How to be [safely] consumed by wanderlust
“MILLENNIALS are focused on personal experiences,” said global market research specialist Nielsen Holdings in its Millennial Traveler Study Report. “And for many, those experiences happen away from home.”
“Notably, Millennials are very interested in travel… [T]hey’ll likely travel more as their incomes and financial standings grow.”
Local publication Business Mirror also reported that millennials—those people born between 1980 and 2000—travel nowadays to look for “increasingly close interactions, immersions into culture and more unique activities.”
In fact, in a study conducted by United States-based interest group AARP Inc., millennials travel more frequently than baby boomers, or those born between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s, and GenX, or those born between the early 1960s and early 1980s, for weekend getaways and holiday travel.
While millennials do not mind splurging on their trips, they try to save on their budget when possible. Certainly, transportation has become cheaper with the advent of ride-hailing and logistics providers, such as Grab and Uber, and the explosion of airfare promotions for travel inside and outside our country.
Accommodations have become budget-friendly, as online marketplace and hospitality service provider Airbnb offers travelers to rent apartments, hostel beds, hotel rooms, and houses for a short period of time, and more inns now cater to backpackers.
Undeniably, millennials are men and women consumed by wanderlust. But with traveling comes the possibilities of an inhospitable host or innkeeper, theft of personal belongings, or unsafe accommodations, among others.
Before you enjoy losing yourself in your travels, stay safe and keep in mind the following provisions of the law, which however, only applies in our country:
Your host, innkeeper, or hotel management shall be responsible for the things you deposit with them, provided that: (a) you informed them or their employees the things you wish to deposit; (b) your host, innkeeper, or hotel management advised you of precautions in being vigilant over your things; and (c) you comply with said precautions.
Your host, innkeeper, or hotel management shall be liable for vehicles, animals, and articles they may have introduced or placed in their lodging or the annexes thereof.
Such liability extends to the loss of, or injury to your personal property, which has been either caused by: (a) the host’s, innkeeper’s, or hotel management’s employees; or (b) strangers, such as the act of a thief or a robber.
Relatedly, the employers of these establishments may be held liable for damages caused to you by their employees for as long as they act within the scope of their assigned tasks.
Said host, innkeeper, or hotel management shall not be held liable, however, for loss or injury caused by force majeure—that is, an extraordinary event which is impossible to foresee or to avoid.
In this regard, said thief or robber’s act may be considered as force majeure only when it was done with the use of arms or through an irresistible force.
Such liability likewise does not extend to: (a) loss caused by your acts; (b) loss caused by acts of your family, staff, or visitors; and (c) loss arising from the character of the things you brought in the premises.
The host, innkeeper, or hotel management cannot evade liability by merely posting notices to the effect that they are not liable for the things you have brought in the premises. Accordingly, any stipulation in the contract which diminishes or suppresses the responsibilities of the host, innkeeper, or hotel management under Articles 1998 to 2001 of the Civil Code of the Philippines shall be void.
The host, innkeeper, or hotel management, however, may exercise their right to retain your things as a security for credits on account of lodging, and supplies usually furnished to you.
Sara Mae D. Mawis is an Associate at Esguerra & Blanco Law and a Lecturer at the College of Law Adamson University
