Tourism Law in Europe

12 have to ensure the security of such goods, the conduct of the traveler in this respect will determine the greater or lesser liability of the former and even, on occasions, the exoneration of the same (for example, the theft of valuables by the person whom the guest invites to their room). As an accessory, but of equal importance, the customer's obligation to behave diligently in the establishment, obliging him/her to respect the usual rules of urbanity, hygiene, and coexistence. The aforementioned obligations are also referred to succinctly in the PCM, when it recognises in Article 534-15 that “  e  l cliente estará obligado a pagar el precio de la habitación, y, en su caso, los eventuales servicios complementarios contratados, así como a respetar las normas de seguridad e higiene de los establecimientos hoteleros ” 26 . Precisely in order to deal with the non-payment of the price of the accommodation and the maintenance provided to the guest, the hotelier is recognised, in article 1922.5 CC, the right to retain the movable goods that the debtor client has in his establishment 27 . However, this special privilege does not imply that the businessman can freely retain said goods, since he is only authorised to do so when the guest is judicially declared insolvent 28 and there is a plurality of creditors 29 , that is, basically, when the conditions required by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2020, of 5 May, approving the revised text of the Insolvency Act are met, and consequently, the debtor is declared insolvent and the hotel businessman has certain goods of the client in his possession, whatever they may be. On this point, the solution adopted in this respect in the PCM, which qualified this right of retention of luggage as a privileged credit, extending it to all the services provided to the guest during his stay, was of great interest. Indeed, Article 534-13.4 PCM recognised that “[l] os créditos del titular del establecimiento de alojamiento derivados del contrato de hospedaje y de servicios complementarios tendrán carácter privilegiado respecto de los 26 The client shall be obliged to pay the price of the room and, where applicable, any additional services contracted, as well as to respect the safety and hygiene regulations of the hotel establishments (author’s translation). 27 For LÓPEZ PELÁEZ, P. “El crédito preferente del hotelero”, in I Jornadas sobre Derecho y Turismo , Javier Melgosa Arcos (ed.), Ed. Fundación Cultural Santa Teresa, Ávila, 1995, p. 47, it is a hybrid figure, a mixture of pure privilege and authentic retention; that is to say, it is one of the cases in which the right of retention is not limited to being a mere exception of the creditor against the claim for restitution of the thing, but is combined with the privilege or preference, becoming an element of it, and contributing decisively to its effectiveness. 28 AURIOLES MARTÍN, A. Introducción al Derecho Turístico , op . cit ., p. 80. 29 LÓPEZ PELÁEZ, P. “El crédito preferente del hotelero”, op . cit ., p. 51.