Cap. 16 Art. 1039Liability of hotel- keepers.

(1) A hotel-keeper shall be liable up to an amount not exceeding one hundred and seventy-four euro and seventy cents

(174.70) for any damage to or destruction or loss of property brought to the hotel by any guest.

(2) The liability of a hotel-keeper shall be unlimited -

(a) if the property has been deposited with him; or

(b) if he has refused to receive the deposit of property which he is bound under the provision of the next following sub-article to receive for safe custody; or

(c) in any case in which the damage to, or destruction or loss of, property has been caused, voluntarily or through negligence or lack of skill, even in a slight degree, by him or by a person in his employment or by any person for whose actions he is responsible.

(3) A hotel-keeper shall be bound to receive for safe custody securities, money and valuable articles except dangerous articles and such articles as having regard to the size or standard of the hotel are cumbersome or have an excessive value.

(4) A hotel-keeper shall have the right to require that any articles delivered to him for safe custody shall be in a fastened or sealed container.

(5) The provisions of sub-articles (1) and (2) of this article shall not apply if the guest, after discovering the damage, destruction or loss, does not inform the hotel-keeper without undue delay, or if the damage to, destruction or loss of, property is due -

(a) to a fortuitous event or to irresistible force; or

(b) to a reason inherent in the nature of the property damaged, destroyed or lost; or

(c) to an act or omission of the guest by whom it was brought into the hotel, or of any person, other than the hotel-keeper, to whom such guest may have entrusted the said property or of any person in the employment of such guest or accompanying him or visiting him.

(6) Any tacit or express agreement between a hotel-keeper and a guest entered into before any damage to, destruction or loss of, property has occurred and purporting to exclude, reduce or make less onerous the hotel-keeper’s liability as established in this article shall be null and void: Provided that, in the cases referred to in paragraphs (a) and (c) of sub-article (2) of this article where the damage to, or destruction or loss of, property has not been caused by a person mentioned in the said paragraph (c) voluntarily or through gross negligence, any agreement signed at any time by the guest whereby the hotel-keeper’s liability is reduced to an amount being not less than one hundred and seventy-four euro and seventy cents (174.70) shall be valid.

(7) In this article and in article 2009 of this Code "guest" means a person who stays at the hotel and has sleeping accommodation put at his disposal therein, but is not an employee in the hotel.

(8) In this article, any reference to a "hotel-keeper", except in so far as the liabilities thereby established are imposed on the hotel-keeper, shall be construed as including reference to the person in charge of the hotel or of the reception of guests in the hotel, and any reference to "loss" shall be deemed to include by theft.