Hotels are one of many venues that traffickers use to exploit their victims. As a result, industry leaders are increasingly recognizing the unique role they can play in preventing and disrupting this crime.
Since 2007, 1,434 cases of human trafficking in hotels and motels have been reported to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center* (NHTRC) and Polaris’s BeFree texting helpline. We know that pimps and traffickers use hotel and motel rooms when setting up so-called “dates” between victims of sex trafficking and those individuals purchasing sex. We also know labor trafficking is present in both the hotel industry’s work force and in the supply chain of its products.
Traffickers are capitalizing on the lack of awareness around this issue within the hotel industry. All too often, they continue to exploit their victims unchecked because staff, managers, and executives do not know what to look for.
*The NHTRC is now the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline.
