A bike rack at Baymont by Wyndham in Kingston, Massachusetts. Photo taken on Monday, April 1, 2024, around 8:30 a.m. Photo by Tom Joyce
If you drive past the Baymont by Wyndham Kingston Plymouth Bay, you may notice a rack of colorful bicycles with about a dozen bikes on it.
That’s because Baymont, which is currently closed to the public, is a migrant hotel — and the bikes are there as a mode of transportation for the migrants staying there, two hotel employees told NewBostonPost by telephone on Tuesday.
One employee told NewBostonPost that bicycles have been donated to the hotel. She said the hotel is accepting bicycle donations and urged people to call the hotel, if interested in donating bikes that are in decent condition. She also said that the hotel plans to get another bike rack for the bikes it has and is getting.
The bicycles allow the migrants to go to places like church, public parks, and playgrounds, as well as work if they have a work permit.
People in the state’s emergency shelter system can leave their respective shelters and hotels, though shelters have curfews, according to the state’s web site. These curfews vary from shelter to shelter but are typically between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Typically, people can leave their rooms beginning a 6 a.m., the guidelines said.
Many of the migrants in Massachusetts come from Haiti. Not only do these migrants not own cars, but many of them don’t know how to drive one.
In Haiti, only 26 percent of people regularly use any sort of motorized vehicle, according to WorldBank. However, many Haitians know how to ride a bike.
“Having a bike is really important in Haiti,” a blog post from His Heart for Haiti said. “It is how you and your friends get around. We have seen up to four people on one! There are 3x more bikes on the road here at a given time than automobiles!”
Wyndham Kingston Plymouth Bay has been a migrant hotel since October 2022, according to GBH News.
Migrants are staying there because of the state’s right-to-shelter law. Massachusetts is the lone state in the union that by law guarantees access to shelter services for some families and pregnant women.
However, the statute has faced scrutiny over its lack of a residency requirement, which has resulted in newly arrived migrants overwhelming the shelter system. The law also allows some families that include illegal immigrants to use the program.
A photo of the bike rack is available below:
A bike rack at Baymont by Wyndham in Kingston, Massachusetts. Photo taken on Monday, April 1, 2024, around 8:30 a.m. Photo by Tom Joyce
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A bike rack at Baymont by Wyndham in Kingston, Massachusetts. Photo taken on Monday, April 1, 2024, around 8:30 a.m. Photo by Tom Joyce 
