Whittier Municipal Code Ch. 9.16 Hotel Registration

Footnotes:

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Editor's note— Ord. No. 3051, § 1, adopted April 26, 2016, repealed the former Ch. 9.16, § 9.16.010, and enacted a new chapter as set out herein. The former Ch. 9.16 pertained to prostitution and derived from prior code, § 4265.2.

This chapter shall be known as the "hotel registration ordinance" and may be cited by that name.

(Ord. No. 3051, § 1, 4-26-16)

A. "Exigent circumstances" means the urgency of a situation makes the needs of law enforcement so compelling that a warrantless search is objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.

B. "Guest" means a person who exercises occupancy or is entitled to occupancy in a hotel by reason of concession, permit, right of access, license or other agreement.

C. "Hotel" means any public or private space or structure, including, but not limited to, any inn, hotel, motel, apartment house, rooming house, lodging house, or hostelry offering space for sleeping or overnight accommodations in exchange for rent and for a period of less than thirty days. Hotel includes the parking lot and other common areas of the hotel.

D. "Operator" means the person who is either the proprietor of the hotel or any other person who has the right to rent rooms within the hotel, whether in the capacity of owner, manager, lessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee, employee, or in any other capacity.

(Ord. No. 3051, § 1, 4-26-16)

A. Every hotel operator in the city shall at all times keep and maintain within the hotel a hotel register, which shall be transcribed in either electronic, ink or typewritten form and shall include the name and home address of each and every guest or person renting or occupying a room or rooms therein.

B. The hotel register shall be signed by the person renting or occupying a room or rooms, and the hotel operator shall thereupon write opposite the name or names so registered the number of each room assigned to or occupied by each such guest, together with the time when the room is rented. No guest shall be permitted to occupy any hotel room until all of the aforesaid entries have been made in the register.

C. When the occupant or occupants of each room so rented quit and surrender it, the hotel operator shall enter the time thereof in the hotel register opposite the names of the occupant or occupants.

D. The hotel register shall be kept in a conspicuous place. Any guest of the hotel may request to inspect the hotel register. Any city official or police officer may inspect the hotel register with the hotel operator's permission, pursuant to a warrant, pursuant to an administrative subpoena, or in exigent circumstances.

E. Erasures or alterations to the hotel register shall be prohibited.

(Ord. No. 3051, § 1, 4-26-16)

A. No hotel operator shall rent any hotel room for sleeping or lodging purposes more than once between the hours of six in the evening and six in the morning of the next day, except to bona fide travelers with baggage.

(Ord. No. 3051, § 1, 4-26-16)