Legal Aspects of Hospitality Management - Essay Example

Legal Aspects of Hospitality Management: Hotel Liability al Affiliation Legal Aspects of Hospitality Management: Hotel Liability Introduction To be a successful hotel manager or manager in the hotel industry one must understand a variety of laws or legal aspects that come into play in different contexts and circumstances. A manager must understand the legal issues that may be applied for example, when certain issues are not met by the hotel. As such, there are many issues covered by law in the hotel industry that include employer and employee relationships, customer issues, contract issues and also management issues. This paper specifically discusses the legal aspects that are applied with respect to hotel liability. Hotel Liability Both hotel managers and customers should know the legal aspects, regulations and policies that affect their relationship to the hotel, either in terms of employment or occupancy. There are special aspects that affect the hotel industry generally because of hotel establishments are open to the public. Therefore, as a manager it is important to understand that the duties that hotels owe to the public are based on the historic fact that when travelers come to their premises and need assistance with issues such as food or places to sleep, they should be provided with those needs in a manner that satisfies them and also the hotel. Most modern hotel laws are based on the old English common law (Rutherford & OFallon, 2007). There are key aspects that managers must understand in the hotel industry with respect to laws on hotel liability. First, it is important to understand that hotels are not always liable for every loss, injury or accident that occurs in their premises whether involving employees or guests and they do not insure absolute safety for all its occupants unless fault can be clearly directed towards the hotel. However, hotels have a duty to apply reasonable care to their employees and guests in ensuring that they are safe. Another important aspect is that hotels might be held vicariously viable for the negligence of their employees. in addition, hotels may generally evict registered guests and may retain the possessions of evicted guests as security for room charges. Hotels may also generally limit their liability for losses in cases where conspicuous notes were given to guests. These are some of the key issues that generally apply to hotels in liability issues (Radolovic, 2011). Authority with respect to Liability The federal government of the United states of America has put limited terms of involvement in the private relationships between hotels and guests. This is specifically put under Title 42 of the U.S. Code of Chapter 21 of the Public Accommodation Act that prohibits discrimination in the hotel premises. This is an extension of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that applies to hotels, motels, inns and other businesses that provide lodging to transient guests. Hotels are also required to meet the needs of persons with disabilities provided under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in any hotel facilities. This means that hotel establishments must ensure that no issues or physical aspects prevent persons with disabilities from accessing the services provided by the hotels. Another Act that applies as an authority and affects liability in the hotel industry is the Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act 1990 that was amended in 1996 (OFallon & Rutherford, 2010). This Act requires hotel facilities to have certain safety measures beyond those that are applied in local building laws. These Acts serve as primary authorities on issues of hotel liability. However, the English common law on contract and tort (negligence). However, it is important to understand that individual States are allowed to enact statuses that touch on hotel rights and duties as long as they do not contradict federal laws touching on similar rights and duties. Hotels can also get waivers or limitations to issues of liability in cases where such issues are not deemed unconscionable in law and fact (Radolovic, 2011). Duties of Hotels and Liability Issues Duty to Receive Guests The duty to receive guests is the most important public duty that hotels must fulfill. However, this is not to say that hotels must fulfill duty as an absolute issue. However, there are certain reasons that hotels can use to deny guests accommodation. Hotels may do this if a person cannot pay for a room or hotel provisions, is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, will violate the facility’s rules and regulations, will use the facility for unlawful purposes and will endanger the lives of other people at the facility. Therefore, liability issues will apply if the hotel denies accommodation to a person if the person clearly proves that he could fulfill the above requirements as required by the hotel facility. However, there are certain reservations that come into play where hotels are not liable. However, these reservations must be confirmed in the sense that they must generally constitute binding agreements between the guest and the facility. In cases where the guests fail to observe the provided reservations, the hotel facility is entitled to apply damages on the guest. Likewise, in cases where the hotel fails to honor a reservation agreement, the guest is free to sue the facility for damages. One clear aspect that should be understood here is that when hotels have available accommodation but deny guests, they may be held liable for breach of their duties (Tonner, 2013). An area that has been problematic with issues of reservations is hotel overbooking. In the U.S., many hotels have come up with pledges that are applied by hotels when they are required to secure comparable accommodations in cases where a patron has a confirmed reservation but the hotel has a full booking. This has also been taken up by several States that have enacted laws that touch on hotel overbooking that require hotels to find alternative accommodations for guests and also the fines that hotels should pay guests in the event that they are turned away because of overbooking. The Right to Evict Guests and Liability issues Hotels can evict guests in certain circumstances. Some of the reasons that can be applied to evict a guest include non-payment of hotel fees, use of hotel facility for unlawful acts, false pretense to acquire accommodation, disorderly conduct, putting the lives of other people at the facility in danger and violating the facilities rules of accommodation among others. Therefore, a hotel can be liable if it evicts a guest without consideration of the above issues. Therefore, to avoid liability, a hotel must ensure that a guest is only evicted when it can prove that the guest’s character or admission fell into one or more of these reasons. Duty to Non-Guests It is widely known that persons who are not guests to hotels or their facilities have not rights to enter in to the hotel or their public areas, such as lobbies if the facility objects. Irrespective of the fact that hotels invites the public to enter and seek accommodation or any other form of service offered by the hotels, any person who enters the hotel or its facilities without the intention of seeking accommodation or other services provided by the hotel remains in the premises only through the consent of the hotel. However, there are certain cases where the hotel has a duty to non-guests. This exception is applied when an existing guest invites a non-guest. In this case, the hotel has the discretion of allowing the non-guest to access the premises only for that purpose. Despite this duty to non-guests, a hotel might revoke this right if the guest invites the non-guests for purposes that violate the rules and regulations defined by the hotel for guests. For example, if guests invite non-guests to the hotel premises for purposes of soliciting business, the hotel has no duty to permit such non-guest and has the right to revoke the duty to such non-guests. Liability issues in the duty to non-guests are generally not defined because issues that may lead to liability concerns are minimal (Tonner, 2013). Duty to Safe Premises The duty to provide safe premises for guests is covered under the common law duty of business and social invitees of a hotel. Hotels are required to provide reasonable care for the safety of their guests and potential guests. When hotels fail to take measures to provide safety for their guests and are found upon inspection to have taken no action on aspects that they knew posed danger to guests, they are liable for negligence. Hotels must also warn guests of hazards and other things that could pose danger to them in due time. Therefore, hotels have an affirmative duty to inspect their premises and remove all things that could pose danger to employees and guests. However, it is also important to understand that the law does not protect the guests from their own negligence. Guests should be able to know and avoid potential hazards. For instance, guests should use stairs safely knowing that they could fall if they do not observe their safety (Tonner, 2013). If guests fall when using the stairs because of their own negligence, they cannot claim liability on the hotel. Therefore, the negligence of guests cannot be used as a basis of claiming liability (Rutherford & OFallon, 2007). Safety becomes complex in certain situations for hotels. Hotels might be held liable for injury caused to their guests by other guests because the affirmative duty requires hotels to provide safety and security to their guests. However, the hotel can only be held liable if it is proven that, it was negligent. In addition, hotels have the right to evict guests who violate the rules of the facilities or put the lives off other guests at risk. However, hotels still have the affirmative duty to protect such guests even when evicting them because if they are injured in the process, the hotels are held liable. This means that when evicting guests, hotels should exercise extra care, for instance by calling the police to avoid issues of liability on the injury of guests (Barth, 2006). Hotels also have the affirmative duty to provide safety and security for their guests against damage or injury from third parties. In most States in America, hotels take more burden of protection compared to property owners or other business owner. For example, hotels are required to put secure door locks and windows in their premises to prevent their guests from potential injury or being victims of theft. However, establishing the extent of liability when dealing with security issues of third party concerns is difficult. This is because guests may put themselves in situations that make them potential victims of third party insecurity and blame it on the hotel. Despite this fact, hotels could be held viable if it is found that they were negligent by failing to take steps to protect their guests from third party security concerns (Tonner, 2013). Duty for Personal Property To avoid liability, most hotels exempt their facilities from loss or damage to personal property kept in hotel rooms. In certain cases, hotels limit the amount of liability they can take for such issues but encourage guests to take care of their properties. As such, there are only minimal cases where hotels can be held liable for loss of personal property, for example when such loses occur because of the hotel’s employees. Statutory and Contractual Limitations on limitations on Liability Hotels can limit liability based on certain contractual or statutory aspects. In the U.S., all States have legislations that allow hotels to limit their liability for damage caused to guests or their personal property. Hotels may limit liability on losses or harms on loss of valuables or injury to guests depending on how these issues occur, for instance based on a guest’s negligence. Therefore, it is imperative that hotel managers as well as guests understand policies and laws that apply on hotel liability and limitations that can be applied and also the basis upon which liability and the limitation is applied (Rutherford & OFallon, 2007). Conclusion For managers to ensure that their hotels operate successfully in the hotel industry, they must understand hotel liability laws and applications within the hotel industry. Understanding this aspect is important because it enables hotels to ensure that they operate in a manner that prevents them from suits of liability that could also taint their image. Important aspects in hotel liability include the duties that hotels should fulfill for employees and guests and the conditions under which liability can be applied as discussed above. References Barth, S. C. (2006). Hospitality Law: Managing Legal Issues in the Hospitality Industry. Wiley. OFallon, M. J., & Rutherford, D. G. (2010). Hotel management and operations. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Rutherford, D. G., & OFallon, M. J. (Eds.). (2007). Hotel management and operations. New York: John Wiley. Radolovic, O. (2011). Allotment Contract through the Hotel-Keepers General and Special Liability for Damage, The. J. Intl Com. L. & Tech., 6, 96. Tonner, K. (2013). USA: Hotel liability/legionnaire’s disease/forum non convenience. IFTTA Law Review, 3(3), 20-21. Read More