NYC Pays Over $300 a Night for Budget Hotel Rooms for Migrants

Some of New York City's struggling hotels are charging the city premium rates to provide emergency housing for migrants — even as the city slashes services to pay the bills.

The Holiday Inn in Manhattan’s Financial District.

Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The Holiday Inn in Manhattan’s Financial District has had a tough few years, shutting twice during the pandemic and struggling with too much debt. In November, owner Jubao Xie put the 50-story hotel, the world's tallest Holiday Inn, into bankruptcy.

Just weeks later, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s administration came with a lifeline: It wanted to rent all 492 rooms to house roughly 15,000 migrants over the next 15 months.