They don't help people who want to make a new hotel, but they increase barriers to entry into the hotel marketplace, which benefits established players in the space. An analogous case is federal/iihs car safety regulations - since it costs xx million to get a car federally certified, you didn't see that many automotive startups until pretty recently, and we don't get a lot of European cars since it would cost to much to recertify them for the us market
We get plenty of European cars. The only European brands that I've never seen in the US are Seat and Citroen, neither of which is especially competitive even within Europe. Car safety regulations are not there just to aid established players, as evidenced by the fact that US car companies have often strenuously opposed them.
They do reduce injuries and deaths from car accidents, which otherwise impose a high cost upon society.
This actually affected me directly. A mate and I were looking into bringing over some utes from Australia. Even though the cars are fit for the road over there, the governments here all wanted to "re-certify" the safety of the cars, which meant purchasing several for the sole purpose of having the crashed. Even then, the certifications would only apply to specific years.
Now I can understand trying to protect against some crazy welding his own frames in his backyard, but these are cars built by Ford and GM and driven millions of miles on tougher roads than any over here. Completely knackered.
(Edited from "instead of" to "but not", since the original assertion was that they only help hotel owners.)