Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Law: A Preventive Approach, Seventh Edition

1. Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Law:A Preventive Approach, Seventh Edition Chapter 7 Guests and Other Patrons

2. Introduction • An innkeeper owes certain duties to those who use the hotel’s facilities • A hotel owes certain duties to guests but not to others • The outcome of many negligence lawsuits turns on whether or not the plaintiff is a guest

3. Who Qualifies as a Guest? • To qualify as a guest, the visit must be for the primary purpose for which an inn operates • Rental of rooms suitable for overnight stays

4. Intent of Parties • Innkeeper-guest relationship is contractual • Parties exchange the exclusive use of a guest room for money • Essential element of all contracts is an intention by the parties to enter a contract

5. Intent of Parties (continued) • Actions of the parties provide needed evidence • A request for a room or an advance registration is sufficient evidence of intent • If the innkeeper indicates a willingness to register a traveler and provide a room, this is sufficient evidence of intent

6. Registration • Registration clearly evidences intent, but is not essential for the relationship to exist

7. Registration (continued) • Delivery of Property • Some cases hold that a person who intends to register and delivers luggage to a hotel becomes a guest • Soon-to-be guest evidences intent by transferring possession of luggage to the hotel employee

8. Registration (continued) • Checking Out • Once a guest pays the bill and checks out of the hotel, termination of guest status follows closely in time • Not instantaneously terminated upon checkout, continues for a reasonable period of time while guest is on hotel premises

9. Guests’ Illegal Acts • Neither false registration nor an illegal or immoral purpose in occupying a room changes their status as a guest to whom the facility owes the duty of reasonable care

10. Termination of Guest-Innkeeper Relationship • Relationship ends when any of the following occurs: • Contracted time for the room has elapsed and has not been extended • Bill is not paid when due • Proper notice is given to vacate the hotel • A reasonable amount of time has passed since checkout • The bill has been settled and paid

11. Landlord-Tenant Relationship • A person who rents a room on a long-term basis has legal status as a tenant

12. Landlord-Tenant Relationship (continued) • Tenant or guest depends on: • Terms of the contract between parties • Extent to which control/supervision of patron’s room is maintained by proprietor • Rental rate interval • Length of occupancy • Incidental services offered • Whether the room has cooking facilities • Type of furnishings and who owns them