Most modern jurisdictions require that lodgings exercise reasonable
care to protect guests and tenants from reasonably foreseeable crime risks.
Among the elements found to be indications of the foreseeability of crime
are:
- Evidence of past crimes
- Frequency of those crimes
- History of crimes of a particular nature
- Recent increase in community crime rate
- Location in an area that statistically indicates
a likelihood of crime
- Security problems posed by the facility's design
- Reports of suspicious persons or activities in
the area
- Guest or tenant activities that tend to attract
security problems
- Guest or tenants with special vulnerabilities
- Location on the premises of tenants who serve
alcohol
- High population of non-guest visitors
- Special events
Lodgings have been found liable for guest injuries and losses in some
the following places on the property (to name just a few):
- Guest rooms
- Function spaces
- Elevators
- Parking facilities
- Corridors
- Stairwells
- Utility rooms
- Beach and pool areas
- Lavatories
- Bars and restaurants
- Adjacent public streets and parks
- Off-property facilities
Plaintiffs have alleged that innkeepers and landlords have shown either
a total disregard of the duty to protect tenants and guests, or that they
have been negligent in performing their duty to provide reasonable security
under the circumstances.
Among the specific claims made by a singe-plaintiff guest who alleged
that property was stolen from his hotel room have been the following:
- Failure to change door locks to rooms following
an earlier theft report.
- Failure to change or rotate guest room door locks.
- Making excessive duplicates of keys to guest rooms.
- Maintaining a video camera that was not operable.
- Placing a video system in a manner which did not
include the plaintiff's room.
- Failure to regularly monitor the video system.
- Creating a false sense of security through negligent
placement of the video system.
- Knowing or having reason to know that persons
seen leaving guest rooms were not registered guests.
- Knowing or having reason to know of a lost room
master key without taking corrective action.
- Failure to warn plaintiff of a known security
breach.
- Failure to warn plaintiff of known criminal activity
in the area.
- Failure to discharge or adequately supervise employee
maid believed to be involved in prior thefts.
