Accident when on holiday

storeyboy10

Hi - we are just back from holiday with a well known reputable tour operator. We went to an all inclusive resort in Italy. Part way through our 10 day trip, my wife fell when carrying a bottle of water from the bar area. The issue was that (a) the resort is plastic free, so all the many free bottles of water are large glass ones and (b) my wife slipped on a pool of water outside the men’s and ladies toilets.

My wife required 5 stitches in her arm and dufffered a badly bruised knee.

She was lucky - could have been much worse with either our kids involved or a more serious cut (what she suffered was bad enough but it missed her artery in that area thankfully.)

My basic question is this - should we make a claim against the hotel for compensation -my wife in particular lost the final days of her holiday. They should not allow water on the tile floor of the main bar / entertainment area - especially knowing that being plastic free - there is a significant number of people carrying large glass bottles around all the time.

It meant my wife basically could not swim or use the hotel much in our last few days - it took the edge off our holiday!

We have never claimed for anything such as this before ... hence just asking the question to gauge opinion.

The hotel has a record of the incident in their accident book.

bris

Why do people always involve the kids, what if the kids fell bla bla bla, they didn't so it's not relevant.


Was the hotel aware of the spill, did it just happen, the hotel isn't automatically liable just because your wife fell.

[Deleted User]

If you have costs because of it claim in your insurance

theonlywayisup

storeyboy10 wrote: »

...could have been much worse with either our kids involved or a more serious cut (what she suffered was bad enough but it missed her artery in that area thankfully.)

What may have happened is of no consequence. To pick up on the part I have highlighted - it DIDN'T involve your kids and it DID miss her artery.

It may not fit well with you or other posters but I believe in due care, by that, I mean if I am walking somewhere I will try and watch where I am walking and if I slip [in a holiday resort where I expect water/sand/etc] I take responsibility.

Had your wife slipped in your kitchen whilst carrying the plates to the dishwasher, what would you be asking?

storeyboy10

If we were at home, I would not have water on my kitchen floor.

I don’t know if the hotel knew of the water or not.

Thanks for the warm responses everyone. I will remember that next time I need some advice. This clearly isn’t the forum I thought it was!

I stated at the bottom of my post that I was simply asking for opinions as have not done this kind of thing before. My inclination was not to do anything further - but wanted to validate here first.

shaun_from_Africa

storeyboy10 wrote: »

I don’t know if the hotel knew of the water or not.

That's what would cause problems with getting any compensation.
If you could show that the water had been there a while or that the hotel staff were aware of it then you would have a good chance of winning a claim but as it currently stands, you can't show any liability.
All the hotel management would need to do is to say that the area is checked on a regular basis and nothing was there during their last inspection and that if the water had been reported to them, they would have taken steps to ensure that it was removed.

Tigsteroonie

If the pool of water had been there hours and there is a reasonable expectation of the hotel to have mopped it up, you might have a claim.

However, it might have only just happened. And it obviously wasn't very easy to spot, else your wife would have seen it and avoided it.

I think you have to chalk this up to an accident. Sheer bad luck.

storeyboy10

Thanks Shaun and Tigsteroonie. Very helpful and confirmed my thinking.

dacouch

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

That's what would cause problems with getting any compensation.
If you could show that the water had been there a while or that the hotel staff were aware of it then you would have a good chance of winning a claim but as it currently stands, you can't show any liability.
All the hotel management would need to do is to say that the area is checked on a regular basis and nothing was there during their last inspection and that if the water had been reported to them, they would have taken steps to ensure that it was removed.

A UK court would not generally accept them just saying they had checked the area reguarly. They would normally need to show documented checks (Like you would see on the wall of say a MacDonalds toilet) to be acceptable as proof of regular checks

unforeseen

But it wouldn't be heard in a UK court.
Apart from which the Mcdonald signature forms are for inside the toilet not outside.

Also being a route from the bar area it can be assumed that it was a busy thoroughfare and it would be that any spill would have been reported if it was there a while

Or even, she didn't notice it on the way to the bar so did it appear while she was being served?

shaun_from_Africa

dacouch wrote: »

A UK court would not generally accept them just saying they had checked the area reguarly. They would normally need to show documented checks (Like you would see on the wall of say a MacDonalds toilet) to be acceptable as proof of regular checks

Inside the toilet I would agree with but the water wasn't inside the toilet area.
Would somewhere like McD's have documented procedures for checking every single part of the floor area inside their establishments?