Booking and cancellation terms and conditions / house rules

General case law on accommodation / guest accommodation contractsSource: Law in Tourism DTVA holiday accommodation is booked bindingly when a room, a holiday apartment or a holiday home is ordered by the guest and confirmed by the landlord/hotelier or provided for short-term bookings. A binding accommodation contract or guest accommodation contract is generally concluded without any form, i.e. also with verbal bookings, especially by telephone. Unless the contracting parties have expressly agreed on written form.If a binding accommodation contract has been concluded, the following applies:Booked is booked.Neither of the contracting parties can unilaterally withdraw from the concluded contract, regardless of the reasons for cancellation (exception: force majeure). Bad weather, illness and even a death in the immediate family do not justify withdrawal from the contract. However, the parties can agree to a mutual termination of the contract at any time. In this case, the landlord/hotelier can demand the agreed or usual rental price from the guest less the expenses he has saved. The time of withdrawal is not important. Even if the guest cancels the accommodation contract, for example, six months before the planned arrival, he or she remains obliged to pay the agreed or standard rental price. However, the landlord/hotelier must offset any saved expenses against his or her claim. Jurisprudence recognizes the value of the saved expenses as reasonable at a flat rate of 20% for overnight stays with breakfast, 30% for overnight stays with half board, 40% for overnight stays with full board and 10% for renting a holiday apartment or holiday home.

Exceptions, however, are non-arrivals and reduced prices due to offers/last minute/special prices.

100% can be charged here. However, the landlord/hotelier is obliged in good faith to rent the booked accommodation to someone else in order to keep the damage as low as possible. Many accommodation providers use flat-rate cancellation fees in their general terms and conditions. The cancellation conditions regulate the amount of the cancellation fee depending on the time of cancellation. This is a voluntary - usually more favorable for the guest - arrangement to which the landlord/hotelier is not obliged and which must be expressly agreed by the parties. It is not only the guest who has obligations to the landlord/hotelier under the concluded accommodation/guest accommodation contract. The landlord/hotelier is obliged to provide the guest with the room as agreed. The landlord/hotelier is always responsible for the non-provision of the room due to overbooking. He must pay the guest compensation. If, in such a case, the guest has to move to a different, more expensive room, for example, the guest can claim the difference as damages. A written booking confirmation issued by a hotel following a room request is binding for both contracting parties. This is not a non-binding reservation, but rather an accommodation contract. The contract is also concluded if the parties did not negotiate the room price when making the booking request. In this case, the guest expresses that he is prepared to pay the hotel's usual room price. This is the result of a ruling by the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court dated 017634398850, ref. no. 2-01 S 53/04.