Hotels and motels
if you are a resident in a hotel or motel, you do not have the rights of a tenant in any of the
following situations:
1. You live in a hotel, motel, residence club, or other lodging facility for 30 days or less, and your
occupancy is subject to the state’s hotel occupancy tax.
2. You live in a hotel, motel, residence club, or other lodging facility for more than 30 days, but
have not paid for all room and related charges owing by the 30th day.
3. You live in a hotel or motel to which the manager has a right of access and control, and all of
the following is true:
• The hotel or motel allows occupancy for periods of fewer than seven days.
• All of the following services are provided for all residents:
- a fireproof safe for residents’ use;
- a central telephone service;
- maid, mail, and room service; and
- food service provided by a food establishment that is on or next to the hotel or motel
grounds and that is operated in conjunction with the hotel or motel.
if you live in a unit described by either 1, 2 or 3 above, you are not a tenant; you are a
guest. therefore, you don’t have the same rights as a tenant.
For example, the proprietor of
a hotel can lock out a guest who doesn’t pay his or her room charges on time, while a landlord
would have to begin formal eviction proceedings to evict a nonpaying tenant.
residential hotels
Residential hotels
You have the legal rights of a tenant if you are a resident in a residential hotel, which is
in fact your primary residence.
Residential hotel means any building which contains six or
more guest rooms or efficiency units which are designed, used, rented or occupied for sleeping
purposes by guests, and which is the primary residence of these guests.
in residential hotels, a
locking mail receptacle must be provided for each residential unit.
it is unlawful for the proprietor of a residential hotel to require a guest to move or to check
out and re-register before the guest has lived there for 30 days, if the proprietor’s purpose is to
have the guest maintain transient occupancy status (and therefore not gain the legal rights of
a tenant).8
A person who violates this law may be punished by a $500 civil penalty and may be
required to pay the guest’s attorney fees