for harassing commercial tenants affected by Covid-19.

Temporary Liquor Licenses

The NYC Hospitality Alliance successfully advocated for a law allowing the State Liquor Authority (SLA) to issue temporary liquor licenses to new applicant restaurants and bars in New York City, just as the law allows the SLA to do for new applicants elsewhere in New York State. This policy makes a huge difference for people looking to invest in New York City and open new restaurants and bars by reducing the time to begin legally serving alcohol from 5-6 months from the time of filing with SLA, to closer to 30-60 days from the time of filing with SLA. It will help get closed businesses open faster and employees back to work quicker.

Third-Party Delivery Regulation

The NYC Hospitality Alliance led the fight for to regulate third-party delivery companies and create a fairer and more equitable marketplace for our city’s restaurants with the most supportive reform in industry anywhere in the country. These reforms include:

Customer Data

This law requires third-party delivery companies to provide restaurants, upon request, with all customer data of people who order from their restaurants through such platforms. Data includes email address and order history. The customer data must be provided in a machine-readable format, disaggregated by customer, on an at least monthly basis. Restaurants may use this data for their own marketing outside the third-party website, however, they may not the sell data to another party. The customer will have the option to opt out of the data share and request and receive deletion of their data from a restaurant. This legislation will allow restaurants to better own and manage their customer relationships while driving profitable direct delivery and on-premises dining business. Importantly, it will reduce the leverage huge third-party delivery companies have over restaurants when they do not share with restaurants their own customer data. This allows them to be gatekeepers and ensure orders are driven through their channels where they extract hefty fees, especially when it’s not incremental business the third-party delivery company is generating. By not sharing data, it makes it difficult for restaurants to leave third-party delivery platforms because then they lose access to their customers, and then the platforms continue to use their customer data to promote competitor restaurants that stay on their platform. The legislation empowers restaurants to leave exploitative platforms if they choose because they will now have access to their customer data and can market to them directly. 

Extended Prohibition of Bogus Phone Fees

This law extends the prohibition and penalties on third-party delivery companies if they charge restaurants bogus fees for phone call orders from customer that do not result in an order placed. This law is important because some third party companies have a well-documented history of charging restaurants bogus fees when customers call one of the secondary phone numbers they create for them but do not place an order.

Permanent Fee Cap

This now permanent law caps third-party delivery company fees at 5% for listing and marketing a restaurant on their platform, and an additional 15% for conducting the physical delivery of food and beverage. Additionally, the amount of the credit card fee may be passed through to the restaurant. This legislation is so important because third-party platforms were using their immense leverage and their market share over local restaurants to extract fees sometimes exceeding 30% of each order processed, while using other sophisticated techniques to keep restaurants on their platforms, increase fees and engage in other exploitative practices. 

Phone Number Listing Transparency

This law requires third-party delivery companies to list a restaurant’s direct phone number wherever they list a restaurant’s phone number. If they create a secondary phone number for the restaurant, they must disclose that it’s not a direct number to the restaurant and explain any fees associated with using the secondary number and if they are imposed on the restaurant or caller. This legislation is important because third-party delivery companies create secondary phone numbers they control for restaurants and then they will collect a fee for the orders placed via that number. Then they use their vast financial resources and technical expertise to promote those secondary numbers ahead of the restaurants own phone number for which the restaurant would not pay a fee for the order. Even customers that aim to call direct to save a restaurant a fee get confused and call the wrong number. Secondary numbers also result in bogus fees being charged to restaurants. This bill provides transparency to the customer to help them order direct when they want, while making them aware of any associated fees incurred to them or the restaurant.

Prohibit Listing Restaurants Without Approval

This law requires third-party delivery companies from listing restaurants on their platforms without their approval. It will require third-party delivery companies to obtain a written agreement with a restaurant before listing them on their platform. This legislation is important because some third-party platforms list restaurants on their sites without permission, which results in them posting out-of-date menus with items no longer offered by the restaurants, list the incorrect price, out of stoc. k items, items offered for in-restaurant dining only and not delivery, and in cases have listed menus from the wrong restaurants or those that don’t even offer delivery. This misleads and hurts consumers and is hugely problematic because when an order is incorrect, the customer inevitably blames the restaurant, which inadvertently tarnishes their reputation and can cause bad reviews and loss of future customers.