Q. If you are going to spend Pesach in a hotel, do you have to search your hotel room for chometz? When do you do the bedika? Do you make a brocho? What to do if you arrive after midday on Erev Pesach?
A. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 437: 1) rules that if someone rents a house before Pesach, if he takes possession (by receiving the keys) before the beginning of the fourteenth day of Nisan and eve of Pesach (the night prior to the seder night.) he has to search the rented premises with a brocho. However in regards to an hotel room Poskim disagree if he is obligated to search for chometz, as this is not an ordinary property rental, since he can be easily transferred to another room and management also maintains an extended control of the premises (Kinyan Torah 1: 120.) Another reason is that the rooms are cleaned everyday and do not have a chazaka or presumption of containing chometz. Other Poskim maintain that the room should be searched with a brocho, if possession took place before the fourteenth (Sidur Pesach Kehilchoso 12: 8, Piskei Trshuvos 427: 1)
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion is that they should be searched without a brocho unless the guest brings with him pieces of chometz (one of them should be more than a kezais) to be hidden before the bedika. (It is recommended to utilize the same pieces of chometz used on the search at home, see prior question)
All luggage, bags, the pockets of clothing and the car (if there is,) should also then be searched
If he arrived after the time when the prohibition began or during Chol Hamoed, some Poskim maintain that he should do a bedika (Piskei Teshuvos ibid.) with a brocho. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is to search without a brocho
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a
Important Numbers
