Accident on holiday-advice please

emile_3

Hi there

We have just come back from a holiday in Turkey.

My son had an accident where he smashed his teeth (maybe loosing one) on wet floor at our hotel, no wet floor signs and away from pool by toilets. about 1 inch of water on floor caused by swimmers not drying off.
The hotel didnt even tell their manager for another 30 hrs after it happened and our rep told him in front of me. He didnt apologise and said raising his hands in air "what am I supposed to do"

Our rep took me outside and said the manager didnt mean it and he is one of her husbands friends.
I feel very let down by our Thomas Cook rep and want to complain about the hotel and then a separate complaint about the rep.

Can anyone point me in the right direction and give me some advice as how to approach this

Many thanks
Emma

Jake'sGran

I assume you had travel insurance (please say you did!). If so, you can pursue a claim against the hotel through the insurance company's procedure. Thing is, you do need to have documentation or they won't be interested. Did the rep make out an accident report? If not, tell Thomas Cook at the branch where you booked (or on line maybe), about the incident and get them to contact the rep for a report which should mention how unco-operative the reception man was. I am not sure you will get anywhere with this as in every foreign hotel where I have stayed I believe there have been wet areas around the shower and the pool generally but I do hope you can claim. At least, if your son is young, his teeth can be put right for free.

Bokkens

Any photos of the wet areas, people present, and injuries at the time?
Alll add weight to a claim back this up with a good written account of what happened and what was said.Then send it to Thomas Cook keeping a copy of everything for yourself incase theirs goes missing!
Good luck.

emile_3

Our rep took a report from myself on note paper and I filled in a customer service report detailing the accident ( away from pool and showers) and the attitude of the rep and the hotel and got another Thomas Cook rep on our transfer to airport coach to sign it etc

I have contact details of the woman who witnessed the accident and photos ofthe area it happened at.

I have a dentist and hospital report too.
My son will probably loose one of his front teeth as a result and typical it is a second tooth. Our insurance covers £250 for dental and low and behold it cost exactly that.

Thankyou for your advice guys

Emma

budgetflyer

would a "wet floor" sign have made a difference ? he probably would still have slipped. Children fall and hurt themselves all the time, especially on holiday when they run around playing bare footed on marble surfaces etc.
my lot used to return from holiday cut ,bruised and battered.Before they used to get up, crying and bleeding and mum or dad would give them a pat and kiss it better and tell them to be more careful. Now mum and dad get a lawyer and try to sue someone.

MrSmartprice

If it was a package trip then your first claim for any negligence should be with the tour operator. They are your contracted supplier and have a duty of care to you. It is their responsibility to make sure the properties they send guests to are safe. It would also be prudent to inform your insurance company as they may wish to pursue the claim.

I make no comment on what happened as I wasn't there. But the legal position is that you should not need to have to pursue the hotel yourself.

emile_3

Thankyou Mrsmartprice

As you can all imagine I (being a Mum) have returned from our holiday upset at what has happened to my son and the treatment from the hotel and rep.

I have never complained about any company before, be it a holiday or other and certainly never got the lawers in as one reply stated.

I work with children and have seen countless accidents due to children just being children and believe me our kids have had them too so I understand the whole kids thing and falling etc I just feel let down by the service we have had.

Dentist again tomorrow and will be on the phone to Thomas Cook today

Thankyou to all of you

Emma

richardw

What exactly did you want them to do?

moob_2

budgetflyer wrote: »

would a "wet floor" sign have made a difference ? he probably would still have slipped. Children fall and hurt themselves all the time, especially on holiday when they run around playing bare footed on marble surfaces etc.
my lot used to return from holiday cut ,bruised and battered.Before they used to get up, crying and bleeding and mum or dad would give them a pat and kiss it better and tell them to be more careful. Now mum and dad get a lawyer and try to sue someone.

Yeah, kids do fall all the time and he probably wouldn't have bothered with caution even had a sign been in place. This however does not detract from the need for the hotel to have conducted a risk assessment and therefore have appropriate signage in place as a result of that RA.

The accident was preventable, whether or not the wet floor sign would assist in this is open to debate given as you've mentioned, the way kids act on holiday. Parents also have a duty to ensure their kids behave responsibly, particularly in areas such as this.

I do partially agree with your observation on the litigious state of modern society, people adopt a blame culture these days and seek compensation for a multitude of ridiculous scenarios. Not saying this situation is necessarily included.

If I were investigating this accident (as I do in the course of my job) I would not be seeking to prosecute the hotel, given the above discussions, and presuming the hotel had conducted a risk assessment to my satisfaction.

StaceyAKelly

I think the first thing you need to do is contacted your Insurers and ensure you have "Legal Expenses Cover" in place. If you have then they will pass your details onto one of their panel Solicitors to deal with. If you approach your own firm of Solicitors to deal with it on a conditional fee agreement (no win no fee) they will have to contact your Legal Expenses Insurers anyway to see if they can act on your behalf. Once your Solicitors are in place they can help you.

moob_2

I would imagine you'd have a hard job proving negligence on this one, depending on the exact circumstances, as we don't have these, it's still conjecture.