During the corona pandemic, there was a temporary ban on accommodation – hotels were not allowed to accept guests. The Federal Court of Justice has now decided that advance payments can be refunded.
The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe has strengthened the rights of holidaymakers – the ruling still applies to the Corona period. If guests were unable to keep their booked hotel stay due to a pandemic-related ban on accommodation, they will get their money back even if they had booked a non-cancellable rate.
In this specific case it was about the first phase of the pandemic, when the hotels had to close. The plaintiff had booked a hotel long in advance – in autumn 2019. She wanted to spend two nights in Lüneburg with a tour group in May 2020.
However, the Corona accommodation ban came into force in Lower Saxony one month before the start of the trip. That’s why she wanted to cancel the rooms and demanded a refund of the money she had paid in advance. However, the hotel operator refused. His argument: A non-cancellable tariff was booked.
“General life risk” allows cancellation
The case went to the highest German civil court. The Federal Court of Justice has now decided: The hotel operator must pay back the money. Because the termination of the contract was okay. The Federal Court of Justice thus confirmed the judgments of the previous instances.
According to the Federal Court of Justice, the ban on accommodation has made it impossible for the hotel operator to accept tourist guests. This gave travelers the right to withdraw from the contract.
The fact that the plaintiff had booked non-cancellable rooms for herself and her fellow travelers in this specific case was irrelevant here. Anyone who books a non-cancellable tariff simply forgoes the freedom to cancel the trip for personal reasons. With Corona, however, a general life risk was realized that affected society as a whole.