Senate Commerce Committee members heard testimony supporting Senate Bill 19, which would update New Hampshire lodging statutes to reflect modern recordkeeping and marketing practices and repeal century-old requirements to post room rates.

Sponsor Sen. Dan Innes (D-7) told the committee the bill “is really a hotel housekeeping bill” and that it aligns statutory language on recordkeeping with how the lodging industry “actually operates” by allowing a single record keeping standard instead of both a book and a card system. He said the bill also repeals requirements that hotels post maximum and minimum room rates in guest rooms and at front desks, and that motels post rates on outside signs—rules he described as “antiquated.”

The New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association’s president and CEO, Mike Summers, testified in support, saying the industry had asked for the changes and that the current statutes put businesses in an awkward legal position. “This just really cleans up some parts of the statute which, frankly, nobody uses,” Summers said, adding he had “inadvertently stumbled across” the booking-card requirement in the statute.

No members of the public raised objections during the hearing. After witnesses and questions, the committee recessed and later took executive action. In executive session the committee moved that Senate Bill 19 ought to pass; the motion passed without recorded dissent in the transcript of the session.

The bill’s sponsor framed SB 19 as a narrow modernization: (1) permit modern, digital recordkeeping rather than an older combined book-and-card requirement, and (2) remove posting obligations that predate widespread digital rate transparency.

If enacted, the changes would remove specified posting and antiquated booking-card rules from state law; the bill does not create new reporting obligations or new fees.

Votes at a glance: The Commerce Committee later recorded an executive-session motion that SB 19 “ought to pass.” The transcript shows the committee moved and approved the recommendation during executive session.

The committee’s next steps will be to file its recommendation with the Senate calendar; the transcript does not state any floor schedule or next hearing date for Senate Bill 19.