Hotels wary of Parents hope their teenagers will behave when a group of them rents a Waikiki hotel room for an unchaperoned after-prom overnighter, but they also remember how they were at that age and keep their fingers crossed.
prom paradox
When renting a room to
By Russ Lynch
teenagers, the facilities have to
balance oversight with kids' rights
Star-BulletinFor the hotels, however, the parties can be a big problem, loaded with questions about liability, the nuisance level experienced by other guests, general safety and even the potential for crime. Response to the Hawaii Hotel Association's recent announcement that it had planned a seminar on the subject of renting rooms to minors indicates the widespread concern.
The association had to move the seminar, set for 8:30 a.m. to noon tomorrow, from a room seating about 70 at one hotel to the ballroom at the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki, where some 150 had booked as of yesterday.
"There has been a case where minors were drinking in a hotel room, making a lot of noise and the hotel asked them to leave," said attorney Ronald Leong, one of the seminar's speakers. The teens left quietly, but there was an auto accident on the way home. "The hotel was sued for not exercising due care for allowing minors to be in an intoxicated state," Leong said.
"If there is any consensus it's this: You have to exercise additional care because they're minors. There's a sort of 'in loco parentis' responsibility," with the hotel standing in place of the absent parents, he said.Leong, of the law firm Watanabe, Ing & Kawashima, said the main issue seems to be one of education, helping hotel staff to know their legal rights and responsibilities and teaching them ways to avoid trouble, he said.
One of the problems hotels have is dealing with equal rights under common law, said one of tomorrow's speakers, Todd Condon, security chief at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani.
"It's not whether or not you can accept them. You have to look at whether you have grounds not to accept them," he said. Minors have a right to lodging and necessities such as meals, just like adults, Condon said. But a hotel can take action when it sees a whole group of minors, who are not registered guests, going into a hotel room, he said.
"Usually, you will address it with the registered guest. If it does cause problems, you might have to remove those who are not registered guests," he said.
On rare occasions, a hotel may need to get the police involved, such as when there is a worry that teens might be setting out to drive after drinking, he said.
Hotels welcome "Project Graduation" or "Project Prom" and similar events where there is a degree of adult supervision even though kids stay in the hotel over night, he said.
"What hotels can do, and what schools can do, is encourage parents to have honest conversations with their kids," said Lisa DeLong, principal of Kahuku High & Intermediate School.
This past year, her school got away from hotels altogether at prom time, holding the event instead at the Koolau Golf Club where it could be tightly supervised and where the teens could have fun without the temptations of the city, and particularly Waikiki.
Hotels can set policies, such as prohibiting alcohol in minors' rooms, DeLong said.
"Innkeepers have a right to inquire if they think there's a violation of their house rules," she said.
At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, spokeswoman Bernie Caalim-Polanzi said the hotel keeps a close eye on such events. "Anyone can make a reservation and get a room," she said, "but if you are a minor, Hilton adheres to Hawaii state law about the legal drinking age and because of that we will refuse a request from a minor for a key to the mini refreshment bar in the room," she said.
If a hotel room is used, schools encourage adult supervision, said DeLong.
"When an adult who is 19 or 20 gets a room, who is there to supervise, or to witness if someone buys alcohol for a teen? No one in their right mind wants to let that happen," DeLong said.
Another trend is the use of limousines and buses, keeping teens in groups and always under the supervision of at least one adult, the driver, she said.
"The limo drivers need to know not to condone alcohol," she said.
Limousine operator Peter Nenezich, owner of Cloud 9 Limousine, said his company gets a lot of prom business and takes the responsibility very seriously.
"The parents are the ones who pay for it. They do it for the idea of security for the kids. The kids don't want to go with mom and dad," he said, but they'll accept supervision from a limo driver.
The kids like to go out in the limo for a couple of hours after the formal event, Nenezich said.
"They like to go to a drive-in. They get a kick out of getting burgers and fries in a limousine. Then we get them home. The parents are in full contact with us all the time," he said.
"All limos are alcohol-free. By state law, there's no smoking. Drug use is definitely not put up with," Nenezich said. To allow any such activity could cost a company its Public Utilities Commission license and, therefore, its business, he said.
Anyway, when kids get in a limo they seem to grow up and the drivers "are not ogres" and make sure the kids have a good time within the rules, he said.