Travel and Leisure Law: Managing Risk Across Every Guest Interaction

A hotel or resort that is sued for injuries sustained by a guest on the property must demonstrate that it satisfied its duty of care by maintaining the property in a reasonably safe condition and warning guests of known hazards that a reasonable guest would not anticipate, and premises liability counsel defending a hotel injury claim must evaluate whether the property's maintenance and inspection records demonstrate that the hazard that caused the injury was not known to the operator and would not have been discovered by a reasonably diligent inspection.

A hotel or resort that is sued after a guest is assaulted, robbed, or otherwise victimized by a third party on the property must demonstrate that the crime was not foreseeable and that the security measures in place were adequate given the reasonably foreseeable risks, and hotel injury claims counsel defending against a third-party crime liability claim must evaluate whether the property's security audit history supports the adequacy of the security measures in place at the time of the incident and whether the assailant's conduct was so unforeseeable that it constitutes a superseding cause breaking the causal chain between any security deficiency and the guest's injury.

A travel agency, airline, or online booking platform that advertises airfares or travel packages must comply with the DOT's full fare advertising rule requiring all mandatory fees and taxes to be included in the prominently displayed price, and aviation and military services and travel regulatory counsel advising on DOT compliance must evaluate whether the company's website and marketing materials accurately disclose all mandatory charges in the manner required by the DOT's regulations and whether the company's refund policies comply with the DOT's requirements for timely processing of refunds for cancelled and significantly changed flights.

A tour operator or activity provider that requires participants to sign a liability waiver before engaging in an adventure activity, sports lesson, or other recreational experience must ensure that the waiver is drafted in a manner satisfying the enforceability requirements of the state where the activity takes place, and civil litigation counsel advising on waiver design must evaluate whether the waiver clearly and conspicuously identifies the specific risks that the participant is assuming and whether the state where the activity takes place recognizes exculpatory clauses for negligence in the context of voluntary recreational activities.

A hotel or resort that is required to comply with the ADA's Standards for Accessible Design must ensure that its guest rooms, common areas, parking facilities, and recreational amenities satisfy the applicable accessibility standards, and ADA compliance counsel advising on hotel accessibility must evaluate whether the property's most recent accessibility audit identified any conditions that do not comply with the applicable ADA standards and whether the property's website and reservation system allow guests with disabilities to identify accessible room features and make reservations for accessible rooms on the same terms available to other guests.

A hotel, restaurant, or other place of public accommodation that is subject to the ADA must allow guests with disabilities to bring service animals trained to perform disability-related tasks into all areas of the facility where the public is generally allowed to go, and civil rights litigation counsel advising on service animal policy compliance must evaluate whether the property's staff training program adequately prepares employees to make the limited inquiry permitted by the ADA when a guest presents with an animal and whether the property's service animal policy accurately reflects the current legal standard for distinguishing service animals from emotional support animals.

A hotel chain, online booking platform, or short-term rental company that collects personal data from guests located in California, the European Union, or other jurisdictions with comprehensive data protection laws must satisfy the disclosure, access, deletion, and opt-out requirements of each applicable framework, and privacy and data protection counsel advising on travel industry data compliance must evaluate whether the company's privacy notice accurately describes its data collection and sharing practices and whether the company has implemented the technical and organizational measures required to protect guest data against unauthorized access.

A short-term rental operator whose business is threatened by a newly enacted local ordinance that prohibits or severely restricts short-term rentals must evaluate whether the ordinance was enacted in compliance with applicable state and local procedural requirements and whether the ordinance's application to existing operations constitutes an unconstitutional taking or violates any state preemption law, and administrative law counsel advising on STR regulatory challenges must evaluate whether the ordinance was enacted with adequate public notice and opportunity for affected operators to participate in the rulemaking process and whether any constitutional challenges to the ordinance's restrictions on short-term rental activity are supported by existing case law.