HospitalityLawyer.com Blog

Don’t miss the only conference devoted exclusively to legal, safety and security issues impacting the hotel, restaurant, and travel industries.

Early registration ends today, January 11. Register today to receive discounted registration rates.

Program Topics:

• Information Protection and Privacy, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards Workshop
• Hospitality Real Estate Transactions Workshop
• Hotel & Restaurant In-House Counsel Workshop (in-house counsel only)
• Food & Beverage Breakout
• Human Resources & Labor Relations Breakout
• Lodging and Fundamentals of Hospitality Law Breakout
• Loss Prevention and Risk Management Breakout
• General Sessions, including:
  • Information Protection & Privacy: The New High Stakes Game
  • Critical Issues in Payment Card/Merchant Relations
  • It’s Not Easy Being Green
  • The Franchise Debate
  • A Primer on Representing Airlines and Cruise Ships
  • An Ethics Sampler - Five Top Mistakes to Avoid

HRCI and CLE Available.

Helpful links:

Conference Brochure

Conference Website

Conference Agenda

With the pervasiveness of in-room safes, the industry needs to request clarifying language in innkeeper statutes.

Do state statutes requiring safes/safety deposit boxes include in-room safes? The statutory language needs to clarify whether in-room safes are included in the definition of a “safe” or “safety deposit box.”  And if so, are innkeepers still required to have safety deposit boxes at the front desk?

So far, we are aware that Hawaii and Massachusetts have modified their statutes.

Hawaii’s innkeeper statute contains a separate clause limiting liability when  a “security box” is in a guest’s room.  The statute is available at http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol11_Ch0476-0490/HRS0486K/HRS_0486K-0004.htm and is excerpted below:

If the keeper of a hotel provides a security box in the room of any guest and prominently posts a notice stating that a security box is provided in which valuables may be deposited and explains the liability for losses therefrom, the keeper of the hotel shall not be liable in any sum for any loss sustained by the guest unless the loss is due to the negligence or fault of the keeper of the hotel.

Similarly, Massachusetts’ statute also contains a separate clause limiting liability when a safe is provided in a guest’s room.  The statute is available at http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/140-10.htm and is excerpted below:

Whenever an innholder provides a security box in the room of any guest, the innholder shall not be liable for the loss of any items deposited in the security box, by theft or otherwise, in excess of one thousand dollars; provided, however, that the provisions of section thirteen have been complied with.

If your hotel has in-rooms safes, have you continued to maintain safety deposit boxes at the front desk?

The HospitalityLawyer Loss Prevention Newsletter addresses recent safety and security updates, regulations, and laws affecting hotels, restaurants, bars, country clubs, spas, and other hospitality businesses.

The March Loss Prevention Newsletter features articles on Building Envelope Damage Assessment, Water Temperature Caution, A Challenge to Electronic Access Cards, Bomb Threat Extortion, and Recall Data from the CPSC.

Visit the March Loss Prevention Newsletter at http://www.hospitalitylawyer.com/Newsletters/mar09lpnews.html.

To sign-up for free newsletters focusing on legal, safety, and security issues affecting hotels, restaurants, bars, country clubs, spas, and other hospitality businesses, please visit http://www.hospitalitylawyer.com/index.php?id=213.