The contractual basis of reservations

General Terms & Conditions

1. Scope: Hotel World Online

These General Terms & Conditions apply to bookings made personally using the worldwide HRS hotel reservation system. Up to six rooms may be booked online. Reservations of more than six rooms may be made through the HRS call centre. Bookings are binding once the details have been confirmed. If more than six rooms are required, these may not be split into several bookings of up to six rooms each. Request forms are available for processing by the relevant HRS specialist departments when booking rooms for trade fairs as well as conferences, special events and groups (ten or more rooms).

2. Nature of the contractual relationship with HRS

HRS enables users to book the (travel) services of third parties through its worldwide hotel reservation system. HRS does not offer any travel services for which it is liable. Booking therefore merely creates a mediation contract between the user and HRS, one that is not bound by the regulations contained within §§651a ff. of the German Civil Code (BGB).

3. Booking

a) All reservations are relayed to the relevant hotel by HRS acting as communicating messenger.

b) This relaying by HRS is free of charge to the user. For this reason, rooms booked through HRS may not be resold. Furthermore, rooms may not be passed on to third parties at prices higher than those specified on HRS. HRS reserves the right to ban users who act in breach of its regulations. Furthermore, the transfer or sale of accommodation booked at the hotel is not permitted. If this is the case, the hotel may cancel the booking, especially if the guest made incorrect claims about the booking type or payment when selling the accommodation to a third party.

4. Contracts and payment

a) Contracts for the relevant services are concluded directly between users and their chosen hotel through the reservation procedure. The room price confirmed by HRS is paid directly at the hotel. All rights and obligations arising from the hotel contract, especially any rights and obligations stipulated in §§651a ff. of the German Civil Code (BGB), apply directly and exclusively between the person booking the room and his chosen hotel.

b) Room reservations are made through the booking procedure and are valid even without confirmation. Reservation confirmations are shown on the screen and can be printed out. They are also sent to the user by e-mail and, where requested by the user, SMS. However, for technical reasons, HRS cannot check whether e-mail or SMS confirmations reach their intended destination. This does not affect the validity of bookings.

5. Types of reservation

a) Standard reservations are generally held open by the hotel until 6pm local time. If the guest fails to arrive by 6pm, the hotel cancels the reservation at no cost to the user. The guest will then no longer have a right to stay at that hotel. If a guest cannot arrive before 6pm, he must notify the hotel directly of his expected arrival time and request confirmation from the hotel that it has received this information. In this case, the hotel may agree to keep the reservation open if the user provides his credit card number by way of a guarantee.

b) Guaranteed reservations are held open by the hotel for the entire night. The hotel may charge the user for overnight accommodation for bookings not cancelled in good time or when the customer fails to turn up.

c) Package deals and prices bound by certain conditions are subject to the individual hotel's cancellation conditions. Third-party services (e.g. entrance or musical tickets) provided as part of the package cannot be cancelled free of charge anymore.

6. Changes and cancellations

a) To avoid misunderstandings, changes and cancellations should always be made through the HRS hotel reservation system. The timeliness of changes and cancellations is determined primarily by the time at which HRS or the relevant hotel is notified. Cancellation is only possible via HRS using the 'Edit/Cancel' tab on the HRS Web site itself, by calling +49 (0)221 2077 600 (Monday-Saturday 7am-midnight, Sundays and public holidays 8am-10pm), or by faxing +49 (0)221 2077 666.

Whenever bookings are cancelled in good time, a cancellation number is issued. Because this is also proof of the cancellation, we urge you to store it carefully. If bookings are cancelled after the cancellation deadline, HRS merely forwards the customer's message to the hotel. The hotel may then decide on the cancellation fee. Hotels may choose to demand compensation for early departure.

b) Cancellation of bookings by unknown users

To avoid abuse of the free reservation system and prevent hotels being burdened unnecessarily with wrong bookings, HRS reserves the right to cancel non-guaranteed reservations in individual cases if it cannot contact the user at the telephone number provided. The guest will then no longer have a right to stay at that hotel. The same applies if the e-mail address specified by the user has in the past frequently been used to make bookings to which either the guest did not turn up or which HRS was not able to use to make contact with the user. To avoid having bookings cancelled through suspicion of deliberate wrong booking, users are advised to make guaranteed bookings by providing their credit card number.

7. Hotel categories and information

The internationally-recognised system of star ratings for hotels gives a non-binding impression of the quality of each hotel. The ratings of hotels on this site are based on self-assessments by the hotels, where possible tested by HRS using its own rating system and the experiences of HRS or HRS users. All additional information about or descriptions of hotels are based on statements by the hotels themselves.

8. Contractually agreed room prices

a) All HRS prices, whether special all-year-round prices or cheapest daily prices, are contractually-agreed room prices which apply to all bookings made through the worldwide HRS hotel reservation system.

b) Bookings are made at the cheapest current daily HRS price available on the system for the chosen travel dates. Last-minute, seasonal, weekend and special offers are automatically taken into consideration during reservation. Room prices quoted with a binding guarantee are guaranteed by the hotel for all reservations made.

c) In addition to the already cheap HRS daily price, some hotels offer "hot deals" on HRS. These are marked accordingly. In contrast to HRS daily prices, these rates are subject to special conditions (e.g. minimum advance booking times, restricted cancellation, credit card-only booking, etc.) which are listed in separate notes displayed before the booking is made. These special booking conditions may also apply to certain rates for hotels that are booked on HRS via an external system.

d) All prices are quoted per room and night, sometimes including, sometimes not including breakfast. This may also differ at weekends. Hotels are obliged both legally and by HRS to indicate the relevant total price including taxes. However, price information is provided exclusively by the hotel. Please notify us about any breaches thereof. For technical reasons, the price indicated for a few of the hotels in the list of bookable hotels may not yet include taxes. Nevertheless, the total price is shown on the hotel description page before the booking is made. Local regulations determine which taxes and other fees foreign hotels must levy. Prices at hotels in Germany always contain value-added tax at the legally-applicable rate.

Hotels marked with the "Exclusive Price" symbol have decided to always offer their rooms on HRS at rates 10% cheaper than on all other online reservation portals with identical booking conditions. If this proves not to be the case at any time, the hotel will reimburse you at least 20 euros per room/night when you check out at the end of your stay. For details and an application form, see the Exclusive Price Terms & Conditions.

Exclusive Price Terms & Conditions

e) Room prices that HRS imports from third-party systems are constantly updated by HRS. Nevertheless, HRS cannot rule out that rooms may no longer be available at the price shown in the hotel list. In this case, the binding bookable price is only shown after consulting the hotel details page.

9. List of hotels bookable immediately

The best HRS prices on the system for the available hotels are shown for the travel dates and length of stay entered. If several prices are available for the desired length of stay, the hotel list shows the average price per single or double room, which is shown in detail by the individual hotel in its binding offer.

Whenever a currency is selected, room and breakfast prices are shown in the chosen currency in a non-binding manner. Binding offers for chosen hotels show the valid room price in the currency in which the room will be invoiced.

Externally-mediated hotels are accessed through third-party servers. As such, current availability and prices can only be checked by clicking on the hotel name.

10. Data protection

Data entered by the user is processed electronically by HRS. Only data required for booking is passed on. Data is not passed on for any other purpose. In addition, data is processed in accordance with the legal data protection regulations. This means that your personal details are usually deleted 60 days after the end of your stay. HRS will never pass on your data to third parties or make any other use thereof without your approval. Information collected and passed on for statistical purposes does not contain any personal data.

11. Miscellaneous

Although the utmost care has been taken in collating the available information, HRS cannot accept any liability for errors that may arise during data entry or data transfer. Data may only be copied onto other data storage media - even in part - or used for purposes other than those intended here with express permission from HOTEL RESERVATION SERVICE Robert Ragge GmbH, Cologne/Germany.

All contractual relations are bound by German national law. The place of performance is Cologne. The court of jurisdiction will be that in Cologne for businessmen or those who do not have a German court of jurisdiction. In all other cases, the legally-stipulated court of jurisdiction will apply.

HRS Web pages and their content may be used only for making individual enquiries regarding hotel room bookings. Automated enquiries are not permitted. We would also like to point out that our data is covered by the relevant data protection regulations. For this reason, copying (especially involving automated retrieval; so-called "scraping") is prohibited. All gathering of our data (e.g. search results) for the purpose of passing it on is especially prohibited.

Links on this Web site to the sites of other companies (so-called "third-party sites") are provided merely for the user's interest. If you click on one of these links, you leave the HRS Web site.

We have no control over the content of third-party Web sites. We therefore cannot accept any liability for the content on these sites. Without concrete evidence that the relevant third party is acting in breach of the law, it would be unreasonable to expect us to monitor the content of linked sites on a permanent basis. Should we become aware of any breaches of the law, we will remove the relevant links immediately.

Users accessing third-party sites via links found on this Web site do so entirely at their own risk.

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