January 2025

Many people leave home to celebrate Pesach with extended family. If that entails staying in a hotel or an Airbnb, there are specific halachos to keep in mind. See below for a brief summary of these halachos.¹

Kashering Guidelines

A hotel kitchenette or Airbnb requires the same method of kashering for Passover as a home kitchen. One should secure permission from the hotel or Airbnb owner before kashering.

Ideally, all kashering should be completed before the end time for eating chometz on Erev Pesach.

Sometimes, one might not arrive until later on the day of Erev Pesach, or on Chol HaMoed. If that is the case, then:

► If one arrives on Erev Pesach after the end time for eating chometz where the property is located: the oven and stovetop grates may still be kashered. A sink may be kashered if one can ascertain that the sink is aino ben yomo (i.e., has not been used with heat in the last 24 hours).² Follow the kashering guidance provided in Rabbi Moshe Heinemann’s article, “Preparing/Kashering the Pesach Kitchen.”

► If one arrives on Chol HaMoed: due to the strictness of Pesach halachos, it may be impractical or even ineffective to do kashering at that time.

Bedikas Chometz in a Hotel

One who is staying at a hotel and did not bring any chometz into the room should perform bedikas chometz without a bracha.³

Some hotel rooms have a “mini-bar” that is pre-stocked with drinks and snacks by the hotel. If there are food items in the mini-bar which are not Kosher for Passover, one should ensure that the staff removes those items. Alternatively, the mini-bar should be sealed off and the staff informed that the guest bears no responsibility for those items.⁴

Bedikas Chometz in an Airbnb

► If one arrives before or on the night of the 14th of Nissan: do a bedika as usual.
► If one arrives on the 14th during the day or on Chol HaMoed: do a bedika without a bracha.
► Further, if one arrives after the time that chometz is forbidden to be owned: before entering the home, he should have in mind to not want to acquire any of the chometz. If chometz is found and the owner is non-Jewish, it should be covered. If the owner is Jewish, then a rav should be consulted.

Hotel Icemaker

Ice from the icemaker may be used, but the ice bucket in the room should not be used. The coffeemaker also may not be used.

Hotel Kiddush

In a hotel there is often a Kiddush before the day meal. To fulfill the mitzvah of Kiddush, one must eat a kezayis of mezonos to create “Kiddush b’makom seuda”. On Pesach, this creates a unique issue since often no gebrokts foods are served. The cakes are typically Shehakol, made from potato starch or nut flour and not matzah meal.

If there are no Mezonos cakes, or one’s custom is not to eat them, one could fulfill the Kiddush b’makom seuda by drinking a revi’is (3.8 fluid oz) of wine or grape juice. Each person listening to Kiddush must drink this amount. (The one who recites Kiddush should drink at least 5 ¾ oz. (This is slightly more than a half-revi’is to be yotzei Kiddush, and then another revi’is for b’makom seuda of wine or grape juice).⁵

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1. O.C. 452:1.

2. This includes being certain that it has not been cleaned with hot water within 24 hours prior to kashering. For example if the owner or manager is a shomer mitzvos, you could ask them for this information. An alternative is to be pogem the sink first, but that process is beyond the scope of this article.

3. The rooms may be like a makom she’ein machnisim bo chometz. One must also check his car, clothes pockets, and luggage without a bracha. For further discussion, see Piskei Teshuvos 437:1. If a guest was eating chometz in the room before Erev Pesach, he should do a bedika with a bracha.

4. Otherwise he may have achrayus, responsibility, for the chometz should it be damaged or stolen, and one may not take responsibility for chometz on Passover.

5. Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasa 54:23; see also Shaar Hatziyun 273:29.