Tourism Law in Europe

14 4.2.4. Allotment contract Allotment contracts aim to regulate the relationship between tour operators and hotel- keepers or other hospitality service providers. Parties of an allotment contract are a travel agency and a hotel-keeper (or other hospitality service provider). The aim of this contract is to fill the agreed accommodation units with guests by tourist agencies, which reduces the risk of empty rooms for the hotel-keeper, and the agencies make a profit through the commission they receive from the hotel-keepers. Travellers often book their travel with an agency because of various information it offers to them, the simplicity, safety and reliability of such journeys, and often cheaper prices. Guests, who use the contracted services, are generally in a contractual relationship only with an agency, while they have the status of a third party against hotelkeepers. This area of tourism law has not yet been harmonised on the European level and therefore the competence remains with the Member States. As it has turned out in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, allotment contracts play an important role in determining who at the final stage bears the risk of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances in the contractual chain traveller – tour operator – tourist service provider. Slovenian law on allotment contracts does not regulate specific scenarios of force majeure but gives a tour operator a right to withdraw from a contract within a certain period of time without obligation to pay compensation. The Obligations Code differentiates between two types of allotment contracts: (i) allotment contract which enables the tourist agency to terminate the contract if it turns out that it cannot fill the agreed accommodation or cannot fill it to the agreed extent; and (ii) allotment contract which gives the hotel-keeper a guarantee that the agency will fill the agreed accommodation or that it will pay the compensation if it fails to do so without the possibility to terminate the contract (allotment contract “full for empty”). The “full or empty” contractual type should be expressly agreed by the parties. Allotment contract must be in writing. However, the written form is not a requirement for the validity of a contract but has merely an evidentiary function ( forma ad probationem ). If not agreed otherwise, allotment contract is concluded for one year.