If you’ve been injured at a hotel, you might be entitled to personal injury compensation. However, you must satisfy the personal injury claims criteria. In this article, we explain the eligibility for hotel injury claims. Additionally, we look at how hotel injury compensation could be awarded in a successful claim.
If you have good grounds to make a public liability claim for your hotel accident, you may wish to have the support of a solicitor who could help you with the various steps involved in the claims process. We conclude this guide by looking at how a personal injury solicitor specialising in public liability cases could provide their services for you on a No Win No Fee basis.
Our advisors are here to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you have any questions while reading this guide, please get in touch on the following details:
- Live chat – ask about starting a hotel accident compensation claim in the pop-up window below.
- By phone – call 020 8050 2736
- Online – Fill in our contact us form with information about the accident that caused your hotel injuries.
Select A Section
- When Can You Claim If You Were Injured At A Hotel?
- Injured At A Hotel – Examples Of Occupier Negligence
- What To Do If You Are Injured At A Hotel
- How Much Hotel Injury Compensation Could You Receive?
- Make A No Win No Fee Hotel Accident Claim
- More Resources About Making Hotel Accident Claims
When Can You Claim If You Were Injured At A Hotel?
While you are at a hotel, the individual or organisation with responsibility for that hotel, otherwise known as the occupier, owes you a duty of care. This could be the hotel operator or hotel owner. This is set by the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. Under this duty, your reasonable safety while you are there and using the space for its intended or permitted purposes must be ensured by the occupier.
If you’ve been injured at a hotel and would like to claim compensation, you must be able to demonstrate that:
- The hotel operator or occupier owed you a duty of care.
- This duty was breached.
- Due to this breach, you suffered an injury.
To discuss the duty of care and find out if you have a valid hotel injury claim, contact an advisor from our team.
Injured At A Hotel – Examples Of Occupier Negligence
There are various ways you could be injured at a hotel. These include:
- Food poisoning at the hotel restaurant. For example, undercooked food could cause food poisoning. Hotel restaurant staff should ensure that food is cooked to the correct temperature before serving it.
- Broken bones from slipping on a wet floor. For example, if there isn’t a sign to indicate that the floor is wet, such as after it is cleaned, you could slip and sustain injuries.
- Brain damage and broken bones due to a fall from a height. For example, if the stairs do not have sufficient lighting, you could fall down them and suffer a head injury.
If you would like to discuss the incident that caused your hotel injuries, please speak to a member of our advisory team. You might have good grounds to claim hotel accident compensation.
How Long Have You Got To Make A Hotel Accident Claim?
Hotel accident claims must be started within the 3-year personal injury claims time limit. This is set out in the Limitation Act 1980 and starts from the day of the incident that caused your hotel injury.
However, for certain injured persons, there is a suspension applied to the 3-year limitation period. These include:
- Those without the mental capacity to handle their own public liability claim have an indefinite suspension applied to the time limit that lasts for as long as they are without this capacity. A litigation friend could be appointed by the court to manage the personal injury claims process for the injured person at any point during this suspension. Should the protected party regain the capacity required to manage a hotel accident claim and one was not filed for them, they will have 3 years from the date it was deemed they recovered this capacity to launch one.
- Children under the age of 18 also cannot file a hotel injury claim. The limitation period is frozen until the day they turn 18. A litigation friend could be appointed to claim on their behalf at any point during this pause. However, if a claim hasn’t been made for them before their 18th birthday, they will have 3-years from that date to file one.
What To Do If You Are Injured At A Hotel
All personal injury claims must be supported with evidence. This evidence needs to prove liability for the injuries you sustained. Evidence that might help a hotel accident claim could include:
- Accident footage. You can request CCTV footage of yourself, or if a witness filmed the incident that caused your injuries, you could also submit this.
- A copy of your medical records. These could help illustrate the nature of your injuries and what treatment you were given.
- Witness contact details. If anyone saw you being injured at a hotel, you could note their contact information so a statement can be made later in the personal injury claims process.
- Photographic evidence. You could submit pictures from the accident scene or of any visible injuries.
If you would like to know more about what evidence is needed for a personal injury claim or what you could submit to support your case, speak to a member of our advisory team.
Can You Claim If You Were Injured In A Hotel Abroad?
You might be eligible to claim compensation if you suffered an injury in a hotel abroad.
If your flights and accommodation were booked as part of a package holiday and you suffer an injury in a hotel, you might be able to launch a claim against the tour operator, travel agent or holiday company. This is set out in the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.
How Much Hotel Injury Compensation Could You Receive?
If you make a successful personal injury claim, your hotel accident settlement could consist of two parts. These are general damages to compensate for the physical pain and mental suffering and special damages to compensate for the costs that have arisen as a result of this injury.
To help assign a figure to your pain and suffering, those responsible for valuing claims may refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG lists compensation guidelines for different types of injuries.
In our table below, we look at a few figures that could be relevant to injuries sustained in a hotel from the 16th edition of the JCG. We’ve also provided a figure in the top row that shows you how compensation could be awarded for more than one very serious injury and any expenses incurred by these injuries. This figure is not from the JCG.
| Injury | Severity | Notes | Compensation Guideline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple Severe Injuries and Special Damages | Very Serious | Payouts could include compensation for more than 1 injury of a very serious nature plus related expenses, such as nursing care, home help and lost wages. | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Brain Damage | Very Severe | Injured persons lack meaningful responses to their environment, suffer double incontinence and have little or no language function. They need full time nursing care. | £282,010 to £403,990 |
| Arm Amputation | Loss of Both Arms | The injured person is reduced to a state of considerable helplessness. | £240,790 to £300,000 |
| Back Injuries | Severe (i) | Damage to the nerve roots and spinal cord results in severe pain and disability along with a combination symptoms such as, impairments to the bladder and bowel and sexual functioning and incomplete paralysis. | £91,090 to £160,980 |
| Leg Injuries - Severe | Very Serious (ii) | Injuries in this bracket cause permanent mobility problems. | £54,830 to £87,890 |
| Knee Injuries | Severe (ii) | Constant, permanent pain and movement limitations have been caused by a leg fracture that extended into the knee joint. | £52,120 to £69,730 |
| Neck | Severe (iii) | Chronic conditions and significant, permanent disability has been caused by fractures, disolactions, severe soft tissue damage or ruptured tendons. | £45,470 to £55,990 |
| Ankle Injuries | Severe | These injuries require extensive treatment and cause significant residual disability. | £31,310 to £50,060 |
| Injuries to the Hips and Pelvis | Moderate (i) | Although the claimant suffered a significant injury, there isn't a future risk of a permanent disability that is major in nature. | £26,590 to £39,170 |
| Hand Injuries | Severe Finger Fractures | These fractures cause deformity and impairments. They may result in partial amputations. | Up to £36,740 |
Special Damages If You Were Injured In A Hotel
You could also be reimbursed for any costs that have been caused by your injury. Examples of special damages that could be claimed if you’ve been injured at a hotel include:
- Medical expenses, including nursing care, mobility devices rental or purchase, prescriptions and other medical bills.
- Home help, such as help with cleaning and childcare while you recover.
- Loss of earnings for time off work recovering.
You will need to prove your expenses. For example, you could save receipts to submit as part of your hotel injury claim.
Speak to an advisor about how compensation is awarded in hotel accident claims.
Make A No Win No Fee Hotel Accident Claim
If you are eligible to seek compensation because you’ve been injured at a hotel, you may wish to instruct a solicitor to work on your hotel accident claim. One of the public liability solicitors from our panel could help you. Our panel generally offer their services under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). A CFA is a type of No Win No Fee agreement.
When your solicitor provides legal representation under a CFA, they won’t ask for you to make any upfront or ongoing payments towards their work on your hotel accident claim. If your public liability claim is successful, they will take a success fee from your award. This amount is a percentage that is limited by a legal cap. You will not be asked to pay this fee if your hotel injury claim is not successful.
If you would like to discuss what to do if you sustained an injury in a public place, please get in touch with a member of our advisory team. If you meet the eligibility criteria to make a public liability claim, you could be connected to one of the No Win No Fee solicitors from our panel.
To speak to an advisor:
- Fill out our contact us form and a team member will call you back.
- Call 020 8050 2736
- Use our live webchat.
More Resources About Making Hotel Accident Claims
Further guides you may find useful:
- Information about the personal injury claims process and what steps you need to follow when seeking compensation.
- An article about restaurant accident claims and when you could be eligible to make one.
- Guidance on the personal injury claims eligibility criteria with information about different types of personal injury claims.
External links that may help you:
- Guidance on providing first aid from the National Health Service (NHS).
- The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) offer guidance and information on preventing various types of accidents and injuries.
- Government guidance on claiming statutory sick pay (SSP) if you require time off work to recover from your injuries.
Please get in touch with any more questions relating to how to claim compensation if you have been injured at a hotel.