Tourism Law in Europe

29 V.3.3. Liability for damage caused to the customer’s vehicle Special mention should be made of the disappearance of or damage caused to the guest’s vehicle, since as a result of the amendment made by Law 44/2006, of 29 December, on improving the protection of consumers and users, in Law 40/2002, of 14 November, regulating the vehicle parking contract (LA), a new regime is introduced in the treatment of such means of transport, with two different regimes for the custody and safekeeping of such goods: The general regime of indirect custody, as another of the traveller’s goods, which is applied to all vehicles parked in areas fitted out and delimited by the employer, without any special security measures, above all, the control of access and exit of the vehicle; and, that contained in the aforementioned LA, which would be applied to those that are kept in garages, under the surveillance of the hotelier or employees and in which there is a control, whether mechanical or human, for their access and exit 62 . The former, as we have already mentioned, is brought back to the regime studied for any effect of the traveller, without being exempted by the lack of direct surveillance that could be required of such goods due to their special value (STS of 8 May 2008). The employer is responsible for them, being able to exonerate his liability for the effects of special value left inside, as such goods, especially if they are of special value, and following the regime analysed above, must be kept in the central safe deposit box (direct deposit). The second will be regulated by the aforementioned LA, by which the host will be liable for damage caused to the fixed components of the vehicle, not to the mobile ones that will have to be removed. The hotel operator is not liable for the other goods that may be left in the vehicle, as he has not accepted a deposit contract for such goods of special value. 62 On the subject, see the works of ARROYO APARICIO, A. El contrato de aparcamiento de vehículos , Marcial Pons, 2008 and “Contrato de aparcamiento de vehículos”, in Contratos Mercantiles, Alberto Bercovitz Rodríguez-Cano, A. & María Ángeles Calzada Conde, M. A. (Dir), Vol. I., 5 th ed., Aranzadi, Pamplona, 2013, pp. 1056-1108; as well as GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I. “El doble tratamiento jurídico del vehículo que introduzca el huésped en el establecimiento hotelero”, Revista Andaluza de Derecho del Turismo , no. 4, 2010, pp. 117- 146.