package travel contract
noun · Pauschalreisevertrag
A Pauschalreise under § 651a BGB is a combination of at least two different kinds of travel service for the same journey, and the organiser owes the package as a whole rather than the individual services. The statute excludes defined arrangements, among them day trips under twenty-four hours without an overnight stay, which the statute additionally limits by a price threshold.
Which translation, when
Why
Package travel contract is the Pauschalreisevertrag, and German law rebuilt the field on 1 July 2018 when the Third Act amending travel law implemented the European package travel directive, so anything written before that date describes a different statute. The definition sits in § 651a Abs. 2 BGB: a Pauschalreise is a combination of at least two different kinds of travel service for the purpose of the same journey. Transport, accommodation, car hire and, within limits, other tourist services count as the kinds, and the combination is caught whether the organiser assembled it in a brochure or the traveller put it together himself from the organiser’s range, before or after conclusion of the contract, which is the provision that brings dynamic packaging on booking platforms inside the regime. Tourist services making up less than a quarter of the total value are not treated as a significant share, so a hotel booking with a minor add-on does not become a package. Section 651a Abs. 5 then lists what falls outside altogether: journeys offered only occasionally, not for profit and to a limited group; day trips of under twenty-four hours without an overnight stay whose price stays below the threshold the provision names; and business travel bought under a framework agreement by a traveller who is an undertaking. What the organiser owes is stated in Abs. 1 with a verb English translations often soften: he must verschaffen, procure, the package, and the traveller owes the price. Procuring rather than performing is why the organiser answers for the hotel and the airline as if they were his own, and why a translation that has him agreeing to arrange the trip understates the obligation.
Typical mistakes
- A package needs at least two different kinds of travel service, § 651a Abs. 2 BGB, so a flight alone or a hotel alone is not one however it is marketed.
- Self-assembled combinations from the organiser’s range are packages too, so dynamic packaging does not escape the regime.
- The organiser owes procurement of the package rather than arrangement of services, so wording that has him merely booking on the traveller’s behalf understates the duty.
What matters
Classifying a German travel booking: the analysis should count the kinds of service, check the statutory exclusions including the day-trip threshold, and establish whether the counterparty procures the package or only mediates it.
What the machine misses
Machine output for package travel contract gives Pauschalreisevertrag correctly but softens the duty into arranging or booking, while § 651a Abs. 1 BGB obliges the Reiseveranstalter to procure the package itself; the loose verb also hides the threshold of at least two different kinds of service and the statutory exclusions for day trips and framework business travel.
Examples
| a package travel contract | ein Pauschalreisevertrag |
| at least two different kinds of travel service | mindestens zwei verschiedene Arten von Reiseleistungen |
| the organiser procures the package | der Reiseveranstalter verschafft die Pauschalreise |
| a day trip | eine Tagesreise |
More notes on these sections
organiser Reiseveranstalter