Tourism Law in Europe

18 VI. Private Tourism Law – Tourist Contracts VI.1. Hotel Contract The relationships between the travel agent or agency and the hotel owner are governed by the hotel contact and all contracts concluded between national travel agents associations and hotel owners associations, codifying the habits and practices that take place among the contracting parties. The first hotel contract that refers to the relationship between travel agencies and hotel owners in various countries took the form of a “Hospitality Contract” and was international in character, given that it was signed in Paris in 1979 between the International Hotel & Restaurant Association (henceforth IH&RA) and the Fédération Universelle des Associations d´Agences de Voyages (henceforth FUAAV). In 1991, IH&RA and FUAAV signed a “Regulation Contract”, which replaced the earlier “Hospitality Contract”, and then, in 1996, the European Travel Agents & Tour Operators Association (henceforth ECTAA) and the Confederation of National Associations of Hotels, Restaurants, Cafés and Similar Establishments in the European Union and European Economic Area (henceforth HOTREC) signed a “Code of Conduct” in Brussels. According to Article 1 of the HOTREC/ECTAA Code of Conduct, “a hotel contract is a (commercial) contract by means of which a hotel enters into an agreement with a tour operator to provide hotel services (to the clients of the latter). ‘Hotel services’ are defined as the provision of accommodation, meals and any other amenity that the hotel has pledged to provide”. All aforementioned texts serve to codify the practices of the contracting parties in hotel contracts and are non-binding, i.e. they do not constitute binding law ( ius cogens ), seeing as neither do they equal laws nor capture customs. Instead, they are used as an additional resource to interpret contracts. These texts have assumed an auxiliary and supplementary role, meaning that they are summoned in case there is no private contract signed between the hotel owner and the travel agent or in case parts of the contract are unclear. A more appropriate characterisation might be a “gentlemen's agreement”, which lacks any intent to legal commitment 20 . 20 Rizos, E. (2016). Συμβάσεις ξενοδόχων – ταξιδιωτικών πρακτόρων, Σύμβαση εγγυημένης κράτησης – Σύμβαση allotment [Hotel owner – travel agent contracts, Guarantee commitment contract – Allotment contract]. Athens-Thessaloniki: Sakkoulas Publications, p. 13.