Tourism Law in Europe

14 Thus, although the intention expressed with the widespread hotel was to actually constitute a new hospitality model with specific distinctive characteristics 44 , from a private point of view we are still faced with an accommodation facility led by an entrepreneur who provides services to a beneficiary, possibly also a contracting party. The importance of hotel contract in the context of tourism contracts is an evident consequence of the role that accommodation has always played within the tourism sector. As we have seen, traveling almost always means sleeping away from home and, except for adventurous youth experiences or friendly hospitality, in most cases it means entering into a contract with an accommodation service provider, whether entrepreneur or private. Despite this, Italian law has never expressly regulated hotel contract. There is no mention of it, either in the civil code or in special laws. Instead, it took care to clearly define what are the responsibilities of the hotelier as regards his duty of protection towards the customer and his property, with a set of rules contained in the civil code in articles ranging from 1783 to 1786. Legislator took also care to regulate the protection (art. 2760 c.c.) and the prescription of its rights (arts. 2955 and 2958 c.c.). Thus, the definition the hotel contract is the contract by which one party undertakes to provide the other, for a fee, with accommodation and those other necessary or possible services that allow a more comfortable stay, in premises organized for this purpose, elaborated by doctrine and endorsed also by jurisprudence, is now consolidated 45 . Hotelier with the management of hotel business in the forms of use, such as the display of signs or the indication of the essential data of the offer, makes an offer to the public 46 , therefore the contract is concluded, pursuant to art. 1326 of Civil Code, when he becomes aware of the acceptance (express or tacit) of customer. This being the case, the manager of a widespread hotel, when legally really such, for the purposes of recognizing 44 About this see: F. Morandi, cit., 2008, p. 18 et seq. 45 Definition drawn up by doctrine (and jurisprudence), which, as correctly states M. Bussoletti, Albergo (contratto di) (Hotel contract) , in Treccani, 1982 p. 1 et seq .: “was confirmed by the definition of hotel in art. 6, second paragraph of law 217/83: hotels are accommodation establishments open to the public, with unitary management, which provide accommodation, possibly food and other accessory services in common, located in one or more buildings or parts of buildings”. 46 See: M. Bussoletti, Albergo (contratto di), cit., p. 4. He states that "the element that necessarily characterizes the exercise of the hotel business is the establishment of an obligation to contract, refusal being prohibited, without legitimate reason. Furthermore, since the price of the accommodation is "administered" in relation to the category to which the hotel business belongs and can be determined pursuant to art. 1474 c,c,, there will be a public offer in the strict sense”.