Short answer. Often yes. A hotel-keeper answers as a depositary for a guest's effects, and Article 2001 provides that the act of a thief who has entered the hotel is not force majeure unless done with arms or through an irresistible force. Liability covers annexes too, but it is not unlimited.
What the law says
The hotel-keeper is liable for the vehicles, animals and articles which have been introduced or placed in the annexes of the hotel.
Civil Code, Article 1999 — Hotel-Keeper's Liability for Annexes. Read the full provision →
What the law says
as well as strangers
Civil Code, Article 2000 — Scope of Hotel-Keeper Liability. Read the full provision →
The hotel holds your things as a depositary
The Civil Code treats the effects a traveller brings into a hotel as a necessary deposit, and makes the keeper answerable for them as a depositary — provided notice of the effects was given to the hotel or its employees, and the guest took the precautions the hotel advised for their care. That is the frame for everything else. It is not a courtesy: a hotel is in the business of receiving guests with their luggage, and the law attaches a keeper's responsibility to that business rather than leaving it to the terms printed on a registration card.
Theft by staff, by strangers, and the annexes
Article 2000 extends the responsibility to loss of or injury to the guest's personal property caused by the hotel's servants or employees as well as strangers, excluding only what proceeds from force majeure, and directs that the guest's forced reliance on the keeper's vigilance be considered in fixing the degree of care required. Article 1999 reaches beyond the room itself: The hotel-keeper is liable for the vehicles, animals and articles which have been introduced or placed in the annexes of the hotel. So a car in the hotel car park or a bag in the luggage room sits within the same regime as a suitcase upstairs.
Where the hotel escapes
Two limits do real work. Article 2001 treats a thief who has entered the hotel as force majeure only where the theft is done with the use of arms or through an irresistible force — ordinary sneak-thieving is the hotel's risk, armed robbery may not be. Article 2002 relieves the keeper where the loss is due to the acts of the guest, his family, servants or visitors, or arises from the character of the things brought in. That is where most disputes about jewellery and cash are actually fought: a guest who left the door open, or whose own visitor took the item, is arguing uphill.
What to do the same day
Report the loss to the hotel before you leave and get the report in writing with a time on it — the sequence of events is what later decides the force majeure and guest-fault questions. Ask that the police be called, and ask in writing for the corridor and lobby footage to be preserved, because footage is routinely overwritten. List what is missing, with values and proof of ownership. If you used the room safe or deposited valuables at the front desk, say so and keep the receipt: notice to the hotel is part of the rule that makes it answerable at all.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1999 — Hotel-Keeper's Liability for Annexes
- Civil Code, Article 2000 — Scope of Hotel-Keeper Liability
- Civil Code, Article 2001 — Theft Not Force Majeure
- Civil Code, Article 2002 — When the Hotel-Keeper Is Not Liable