This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wilson, R. H. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Internet Hotel Reservations

The "Terms and Conditions" Trap

Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusettst—Amherst, rwilson{at}ht.umass.edu

A review of U.S. case law finds that the web-based approach used by most hotel companies to alert customers to the terms and conditions for making an internet reservation might not hold up in the event of a lawsuit. Most courts will enforce a so-called click wrap covenant when an individual makes a reservation or purchase on the company website. In the click wrap procedure, a reservation cannot be completed until the customer clicks the "agree" button to the terms and conditions of sale. However, most hotel websites use a slightly different approach, known as "browse wrap," in which the terms and conditions are available on the site but the reservation can be completed without the customer's express assent. The terms and conditions usually dictate the controlling legal jurisdiction or mandate arbitration for disagreements, and thus it is in the hotel company's interest to demonstrate that would-be guests have read and definitively agreed to those terms and conditions.

Key Words: electronic reservations • contract law • terms and conditions of website use • click wrap • browse wrap

References

• Barth, Stephen.. Hospitality law. 2nd ed. New York 2006 John Wiley .
• Cournoyer, Norman G., Anthony G. Marshall, and Karen L. Morris.6th ed. 2004. Hotel, restaurant and travel law Clifton Park , NY: Delmar Learning .
• Dickerson, T.A. Travel law New York 1989 Law Journal Seminars-Press .
• Hillman, Robert A., and Jeffrey J Rachlinski. 2002 Standard-form contracting in the electronic age New York University Law Review77(May):429 -.95
• Llewellyn, Karl. 1960 1996 /. The common law tradition. Buffalo, NY Wm. S. Hein Publishing.
• McConnell, Jon P., and Denny G Rutherford. 1990. Hotel reservations: The guest contract . Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 30 (4): 61</pages.[CrossRef]
• Moringiello, Juliet M., and William L. Reynolds. 2005. Survey of the law of cyberspace: Internet contracting cases 2004-2005 . Business Lawyer 61 (1): 433-47 , 464.
• Sandeen, Sharon K. 2003. The sense and nonsense of web site terms of use agreements . Hamline Law Review 26 (Spring): 499-553 .
• Wagner, Erica L., and Olga Kupriyanova. 2007. Data-driven ethics: Exploring customer privacy in the information era Cornell Hospitality Report 7 (10), chr.cornell.edu.
• Wilson, Robert H. 2000. The law of cyberspace: Personal jurisdiction and the internet . Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 41( 5): 55-63 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]

CiteULike

Connotea

Del.icio.us

Digg

Reddit

Technorati

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. M. Thompson and R. J. Kwortnik Jr Pooling Restaurant Reservations to Increase Service Efficiency Journal of Service Research, May 1, 2008; 10(4): 335 - 346. [Abstract] [PDF]

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wilson, R. H. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?