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A union-backed effort would boost wages for hotel and airport workers. But with tourism down, and the city in a slump, hotel owners fear for their survival.
Aug. 4, 2025, 12:16 p.m. ET
Jeff Zarrinnam scanned the ground-floor cafe at the Hollywood Hotel and longed for its former bustle.
Tourists from around the world once packed the tables, sipping lattes and thumbing through brochures for celebrity-home bus tours. But one morning this summer, a lone couple vacationing from Tijuana, Mexico, sat in a corner, nursing coffees and scrolling their iPhones.
“We don’t have the customers,” Mr. Zarrinnam said. “It’s becoming difficult to run this business.”
The Hollywood Hotel’s troubles aren’t unique. A report from the nonprofit Visit California, which tracks tourism in the state, forecast a decline in international tourism of around 9 percent in 2025, driven in part by negative sentiment toward the United States as a result of the Trump administration’s trade policies. Los Angeles has seen a 5 percent decline in international air arrivals this year.
On top of it all, payroll for owners like Mr. Zarrinnam could go up more than 40 percent because the city passed a measure to increase wages for hotel and airport workers to $30 an hour over the next three years.
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It would be among the highest minimum wages in the nation and apply to workers at hotels with at least 60 rooms.
