Many guesthouse owners have started making use of disclaimer notices
over the past few years.
In principal, the appropriate use of disclaimer notices at a guesthouse
establishment makes good sense – it can effectively place limitations
on the type of claims which a guest may be able to make against a guesthouse
owner and in so doing so it also limits your insurer’s exposure
to having to deal with such claims and therefore helps keep the premiums
low.
The new Consumer Protection Laws which are about to be in-acted, deal
specifically with disclaimer notices. They list the characteristics and
describe the proper use of disclaimer notices. They in fact goes as far
as to state that should a person who uses a disclaimer notice not comply
with these requirements, that the notice will not be of any use in a legal
sense. This means that the Courts will refuse to recognize a disclaimer
notice which does not comply with the requirements of the new Consumer
Protection Laws.
The new requirements for disclaimer notices are as follows:-
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The existence of the disclaimer notice, as well as its meaning and
effect, is drawn to the attention of the guest before the earlier of
the time at which the guest:-
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For those of you who make use of a website for purposes of informing
potential guests of your services and for making and confirming bookings,
we would suggest that you include a disclaimer notice on the website
itself.
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Whether or note you make use of a website, it would be best to include
information relating to the disclaimer notice when you transmit a confirmation
of the booking to the guest. Make sure that when doing so, the disclaimer
notice is prominent enough to easily come to the attention of the guest.
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We would also suggest that a disclaimer notice be physically placed
at your premises, where the guest checks in. Again, the notice must
be prominent enough to easily come to the guest’s attention. In this
instance, A4 size notice is probably sufficient. If there is no reception
area at your establishment, then we would suggest that the notice be
placed at the main pedestrian entrance to the premises.
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If you include the disclaimer notice along with your written terms
and conditions which you send to your guest upon confirmation of the
booking, the notice should have its own, separate heading (e.g. Disclaimer
Notice) and you will have to see to it that your guest signs and/or
initials that particular provision indicating acceptance of it.
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We realize that there are those amongst you who would prefer not to
make use of disclaimer notices because you feel that it may spoil the
relaxed atmosphere in which you would prefer to do business with your
guests. Although this is a perfectly valid concern, you will need to
strike a happy medium between the requirements of your guests and those
of your insurers and of the law. We feel that most guests would be happy
to sign such a disclaimer notice, since they already apply to many other
forms of commercial transactions. Such a notice should accordingly come
as no real surprise to a prudent guest.
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The notice should be in plain language. You should make sure that
your disclaimer notice is detailed enough to provide you the maximum
possible protection but simple enough for a guest to read and understand
fairly quickly. You may wish to consider using a disclaimer notice containing
the following words:- ”Guests and their visitors enter and use these
premises at their own risk. Neither the owners nor their representatives
or agents are liable for loss or damage to a guests or visitors property,
nor for injury or death of any guests or visitors. When such loss or
damage to property or injury or death is as a result of the negligence
of the owners and/or their representatives.”
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If you have reason to believe that your guest is unable to read the
notice because of poor vision, limited ability to read and/or to understand
the notice, you are required to bring the notice to that persons attention
in a manner that overcomes your guest’s impediment and you are furthermore
required to make sure such guest indicates his/her acceptance of the
notice. (An example might be where your guests are foreigners who do
not speak much English. If for instance you have many German guests,
it would be appropriate to have your disclaimer notice translated into
German and handed to the guest when they check-in. Should your guest
perhaps look as though he/she cannot read the notice, you would be required
to ask whether they are able to read the notice and if not, you would
be required to read it out to them before they sign in or tender payment.)
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If there is something about your establishment that might expose your
guests to any unusual hazard of which your guests could not reasonably
be expected to know of and that could result in serious injury or death.
You will need to specifically draw this fact to your guest’s attention
in the same manner as we have outlined above.
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It is of utmost importance that you acquaint yourself with the above
requirements and take steps to make sure that you are compliant. It
will safe you a great deal of difficulty in your future relations with
your guests.
