P.R. Laws tit. 10, § 716
(a) Any person who, with intent to defraud, obtains money, credit or accommodations from an innkeeper, in an aggregate amount of less than five hundred dollars ($500), shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and any person who, with intent to defraud, obtains money, credit or accommodations from an innkeeper in an amount aggregating five hundred dollars ($500) or more, shall be guilty of a felony. Evidence that money, lodging, credit, food, or other accommodations were obtained at any hotel by false or fictitious showing, or by pretense of baggage, or by misrepresentation; evidence that any person refused or neglected to pay for such food, lodging, or other accommodations on demand; evidence that any check given, or purported to be given, in payment for such money, food, lodging, credit, or other accommodations was duly presented at the drawee bank and dishonored for insufficient funds, or for lack of account, or for any like reason; and evidence that any person removed or caused to be removed his baggage from such hotel without first making payment or obtaining credit for such food, lodging or other accommodations as he may have received therefrom, shall be deemed to constitute presumptive evidence of fraudulent intent. Neither evidence of a special agreement for delay in payment, nor evidence of the issuance by the innkeeper of a credit card, shall be sufficient to rebut the presumption of fraudulent intent, unless payment be made on or before the expiration of the credit period allowed either by the special agreement, or by the credit card.
(b) Any person who for purpose of gain, and by means of any false statement or representation regarding any hotel, shall divert or attempt to divert any traveler or other person to another hotel, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Evidence of the making of a false statement regarding any hotel, coupled with a suggestion or recommendation to patronize another hotel, shall constitute presumptive evidence that the act of the defendant was committed for purpose of gain.
(c) Any person who shall pay, or offer to pay, any money or other reward to another for diverting patrons from one hotel to another, knowing or intending that such diversion will be effected in a manner prohibited by subsection (b) of this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. In any prosecution for violation of the provisions of this subsection, evidence of prior notice to the defendant that the person to whom payment was made, or offered to be made, has at any time diverted patronage from one hotel to another by means of false representation, shall constitute presumptive evidence that such defendant knew and intended that the diversion, or attempted diversion, object of the complaint, would be effected by false statement or by representations prohibited in subsection (b) of this section.
History —June 23, 1956, No. 85, p. 540, § 6, eff. 90 days after June 23, 1956.