Dear Rabbi,

If I'm staying at a hotel during Shabbat, can I carry anything outside the room, or would this be a desecration of Shabbat? For example, can I leave my room and carry the key with me?

Name@Withheld from Hebrew University, Jerusalem wrote:

Dear Rabbi,

In a hotel on Shabbat, what is considered "public" and "private" domain? Is the entire hotel considered "private" domain? Is it permissible to carry objects to and from one's hotel room?

Dear Tev Djmal and Name@Withheld,

I asked this question to Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, shlita, who ruled that it is permissible to carry items inside a hotel. Since you do not own the room and the management reserves the right to enter your room to clean, plus the fact that the furnishings belong to the hotel, the hotel is considered one private domain.

Sources:

• See Shulchan Aruch 382:18