An overview of German case law I. Legal nature of the accommodation contract. Important reason for immediate termination The legal relationship between a guest, on the one hand, and the restaurateur or hotelkeeper, on the other, known as a guest accommodation contract, constitutes a mixed contract of a special kind. It essentially combines elements of a contract for services, possibly a contract for work, and a contract of sale. Defective service by the serving staff to a guest can, in principle, justify immediate termination of the accommodation contract without notice. However, the determination of what constitutes defective service must always be judged in relation to the nature and reputation of the specific restaurant or hotel. In the present case (Garmisch-Partenkirchen District Court, Judgment of October 23, 1968 - 3 C 127/68), the plaintiff was the owner of the Hotel M. in G., one of the leading establishments in the area. On 11 February 1968, at around 10 p.m., the defendant entered the hotel restaurant with his wife and ordered a three-quarter-litre bottle of 1966 Erbacher Markobrunn Riesling Spätlese priced at 18.50 DM. The waiter retrieved the bottle from the wine cellar, where the temperature was about 15 degrees Celsius, and placed it in an ice bucket with water and ice pieces before serving the wine to the defendant. After tasting, the defendant complained that the wine was too warm. The waiter called the head waiter, to whom the defendant repeated his complaint. During the discussion, the head waiter commented, “Do you believe our wine is kept in an icebox?” Following this exchange, the defendant and his wife left the premises. The plaintiff then brought an action to recover the cost of the bottle of wine. The court dismissed the case. It found that the contractual relationship between the parties was a guest accommodation contract, a type not explicitly regulated in the German Civil Code (BGB) but recognised by both jurisprudence and doctrine as a mixed contract sui generis. Such a contract, formed between a guest and a restaurant or hotel for the provision of food and beverages, includes
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