(A) Every person in the business of conducting a hotel or an SRO facility shall procure, in accordance with the requirements specified in this chapter and the rules adopted pursuant to it, a license for each hotel or SRO facility conducted or proposed to be conducted.

(B) No hotel or SRO facility shall be maintained, conducted, or advertised without a license. No person shall advertise, conduct, maintain, or operate any structure as a hotel or as an SRO facility without a license, and no person shall operate such a structure that is not equipped in the manner and conditions as required under this chapter. No person shall advertise, conduct, maintain, or operate a licensed hotel or licensed SRO facility in a manner that is inconsistent with the requirements of this chapter or any rules adopted pursuant to it.

(C)

(1) A structure licensed as an extended stay hotel on the effective date of this amendment may maintain that license by continuing to satisfy the requirements that were applicable to that extended stay hotel at the time the license was issued, unless any of the following events occur regarding that extended stay hotel:

(a) The owner of the extended stay hotel constructs or alters the hotel.

(b) The owner of the extended stay hotel surrenders the license issued to that hotel.

(c) The owner of the extended stay hotel changes the use or occupancy of that hotel.

(d) The license issued to that extended stay hotel under this chapter is revoked or is not renewed.

(2) If any of the events described in divisions (C)(1)(a) to (d) of this section occur, the owner of the structure shall comply with division (C)(3) of this section to obtain a new license to operate as an extended stay hotel.

(3) Beginning on the effective date of this amendment, the state fire marshal shall not issue a new license to operate a facility as an extended stay hotel, and shall not renew such a license issued under division (C)(3) of this section, unless the facility satisfies the requirements to be an extended stay hotel as specified in division (A)(3) of section 3731.01 of the Revised Code.

(D) All licenses shall expire on the last day of December of each year and be renewed in accordance with the requirements for renewal established in rules adopted by the state fire marshal pursuant to division (A) of section 3731.02 of the Revised Code.

(E) A person who has received a license, upon the sale or disposition of the hotel or SRO facility or its removal to a new location, may, upon obtaining consent of the state fire marshal, have the license transferred. No license shall be transferred without both an inspection conducted by and the consent of the state fire marshal, and the state fire marshal shall not unreasonably withhold consent.

(F) A license to maintain and operate a hotel or an SRO facility shall not be issued to the keeper, owner, or lessee of any hotel or SRO facility where accommodations for assignation purposes are furnished, or to any keeper, owner, or lessee who has been convicted of keeping a place in violation of the law relating to houses of assignation or places of public nuisance.

(G)

(1) No person licensed to maintain and operate a hotel or SRO facility shall also maintain and operate an agricultural labor camp, apartment house, apartment, lodging house, rooming house, or hospital or college dormitory in the same structure as is located the licensed hotel or SRO facility, unless the agricultural labor camp, apartment house, apartment, lodging house, rooming house, or hospital or college dormitory has been constructed as, and been approved by the building official having jurisdiction as being, a separate building within the hotel or SRO facility structure in accordance with the requirements specified in the state nonresidential building code adopted pursuant to section 3781.10 of the Revised Code or is separated in a manner that satisfies the requirements for occupancy separation specified in that code.

(2) All hotel and SRO facility uses shall continue in accordance with their approval under the license issued by the state fire marshal unless a change in use or occupancy has been approved by the building official having jurisdiction over the hotel or SRO facility and the license has been revised by the state fire marshal.

(H) If an extended stay hotel license is revoked by the state fire marshal in accordance with section 3731.06 of the Revised Code, the owner of that structure shall not operate that structure in accordance with the use and occupancy classification for which the structure was approved or in accordance with the license issued under this chapter by the state fire marshal and shall not open that structure for use by the public until and unless the state fire marshal determines, in accordance with the requirements specified in the state nonresidential building code adopted pursuant to section 3781.10 of the Revised Code and the state fire code adopted pursuant to section 3737.82 of the Revised Code, that it is safe for the structure to be operated. If, after the license is revoked, the owner wishes to operate that structure as a hotel, the owner shall comply with division (D) of section 3731.06 of the Revised Code.

(I) A license to maintain and operate an SRO facility shall permit the facility to offer rooms for thirty days or less if less than fifty per cent of its rooms are occupied for a period of thirty days or less.

Effective Date: 04-09-2003; 2008 SB237 09-12-2008 .