“Oh, yes,” I replied; “he has the sole right of selecting the apartment for each guest, and, if he finds it expedient, may change the room and assign his patron another. There is no implied contract that one to whom a particular room has been given shall retain it so long as he chooses to pay for it.[75] You pay your money, but you don’t take your choice.”
“But I liked the room so much,” said Mr. Complaining Grumbler.
“It matters not. The proprietor is not bound to comply with your caprices.[76] When you go to an hotel you have only a mere easement of sleeping in one room, and eating and drinking in another, as Judge Maule once remarked.”[77]
“Can he turn me out of the house altogether?”
“Certainly not, if you behave yourself; unless, indeed, you neglect or refuse to pay your bill upon reasonable demand.”[78]
“I am going away by the night train,” said Mr. C. G., “and I did not wish to go to bed; so he insisted upon taking my room, and told me I might stay in the parlor until I left.”
“And quite right, too. Although he cannot make you go to bed, or turn you out of doors because you do not choose to sleep, still you cannot insist upon having a bed-room in which to sit up all night, if you are furnished with another room proper for that purpose.”[79]
“I intend returning in the afternoon; can he refuse to take care of my traps while I am absent?”
“I fancy not, for a temporary absence does not affect the rights of a guest.[80] Long since, it was laid down as law that if one comes to an inn with a hamper, in which he has goods, and goes away, leaving it with the host, and in a few days comes back, but in the meantime his goods are stolen, he has no action against the host, for at the time of stealing he was not his guest, and by keeping the hamper the innkeeper had no benefit, and therefore is not chargeable with the loss of it. But it would be otherwise if the man is absent but from morn to dewy eve;[81] and where, in New York State, a guest, after spending a few days at an hotel, gave up his room, left his valise—taking a check for it—and was gone eight days, without paying his bill; on returning, he registered his name, took a room, and called for his bag, when another appeared in its place, having the duplicate check attached: the Court of Common Pleas held that, whether the case was considered as an ordinary bailment, or as property in an inn keepers’ hands, on which he had a lien, he was bound to exercise due care and diligence, and that he must account for the loss, the changing of the check being evidence of negligence.”[82]
I rose to leave the room, for I was growing weary of this catechetical performance; but my questioner’s budget was not yet exhausted, and, as I made my exit, I heard him say: