Tourism Law in Europe

13 10. Hospitality and the Hotel Contract The Italian Civil Code does not provide a definition for hotel contracts and merely regulates specific aspects of the relationship between the hotelkeeper and the guest 24 . While the hotel contract is not one of the “types” regulated by the Code, it has undoubtedly become more socially typified over time. Thus, these contracts have their own “historical” definition and development, having evolved from reception and accommodation against payment to a range of services, including the rental of accommodation and the provision of services. The hotel contract is traditionally defined as follows: with the hotel contract, in consideration of a payment, one party, referred to as the hotelkeeper, undertakes to provide the other party, referred to as the guest, with accommodation, board and other accommodation-related services 25 . In recent times, doctrine and case law have emphasised the causal relevance of the so- called “accommodation-related services”, highlighting the ancillary services offered by the hotelkeeper. Suffice it to recall that the Italian Supreme Court has resolved that “The hotel contract (…) governs a range of services, including accommodation rental and the provision of services, without such accommodation rental having to be construed as dominant consideration in relation to the other services” (Italian Supreme Court no. 7070 of 22 January 2002). Conversely, the Civil Code regulates the “hotel deposits” as a type of deposit contract. In fact, the Civil Code, distinguishing between the deposit in the general storage spaces (art. 1787) and the hotel deposit (art. 1783). The provisions on storage in hotels are intended to regulate the deterioration, destruction or removal of items that guests bring with them, enacting an obligation of custody and a strict liability of the hotelkeeper. Under Law no. 316 of 10 June 1978, Italy ratified the Convention on the Liability of Hotel-keepers concerning the Property of their Guests, signed in Paris on 17 December 1962, adding articles 1463 et seq . to the Italian Civil Code. Moreover, pursuant to article 1783 of the 24 For all, see Mariaenza LA TORRE, Il contratto di albergo , in Vincenzo FANCESCHELLI & Francesco MORANDI, Manuale di diritto del turismo , op . cit ., p. 318. 25 According to FRAGALI, “A hotel contract may be defined as a contract whereby against payment, one party (the hotelkeeper) undertakes to provide the other party (the guest or client) with accommodation and board, and to provide it with those services which make a stay at paid accommodation premises comfortable”, in Michele FRAGALI, Albergo (contratto di) , in Enciclopedia del Diritto , Vol. I, Giuffrè, Milan, 1958, p. 964.