HOTEL GUEST’S PRIVACY PROTECTION IN TOURISM BUSINESS LAW

In the tourism business law, especially in the hotel-keeper’s contract (direct, agency, allotment), the hotel-keeper assumes certain obligations to the guests, among which, in the last twenty years, the protection of the guest’s privacy is particularly emphasized. The subject of the paper is hotel guest’s privacy protection in the Croatian and comparative tourism business law. The paper is structured in a way that it analyzes, through the laws of Croatia, France, Italy, Germany, UK and USA, the hotel-keeper’s: 1) duties on guest’s privacy protection (1. respect of the guest room privacy, 2. registration of the guest under the false name, 3. non-receiving certain guests or persons, 4. discretion of the hotel staff ) and 2) contractual liability for non-proprietary damage to violation of guest’s privacy (a. the intrusion of staff in the guest room, b. the release of persons in the guest room, c. recording, wiretapping or spying and d. giving third parties information about the guest). Croatian law does not yet recognize the institute of guest’s privacy protection as the comparative law of Euro-Continental and Anglo-American legal system (between which there are differences in relation to the institute). The conclusion is the need of adopting unified source at the international law and the European Union’s law level, about hotel-keeper’s obligation to protect the guest’s privacy.