Hospitality operators owe a duty of care to those individuals who enter their establishments.
Some duties of care are rather straightforward. For example, a restaurateur
has a duty of care to provide food that is safe and wholesome for guests.
While hospitality operators are not required to be insurers of their guests’ safety, and
LEGALESE
Duty of care:
A legal obligation that
requires a particular
standard of conduct.
Duties and Obligations of a Hospitality Operator 271
are generally not held liable for events they could not reasonably foresee, they are
required to act prudently and use reasonable care, as defi ned later in this chapter, to
fulfi ll their duties of care.
Because of the wide variety of facilities they operate, hospitality managers can
encounter a variety of duties of care. These include the duties: