GTC (General Terms & Conditions of Business)

of the Hotel Fürstenhof GmbH
Status: September 2011

1. Scope of application

1.1 The following General Terms & Conditions of Business shall apply to contracts relating to the rental provision of hotel rooms for accommodation and conferencing, and to all the other goods and services provided by the Hotel for the guest.

1.2 Provisions differing from these, including the guest’s general terms & conditions of business, shall be applicable only if this is expressly agreed in writing beforehand.

2. Conclusion of contract

2.1 The hotel accommodation contract (hosting agreement) shall come into existence through the guest submitting a request (room booking) which is accepted by the Hotel. Acceptance shall take place through confirmation of the room booking.

– Confirmation of the room booking can take place verbally, in writing, by telephone or by E-mail.

2.2 If room booking takes place by a third party on behalf of the guest, the third party together with the guest shall be jointly and severally liable to the Hotel for all obligations arising from the hotel acceptance contract, provided a corresponding declaration by the third party is available to the Hotel.

2.3 The General Law of Obligations and the provisions of the BGB’s General Law of Tenancy shall be applicable to hosting contracts in addition to Section 701 ff. of the BGB (German Code of Civil Law).

2.4 Subletting and reletting the rooms provided, and their use for purposes other than accommodation, shall require the Hotel’s prior written consent.

3. Prices and services

3.1 The Hotel shall be obliged to have the rooms booked by the guest ready in accordance with these General Terms & Conditions of Business, and shall provide the agreed services.

3.2 The guest shall be obliged to pay the Hotel’s prices in force and/or agreed for the provision of room(s) and for the further services he/she makes use of. This shall also apply to the Hotel’s services and expenses owing to third parties that are arranged by the guest or by the orderer.

3.3 The agreed prices shall include the respective statutory VAT.

– If the period of time between contract conclusion and contract fulfilment exceeds 9 months, and if the price generally billed by the Hotel for such services increases, this can increase the agreed price appropriately, although by a maximum 10%.

3.4 The Hotel can change the prices if the guest subsequently requests changes in the number of rooms booked, the Hotel’s services or the guests’ length of stay, and the Hotel agrees to this.

3.5 The Hotel’s invoices shall be payable immediately on presentation and without deduction.

– Payment delay shall commence at the latest when the guest fails to pay an invoice within 30 days after it becomes due for payment and an invoice has been received; this shall apply to a guest who is a consumer only if attention was specifically drawn to these consequences in the invoice. In the event of delayed payment, the Hotel shall be entitled to charge consumers default interest amounting to 5% above the basic interest rate. In business transactions, the default interest rate is 8% above the basic interest rate. The Hotel reserves the right to assert larger damages. The Hotel can charge a reminder fee of 5.00 € for each reminder after payment delay begins.

3.6 At the time of contract conclusion or thereafter, the Hotel shall be entitled to request an appropriate advance payment or provision of security. The amount of the advance payment and its due date for payment can be agreed in writing in the contract. Furthermore, by issuing an intermediate invoice, the Hotel shall be entitled at any time to declare the unpaid bills that have accumulated during the guest’s stay in the Hotel due for payment, and to demand immediate payment.
Unless agreed otherwise, a security payment amounting to 50% of the total price shall become due for payment when the booking is confirmed. The remaining payment of 50% shall become due by the time of arrival.

3.7 The guest can offset or reduce a payment owed to the Hotel only against an undisputed or legally binding payment owed by the Hotel.

4. Services not made use of by the guest, cancellation, withdrawal by the guest

4.1 The Hotel shall grant the guest a right of withdrawal at any time. The following conditions shall apply in this respect:

– If the guest withdraws from the booking, the Hotel shall be entitled to appropriate compensation.

– Instead of specifically calculated compensation, the Hotel shall have the option to assert a flat rate withdrawal fee against the guest. The flat rate withdrawal fee shall be 80% of the contractually agreed price for overnight stays with or without breakfast, 70% of the contractually agreed price for overnight stays with half board, and 60% of the contractually agreed price for overnight stays with full board arrangements. The guest shall be free to provide proof that the Hotel did not suffer any damage, or that the damage incurred by the Hotel is less than the required flat rate compensation payment.

– If the Hotel specifically calculates the compensation, the maximum amount of compensation shall be the amount of the contractually agreed price for the service to be provided by the Hotel, less the value of the expenditures saved by the Hotel and less what the Hotel earns through using the Hotel’s services in some other way.

4.2 The aforesaid rules concerning compensation shall apply correspondingly if the guest fails to make use of the room(s) or services that were booked, but without informing the Hotel of this in good time.

4.3 The entitlement to compensation shall lapse if the Hotel granted the guest an option in the contract to withdraw from the contract within a specified period of time without further legal consequences, and the Hotel shall have no claim to compensation. The time when the withdrawal declaration is received by the Hotel shall be definitive with regard to its timeliness. The guest must declare the withdrawal in writing.

5. Withdrawal by the Hotel

5.1 If the guest was granted a free of charge right of withdrawal within a specified period of time according to No. 4.3 in the hosting agreement, the Hotel shall also be entitled to withdraw from the contract within the agreed period if other guests enquire about the booked rooms and the guest does not definitively confirm the booking when questioned by the Hotel.

5.2 If an advance payment or provision of security agreed according to No. 3.6 is not paid within a time limit set for this, the Hotel shall likewise be entitled to withdraw from the contract.

5.3 This shall not affect the right to withdraw from the contract on important grounds. Grounds shall exist in particular if

– Force Majeure or other circumstances for which the Hotel is not responsible make fulfilment of the contract impossible;

– rooms are booked under misleading or false information about essential facts, e.g. regarding the person of the guest or the purpose;

– the Hotel has well-founded reason to assume that utilisation of the Hotel’s services may endanger the smooth operation of the business, safety or the Hotel’s public reputation without this being attributable to the Hotel’s sphere of authority or organisation;

– there is unauthorised sub-letting or reletting according to No. 2.3;there is unauthorised sub-letting or reletting according to No. 2.3;

– a case of No. 6.3 exists;

– the Hotel gains knowledge of facts indicating that the guest’s financial circumstances have worsened considerably after conclusion of contract, especially if the guest fails to pay amounts due for payment to the Hotel, or fails to offer adequate security, and therefore the Hotel’s payment entitlements appear to be endangered;

– the guest has applied for insolvency proceedings to be opened on his assets, has issued an affirmation in lieu of oath according to Section 807 of the German Civil Procedure Code, has initiated out-of-court debt settlement proceedings or has stopped his payments;

– insolvency proceedings are opened on the guest’s assets, or opening thereof is refused due to a lack of assets or for any other reasons.

5.4 The Hotel shall notify the guest in writing without delay about the exercise of the right of withdrawal.

5.5 In the aforementioned cases of withdrawal, the guest shall not acquire any entitlement to damages compensation.

6. Arrival and departure

6.1 The guest shall not acquire any entitlement to the provision of specific rooms, unless the Hotel confirm in writing the provision of specific rooms.

6.2 Booked rooms shall be available to the guest from 14:00 hrs. onwards on the agreed arrival day. The guest shall have no entitlement to earlier availability.

6.3 The guest shall make use of booked rooms by 18:00 hrs. at the latest on the agreed arrival day. After 18:00 hrs., unless a later arrival time was expressly agreed, the Hotel shall have the right to allocate booked rooms in some other way without the guest being able to derive compensation claims from this fact. In this respect, the Hotel shall be entitled to the right of withdrawal.

6.4 The rooms shall be vacated and made available to the Hotel by 11:00 hrs. at the latest on the agreed departure day. Thereafter, in addition to the damage it sustains as a result, the Hotel can charge the daily room rate for the additional use of the room until 16:00 hrs, and 100% of the full applicable price for board and lodging from 16:00 onwards. The guest shall have the option to prove to the Hotel that the latter incurred no damages, or considerably lower damages.

7. Liability

7.1 In cases of intent or gross negligence, the Hotel shall be liable according to the statutory provisions. For slight negligence, the Hotel shall be liable exclusively on grounds of injury to life, limb or health, or on grounds of breach of essential (cardinal) contractual obligations. However, entitlement to damages compensation for slightly negligent breach of essential contractual obligations shall be limited to contractually typical, foreseeable damage unless liability is due to injury to life, limb or health. The organiser shall be liable to the same extent for fault on the part of vicarious agents and representatives.

7.2 The provision of the previous paragraph (7.1) shall extend to damages in addition to performance, damages instead of the performance and damages due to fruitless expenditures, irrespective of their legal grounds, including liability for defects, delay or impossibility.

7.3 If a car parking space is made available to the guest, the Hotel shall have no duty to supervise, unless this was agreed individually in writing in a safekeeping contract.

7.4 Wake-up requests will be carried out by the Hotel with the greatest care. Damages compensation claims, except for cases of gross negligence or intent, shall be excluded.

7.5 Messages, mail, and merchandise deliveries for guests will be handled with care. The Hotel undertakes the delivery, safekeeping and – on request and in return for payment – forwarding of the same, and also on request for lost/found items. Damages compensation claims, except for cases of gross negligence or intent, shall be excluded. The Hotel shall be entitled, after a one-month safekeeping period and, subject to billing an appropriate fee, to hand the aforesaid items over to the local lost and found office.

7.6 The time limitation period for the guest’s claims shall be in accordance with the statutory provisions.

8. Final clauses

8.1 The place of fulfilment and place of payment shall be the location of the Hotel’s registered office.

8.2 The exclusive place of jurisdiction – including for cheque and bill of exchange disputes – in commercial transactions shall be the location of the Hotel’s registered office. If the contractual partner does not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany, the place of jurisdiction shall be the location of the Hotel’s registered office. However, the Hotel shall also be entitled to institute claims and other court proceedings in the guest’s general place of jurisdiction.

8.3 The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply.

8.4 If one or more of the above provisions is invalid, the effectiveness of the remaining provisions shall not be affected thereby. This shall also apply if one part of a provision is ineffective but the other part is effective. The parties shall replace the respective ineffective provision by a ruling that approximates as closely as possible to the contractual parties’ economic interests and does not run counter to the other contractual agreements.

Hotel Fürstenhof GmbH
Matthias Harlfinger
– Managing Director –

Braunschweig, 26 September 2011