Q. A family is traveling to Europe to spend Pesach in a hotel there. As they are traveling with children and they plan to spend some time after Pesach traveling in Europe, they are taking with them a suitcase full of chometz products for use after Pesach. They have or will include this suitcase in the shtar mechiras chometz, and they plan to leave the sold Chometz suitcase during the Yom Tov at the storage room in the hotel. The Hotel is owned by a non-Jew - but a Jewish tour group is running the Pesach program.
A. Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit"a advise is indeed to make an early echiras chometz, which is done between 3:00 - 5:00 PM Toronto time on Sunday, prior to the night of Bedikas chometz (this year) . Traveling with that suitcase would then be acceptable, assuming that at that time, the travelers would have already reached the hotel destination and deposited the suitcase for safekeeping. When selling the suitcase while still in Toronto, they would have to describe it in the shtar mechirah in a recognizable way, stating also it's location and address, so the sale takes legal effect.
It is recommendable, for the sake of proper kinyan and mechira, that they should also relinquish in favor of the buyer of the chometz, their right to the usage of the storage area where the suitcase is to be found.
The above assumes that the non-Jewish hotel owners have not rented out the complete facility to the Jewish tour-group, and they still remain the responsible party for any claims against the loss or damage of the suitcase that was given to them for safekeeping.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shloimo Miller Shlit"a
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