Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Law: A Preventive Approach, Seventh Edition

1. Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Law:A Preventive Approach, Seventh Edition Chapter 3 Civil Rights and Hospitality Business

2. Introduction • Discrimination—the act of treating some people different from and less favorably than others regarding: • Access to places of public accommodation • Employment

3. Introduction (continued) • Common law • A hotel with a vacancy cannot refuse accommodations to any guest desiring to stay at the inn

4. Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Civil Rights—the personal rights that derive primarily from the Constitution • Freedom of speech • Freedom of contract • Privacy • Due process

5. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (continued) • As originally passed, outlawed discrimination on basis of: • Race • Color • Religion • National origin

6. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (continued) • Outlawed discrimination in four types of establishments • Hotels • Restaurants • Places of entertainment • Gas stations

7. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (continued) • Subsequent amendment added gender

8. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (continued) • General intent and purpose • End discrimination in hospitality facilities • Eliminate • unfairness and humiliation of racial bigotry • inconvenience for blacks who wished to dine out or travel

9. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (continued) • Classes still unprotected: • Marital status • Disability (now protected by Americans with Disabilities Act) • Sexual orientation

10. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (continued) • Facilities must be engaged in interstate commerce • Interstate commerce • Business transactions between people or companies from two or more states

11. Lodging for Transients • Overnight accommodations covered by the Act: • Any inn, hotel, motel, or other establish-ment that provides lodging to transient guests • Places that rent rooms not only by night but also weekly

12. Dining Facilities • Covered by the Act are: • Any restaurant, cafeteria, lunchroom, lunch counter, soda fountain, or other facility principally engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises • Also included: drive-in restaurants, retail-store lunch counters, sandwich shops, lunch counters at golf courses, food facilities at hospitals, and similar establishments

13. Places of Entertainment • Act prohibits discrimination in: • Any motion picture house, theater, concert hall, sports arena, or other place of exhibition or entertainment • Also includes: sports stadium, auditorium staging a rock concert, and establishments that provide recreational activities in which patrons actively participate • Bowling alleys, health spas, beach clubs, and golf clubs

14. Jurisdiction through Interstate Commerce • Hotels—most guests are travelers, some will be from out of state • Restaurants—if it serves interstate travelers or if a substantial portion of the food it serves was transported from out of state

15. Serving Interstate Travelers • Unlike hotels, food establishments do not inquire whether patrons are from out of state

16. Serving Interstate Travelers(continued) • Deemed to serve interstate travelers: • Dining facilities located near a federal highway • Coffee shop in a hotel • Dining facility that advertises in a magazine delivered to hotels/motels for distribution to guests or advertises on the radio

17. Food Moved in Interstate Commerce • A dining facility not serving interstate travelers will still be covered under the Act if a substantial portion of the food it serves is imported from another state

18. Places of Entertainment • A theater or stadium affects interstate commerce if: • It regularly presents movies, performances, exhibits, athletic teams, or other sources of entertainment that originate in other states

19. Relief • The Act provides limited relief • Money is not recoverable • Injunctive relief—court order that requires a defendant to refrain from doing a particular act • Reasonable attorney’s fees charged by the attorney for a successful plaintiff

20. Exempt Establishments • Bed-and-breakfast • Private clubs

21. Bed-and-Breakfasts • Exempt if: • Five or fewer rooms • Occupied by proprietor • Allows proprietors who admit transients into their home to retain discretion and control over who sleeps in their home

22. Private Clubs • A club is determined to be a private club if: • The club is selective in choosing its members • New members are sought discreetly • The club has clearly designated criteria for choosing members and members participate in the selection process

23. Private Clubs (continued) • A club is determined to be a private club if: (continued) • Members govern and control the club’s operations • To what extent are club facilities available for use by nonmembers? • Is the primary purpose of the club social or business?

24. Extending Civil Rights Protection • State Civil Rights Laws • Most every state has a civil rights law that duplicates the Act • In part, expands its coverage

25. Extending Civil Rights Protection(continued) • Covered facilities • Places of public accommodation • Bars, stores, clinics, hospitals, barber and beauty shops, libraries, schools, colleges, public halls, public elevators, public institutions for the care of neglected or delinquent children, garages, and public transportation

26. Extending Civil Rights Protection(continued) • State statutes customarily expand the categories of protected classes • Usually include • Marital status and disability • Some statutes and local ordinances include sexual orientation

27. Advertisements • Many state statutes prohibit advertisements that contain statements or suggestions (express or implied) that accommodations will be denied because of a protected characteristic

28. Remedies • Under federal Act, remedies are limited and primarily injunctive • State remedies more expansive • Damages • Violation of many state civil rights laws is deemed a crime

29. Americans with Disabilities Act • Passed by Congress in 1991 • Purpose is to: • Provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities • Provide clear, strong, consistent, and enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities

30. Disability Act (continued) • Prohibits places of accommodation from discrimination of the basis of disability • Applies to hotels, restaurants, places of entertainment, and service stations • Also included: bars, stores, service establishments such as barber and beauty shops, laundromats, banks, public transportation, schools, and colleges

31. Disability Act (continued) • Defines discrimination as • Including a failure to make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures when such modifications are necessary to provide goods, services, or accommodations to disabled people

32. Disability Act (continued) • Disability is defined as: • A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of the disabled person

33. Disability Act (continued) • “Major life activity” refers to: • An activity of central importance to most people’s daily lives and includes conduct such as walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, working, or caring for oneself

34. Disability Act (continued) • Does not apply to private clubs • Defined in the same manner as under the Civil Rights Act of 1964

35. Mandates Not Permittedfor Disabled Guests Only • Disabilities Act is violated if the provision of services to people with disabilities is conditional upon requirements that are not imposed on others

36. Modifying Rules to Accommodate the Disabled • Where the policies or practices of a place of public accommodation have the effect of discriminating against people with disabilities, the place of public accommodation must change its policies or practices unless the modification would fundamentally alter the nature of the goods or services provided

37. Structural Modifications for Existing Buildings • Disabilities Act contains requirements concerning accessibility of facilities • Structural obstacles often preclude access by disabled persons to buildings open to the public

38. Structural Modifications for Existing Buildings (continued) • For existing buildings not undergoing renovations, the Disabilities Act requires places of public accommodation to undertake the removal of barriers, if doing so is “readily achievable”

39. Readily Achievable • Defined as “easily accomplished without much difficulty or expense”

40. Readily Achievable (continued) • Barrier removals that are considered readily achievable include: • Lowering of telephones • Adding raised letters and Braille markings on elevator control buttons • Adding grab bars in bathrooms, provided only routine reinforcement of the wall is required • Rearranging tables in a restaurant to permit wheelchair passage

41. Readily Achievable (continued) • Barrier removals: (continued) • Ramping of a few steps • Properly designating handicapped-accessible parking spaces • Replacing door handles that are not easy to grasp with one hand or that require tight grasping or twisting of the wrist to operate • Similar modest corrections

42. Readily Achievable (continued) • Where removal of a barrier is readily achievable, failure to remove it constitutes illegal discrimination

43. Structural Requirements during Construction • New facilities and buildings undergoing renovation must be constructed in such a way that they can be approached, entered, and utilized easily and conveniently by people with disabilities

44. New Hotel Requirements • All doors and doorways must be designed to allow passage by a wheelchair • Bathrooms need to be sufficiently wide to allow use by people in wheelchairs • A percentage of each class of hotel rooms must be fully accessible, including grab bars in the bathroom and at the toilet

45. New Hotel Requirements (continued) • Audio loops are required in meeting areas • Emergency flashing lights or alarms are needed in hotel guest rooms • Braille or raised-letter words and numbers are required on elevators and signs • Handrails must be installed on stairs and ramps

46. Transportation and Telecommunications • Disabilities Act requires that: • Businesses offering transportation attempt to make their facilities accessible to the disabled • Companies offering telephone service provide telecommunication devices for the deaf that will permit a hearing-impaired person to communicate with anyone in this country who has a telephone

47. Legal Action Directedat Noncompliance • Two types of lawsuits can be brought under the Disabilities Act • Private action—by individuals • Lawsuit by the Department of Justice

48. Age Discrimination • Age is a classification not protected in places of public accommodation by the Act • Not normally illegal to treat varying age groups differently in such places

49. Gender Discrimination • Not outlawed by Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Under some circumstances women can obtain redress for discrimination through the Fourteenth Amendment

50. Gender Discrimination (continued) • Fourteenth Amendment • States, “Nor shall any state . . .deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” • Virtually all states now have state statutes that prohibit discrimination in places of public accommodation based on gender