Hotel Proprietors (CAP. 203 1

CHAPTER 203

THE HOTEL PROPRIETORS ACT

Arrangement of Sections
Section

1. Short title.
2. Interpretation.
3. Common tariff.
4. Obligation of hotel proprietor.
5. Duty to receive goods in safe custody.
6. Liability of proprietor for loss of or damage to property

of guest.
7. Limits of liability.
8. Lien and power of sale.

SCHEDULE.

HOTEL PROPRIETORS

An Act relating to the rights and liabilities of hotel
proprietors.

(27th December, 1984.) 1511984.

1. This Act may be cited as the Hotel Proprietors Act. Short title.

2. In this Act- Interpretation.

"guest" means a person received into an hotel for the
purpose of partaking of food or drink or using sleep-
ing accommodation provided in the hotel;

"hotel" means any place or establishment held out by
the proprietor as offering food and drink, and if

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2 CAP. 203) Hotel Proprietors

so required, sleeping accommodation to any per-
son presenting himself who is willing and able to
pay a reasonable sum for the services and facilities
provided and who is in a fit state to be received
therein;

"proprietor" means any person having the management
or control of an hotel and the conduct of the
business therein.

Common tariff. 3. (1) The proprietor shall fix a scale of charges for
the provision of facilities to guests at that hotel and may in
the common tariff specify different charges for the provi-
sions of different facilities based on the differences in quality
or quantity of those facilities.

(2) The proprietor shall cause to be kept conspicuously
displayed in a place at or near the reception desk, or at or
near the main entrance to the hotel a copy of the common
tariff printed in plain type so that it may easily be read by
a guest or visitor.

(3) A proprietor who-

(a) fails to comply with subsection (2); or

(6) charges for the provision of any facility to a
guest at his hotel an amount exceeding that specified
in the common tariff in relation to that facility;

is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction
to a fine of one thousand dollars.

Obligation of
hotel proprietor.

4. Any proprietor who refuses to receive any person
as a guest by reason of such person's race, religion or colour
is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction
to a fine of five thousand dollars and to imprisonment for
six months.

Duty to receive
goods in safe

5 . (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) a proprietor
custody. shall receive and keep in safe custody any property tendered

to him or his servant by a guest for safe custody.

(2) A proprietor or his servant may refuse to receive
and keep in safe custody any property tendered by a guest

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Hotel Proprietors (CAP. 203 3

which appears to him to be noxious, unwholesome or
dangerous, or, having regard to the size or standing of the
hotel, to be cumbersome or of excessive value.

(3) A proprietor or his servant may, as a condition to
accepting property for deposit, require that it be deposited
in a container fastened and sealed by the person depositing
it and that the value of the property be declared by the
depositor at the time of the deposit.

(4) Any property required to be deposited in a container
fastened and sealed by the person depositing it shall be so
dealt with in the presence of the proprietor or his servant
after that property has been inspected or checked, as the case
may be, by the proprietor or his servant.

(5) For the purposes of this section, "servant" means
a servant authorised or appearing to be authorised to receive
property for safe custody.

6. (1) Subject to subsection (2), a proprietor is liable L i a b i v t ~ of
roprietor for

to make good to a guest any damage to or loss of any property oss of or damaie
brought to the hotel by a guest where- to property of

guest.

(a) at the time of the damage or loss, sleeping
accommodation had been engaged for the guest;

(b) the damage or loss occurred during the period
commencing with the acceptance of the guest into the
hotel and ending with his departure therefrom at the
end of his stay.

(2) A proprietor is not liable-

(a) to make good to a guest any damage to or loss,
of, nor shall he have any lien on-

(i) any motor vehicle or any property left in it, or

(ii) any live animal or its harness or other equip-
ment; or

(b) where the damage to or loss of the property
referred to in subsection (1) is due to-

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4 CAP. 203) Hotel Proprietors

(i) the default, neglect or wilful act of the guest
or a person accompanying or visiting him or
in his employment;

(ii) an act of God; or

(iii) an act of war by the enemies of Her Majesty
or to civil commotion.

Limits of
liability.

7. (1) Subject to subsection (2); the liability of the
proprietor referred to in section 6 to any one guest shall not
exceed five hundred dollars in respect of any one article or
one thousand dollars in the aggregate.

(2) The limitation on the liability of a proprietor pro-
vided by subsection (1) does not apply-

(a) where the property was stolen, lost or damaged
through the default, neglect or wilful act of the pro-
prietor, his agent or his servant;

(6) where the property was received for safe custody
in accordance with section 5, in which case the pro-
prietor's liability to a guest in respect of that property
shall not exceed its value as declared by the depositor
at the time it was received for safe custody;

(6 ) where at the time of the acceptance of the guest
into the hotel-

(i) the property was tendered for safe custody in
accordance with section 5 and the proprietor,
his agent or servant refused to receive it for
reasons other than those specified in that sec-
tion, or

(ii) the guest or a person acting in his behalf was
unable, due to the default of the proprietor
or that of his servant, to tender the property
for safe custody in accordance with section 5;

Schedule.

(d) unless at the time when the property was
brought to the hotel a copy of the notice set out in the
Schedule printed in plain type was conspicuously
displayed in a place at or near the reception desk, or
at or near the main entrance, to the hotel, or in the
bedroom allocated to the guest, so that it may easily
be read by the guest.

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Hotel Proprietors (CAP. 203. 5

8. (1) Subject to paragraph (a) of section 6(2), a r;;lez,:nd pwer
proprietor in the exercise of a lien, may seize and detain
at the hotel any property brought to the hotel by a guest
who is or becomes indebted to the proprietor for food, drink
or accommodation or other services or facilities provided by
the proprietor for the guest; and the proprietor may in
addition to any other remedy, sell such property by public
auction.

(2) The right to sell under subsection (1) shall not be
exercised unless-

(a) the property, other than perishable property,
has remained in the safe custody of the proprietor for
a period of at least six weeks;

( b ) the guest has not satisfied his debt;
(c) the proprietor-

(i) in the case of any perishable property, as soon
as practicable prior to the sale, or

(ii) in the case of any other property, at least one
month prior to the sale,

causes to be published in a newspaper circulating in Antigua
and Barbuda notice of the intended sale containing a brief
description of the property to be sold, the time and place
of the sale, and the name of the indebted guest.

(3) The proceeds of a sale under this section shall be
applied in payment of the amount of the debt, and the costs
of advertising and sale; and the remainder of the proceeds,
if any, shall be paid to the person entitled to it upon
application by him; but if there is no application it shall be
paid to the Accountant-General to be kept for one year unless
claimed by the person entitled to it, then if no such person
claims, it shall form part of the Consolidated Fund.

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6 CAP. 203) Hotel Proprietors

SCHEDULE

NOTICE

HOTEL PROPRIETORS ACT

LOSS O F O R DAMAGE TO GUEST'S PROPERTY

1. Under the Hotel Proprietors Act, an hotel proprietor may in certain
circumstances be liable to make good any loss or damage to a guest's property
even though it was not due to any fault of the proprietor or staff of the hotel.

2. This liability however-
(a) extends only to the property of guests for whom sleeping

accommodation has been engaged at the hotel;

(b) is limited to five hundred dollars for any one article and a total of
one thousand dollars in the case of any one guest, except in the case of property
which has been deposited or tendered for safe custody;

(c ) does not cover motor vehicles or other vehicles or any property left
in them or any live animals.