The Hospitality industry is the most volatile industry in relation to law suits. This is why if you are
working in this arena it is important that you have a good understanding of the law relating to
hospitality. From the time you decide to go on a holiday to the time you complete and come back
home, a whole series of unfortunate incidents can arise that might spoil your well deserved break.
If you are working with an airline company; or travel and tourism agency; or hotels and tourist
transportation, it is worth your measure of salt to know what you can do to prevent a potentially
expensive lawsuit that might bankrupt you or your company.
The context of the law relating to hospitality can be categorised into three types. The first is the law of
tort, the second is the law of contract and the third is the law of agency. In this article we will analyse the
law of tort.
The law of tort relates to areas such as trespass to person, land and personal property. The other area
in the law of tort relates to the law of negligence.
If you were a hotel manager and discovered that a non-registered person is using the swimming pool,
what would you do? The simple answer is that you can evict the person from the premise as he or she is
a trespasser. But what if as a trespasser and whilst using the pool, he or she was injured because the
pool area was wet and slippery and lacked proper maintenance?
Obviously if the person injured was a guest, he could certainly bring an action against your hotel in
negligence. This is because as the management of the hotel you owe a duty to your guest and by you not
maintaining your premise there was a breach of this duty of care. The guest having suffered an injury will
suffice for him to bring an action in the law of tort. This is quite certain. But what is uncertain is whether
the same level of protection from the law can apply to a person who is a trespasser in the hotel premise.
This is something that requires a deeper analysis.
If this matter goes to court, the probable test the court will apply is based on a concept called
causation. This is to look at the situation objectively and decide based on what lawyers famously would
like to brag called the 'reasonable man' argument. (We will discuss this in another article). Based on this
concept, what it means is that whether the person injured was a guest or trespasser - the key question
would be whether the injury caused, was it by the direct negligence on the part of the hotel in not
maintaining its premises?
If the answer is that the injury was caused by the negligence of the hotel in not maintaining the premise
then this would be enough grounds for the both the guest and the trespasser to sue.
This study source was downloaded by 100000856941565 from CourseHero.com on 11-18-2022 03:22:37 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/96562996/LAW-IN-HOSPITALITY-INDUSTRYdocx/
working in this arena it is important that you have a good understanding of the law relating to
hospitality. From the time you decide to go on a holiday to the time you complete and come back
home, a whole series of unfortunate incidents can arise that might spoil your well deserved break.
If you are working with an airline company; or travel and tourism agency; or hotels and tourist
transportation, it is worth your measure of salt to know what you can do to prevent a potentially
expensive lawsuit that might bankrupt you or your company.
The context of the law relating to hospitality can be categorised into three types. The first is the law of
tort, the second is the law of contract and the third is the law of agency. In this article we will analyse the
law of tort.
The law of tort relates to areas such as trespass to person, land and personal property. The other area
in the law of tort relates to the law of negligence.
If you were a hotel manager and discovered that a non-registered person is using the swimming pool,
what would you do? The simple answer is that you can evict the person from the premise as he or she is
a trespasser. But what if as a trespasser and whilst using the pool, he or she was injured because the
pool area was wet and slippery and lacked proper maintenance?
Obviously if the person injured was a guest, he could certainly bring an action against your hotel in
negligence. This is because as the management of the hotel you owe a duty to your guest and by you not
maintaining your premise there was a breach of this duty of care. The guest having suffered an injury will
suffice for him to bring an action in the law of tort. This is quite certain. But what is uncertain is whether
the same level of protection from the law can apply to a person who is a trespasser in the hotel premise.
This is something that requires a deeper analysis.
If this matter goes to court, the probable test the court will apply is based on a concept called
causation. This is to look at the situation objectively and decide based on what lawyers famously would
like to brag called the 'reasonable man' argument. (We will discuss this in another article). Based on this
concept, what it means is that whether the person injured was a guest or trespasser - the key question
would be whether the injury caused, was it by the direct negligence on the part of the hotel in not
maintaining its premises?
If the answer is that the injury was caused by the negligence of the hotel in not maintaining the premise
then this would be enough grounds for the both the guest and the trespasser to sue.
This study source was downloaded by 100000856941565 from CourseHero.com on 11-18-2022 03:22:37 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/96562996/LAW-IN-HOSPITALITY-INDUSTRYdocx/
