2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TEN - Commerce (§§ 1 — 4196) › Subtitle 1 - Regulation of Business Generally (§§ 1 — 998q) › Chapter 35 - Innkeepers (§§ 711 — 724) › § 711 - Definitions

As used in this chapter, the terms hereinafter mentioned shall have the meaning here assigned to them:
(a) Hotel.— Shall mean any place of shelter operated for profit, providing protection for persons and property, and shall include any building or group of buildings under a common management where the general public is admitted, where all who conduct themselves properly and who are able and ready to pay for their lodging are received, if there is accommodation for them, and who, while there, are supplied lodging and meals, and such lodging, service and other [amenities] as the establishment may afford at the rates established by the hotel. The term shall include any establishment having fifteen (15) or more bedrooms, including hotels, apartment hotels, inns, guest cottages, rooming houses, lodging houses, paradores, tourist villas, condohotels, short-term rental condominiums, motels, and any other establishment by whatever name it is known or advertised offering lodging and meals to the public. A motel is construed to be the establishment engaged in lodging whose main characteristics are the individual garage per room; the fractionable rates, charged according to the number of hours the guest stays; twenty-four (24) -hour room service; and easy access to passing motorists, due to their being located mostly in the cities’ outskirts. The fact that meals are offered in a restaurant or café operated within the hotel premises by a person other than the innkeeper shall not preclude the establishment from being classified as a hotel.
(b) Innkeeper.— Shall mean any person, firm, corporation, or other type of business organization, engaged for profit, in the operation of a hotel, and as herein used, shall include the officers, agents, and employees of such person, firm, corporation, or other type of business organization, unless the context otherwise requires [sic].
(c) Valuables.— Shall include, but shall not be limited to, money, banknotes, bonds, gemstones, jewelry, ornaments, watches, securities, transportation tickets, photographic or video cameras, computers, electronic and/or communication devices, checks, money orders and other negotiable instruments, business papers, documents and other papers, and other small valuable items that can be deposited in a safety box, which by their nature are irreplaceable or replaceable only at a considerable expense.
(d) Guest.— Shall include not only those individuals who are registered at the hotel and to whom bedrooms are assigned, but also for purposes of this chapter:
(1) Tenants (independently as to the form of lease contract, if any);
(2) Any person entering the premises of a hotel with the intent of being a guest, whether or not he/she becomes said guest.
(e) Free parking.— Means a service area provided by an innkeeper for the parking of motor vehicles of guests and other persons, and for which no specific charge is made. The patronage of the business of the hotel by guests and other persons; and the performance of regular services for the business of the hotel by employees thereof, shall not be deemed to constitute the payment of consideration for the use of parking accommodations.
(f) Visitors.— Any person within the premises of a hotel who is enjoying the facilities, such as restaurants, pools, bars, stores, and others establishments therein, but who does not intend to become a hotel guest, and was not invited by a hotel guest.
History —June 23, 1956, No. 85, p. 540, § 13, renumbered as § 15 and amended on July 18, 1986, No. 151, p. 471, § 9; Dec. 23, 1998, No. 305, § 1; Jan. 5, 2012, No. 11, § 2.