Anyone thinking of visiting New York City will be shocked at the nose-bleed prices of hotels.  Its average daily rate in July of $318 is the highest for any major U.S. market and is up 23 percent in the last four years.

Such prices for the equivalent of a broom closet didn’t used to be normal. What gives?

It won’t shock HOTLINE readers that the villains are mostly the government and unions. They have simultaneously limited short-term rentals such as Airbnb, reducing the number of listings by 80 percent, while at the same time closing 55 affordable youth hostels and spending tax dollars to fill hotels with the homeless and foreign migrants.

Now the City Council wants to prohibit non-unionized hotels from contracting out tasks like housekeeping and security. This will only “make New York City the worst hotel market in the country,” says the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Sorry, it already is, but New York’s City Council is hell-bent on making it worse.