The essence of the category «hotel product»: analysis of existing concepts

The article concentrates on some debatable issues related to the legal nature of the term «hotel product» in the new paradigm of hotel legislation. In economics, the concept of «product» refers to everything that can be presented on the market to satisfy consumer needs, i.e., this includes goods, works, and services. Economists consider a hotel product as a complex (a package) of services or identify it with the guest service cycle in accommodation facilities. However, the hotel product is not limited to the provision of services. In a competitive hospitality services market, the desire of enterprises to obtain the highest profit and the growing solvency of service consumers encourage hotel businesses to provide not only accommodation and meals, but necessitates the expansion of the scope of additional and related services. This enriches the meaning of the concept of «hotel product» and expands the scope of activity of hotel enterprises providing services not only of their own production, but also of related industries. Ukrainian scientists Y. Opanaschuk, S. Kepel, P. Putsentailo consider a hotel product either as a component of a hotel service or as a set of services provided under a hotel service contract, that is, they identify the concepts of «hotel product» and «hotel services»; or as a broader concept that, in addition to hotel services, includes other services that can be provided by a hotel. O. Remeslova suggests using the term «hotel product», taking as a basis the concept of a tourist product, provided in the Law of Ukraine «On Tourism». In our opinion, a hotel product is a set of hotel services and material goods that combines at least two such services provided by the performer for the purchase, use, consumption and satisfaction of certain needs of consumers at a certain price, which includes basic and additional services provided to the consumer in accordance with the hotel category. According to Andriy Ustinsky, this approach is erroneous, because hotel services are complex in nature and there is no need to allocate a new category for mediating a complex of hotel services. Based on the analysis conducted, the author concludes that although the general legal framework relating to the hotel services market in Ukraine has already been established, specific regulatory support is still lacking. Therefore, the adoption of advanced legislation on the hotel industry, enshrining the term «hotel product» in it, will contribute to improving the quality of hotel services, ensuring their comprehensiveness, protection and defense of the rights of consumers of hotel services.