Tourism Law in Europe

5 being concluded either verbally or in writing, although in the past decade it was common to make telephone bookings through the reservation centres of the chains themselves, which use 900 or 902 numbers, and nowadays, those made through meta-search engines, accommodation intermediation platforms and even through the websites of the establishments. In fact, the collection of guests' identification data during check-in cannot be understood as a formality for the perfection of the contract, but rather as an administrative requirement that must be complied with for security reasons, since said data is transferred to the competent State security bodies and forces. Furthermore, it is a bilateral and synallagmatic contract, since it generates reciprocal obligations for both parties (hotelier and guest), to which, for reasons of systematics, we will refer below; onerous 9 , although the service may be provided free of charge on an exceptional basis; and, of the successive tract, since the hotelier's obligation - the provision of services to the guest - is reiterative and lasts for as long as the guest stays at the hotel. Finally, as regards the legal nature of the contract, and despite the absence of a unanimous criterion 10 , its commercial nature must be insisted on, when it is performed by a businessman in the sector, on the basis that it is part of the trade and, therefore, a typical task of the tourism businessman 11 ; without prejudice to the particularities that 9 According to CEBALLOS MARTÍN, M. M. & PÉREZ GUERRA, R. El contrato turístico de alojamiento hotelero , Comares, Granada, 2001, p. 59, the price constitutes the basis of the relationship and explains why the professional activity of the long-distance runner has become an industry. 10 Certainly, the Supreme Court has been unable to resolve the question, preferring to subordinate the nature of the contract to whether or not it is part of a commercial activity. Thus it is stated that “ no cabe en nuestro Derecho positivo, declarar a priori si el contrato de hospedaje debe reputarse de acto mercantil, con la consiguiente calificación de comerciante al hospedero o fondista, sino tener en cuenta para marcar la diferencia de acto civil y mercantil, al complejo de operaciones que tal contrato implica, aquilatando los actos realizados por el deudor, especialmente el volumen del negocio y repercusión del mismo en orden a su trascendencia jurídica ”  “it is not possible in our positive law to declare a priori whether the contract of accommodation should be considered a commercial act, with the consequent classification of the host or funder as a trader, but to take into account, in order to make the difference between a civil and commercial act, the complex of operations that such a contract implies, assessing the acts carried out by the debtor, especially the volume of the business and its repercussions in terms of its legal transcendence” (author’s translation)  (STS of 13 March 1936). 11 We share on this point the criterion headed by PÉREZ SERRANO, N. El contrato de hospedaje en su doble aspecto civil y mercantil , op . cit ., pp. 111 et seq . and followed by a large part of our doctrine, including FERNÁNDEZ PÉREZ, N. El alojamiento colaborativo , Valencia, Tirant lo Blanch, 2018, p. 158; GARRIGUES Y DÍAZ-CAÑABATE, J. Curso de Derecho Mercantil, Vol. II, (revised by Fernando Sánchez Calero), 8 th ed., Imprenta Aguirre, Madrid, 1983, p. 406; GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I. “El contrato de alojamiento jurídico", in Contratos Mercantiles , Alberto Bercovitz Rodríguez-Cano (Dir.), 5 th ed, Vol. III, Aranzadi, Cizur Menor, 2017, pp. 1593; LANGLE, E. Manual de Derecho Mercantil español , Vol. III, Bosch, Barcelona, 1959, p. 272; NAVARRETE, A. “El contrato de hospedaje y el negocio de hostelería”, Revista de Derecho Mercantil , 1958, pp. 268 et seq .