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Hi all – my foot got sliced open when the drain tiles of the pool at the 5-star hotel (in Greece, but is part of an international chain) I am staying at gave way and broke. There was a significant amount of blood and a doctor has been sent to patch my foot up and has injected me with a tetanus shot. Doctor will be coming back tomorrow to check on the wound.
The BA flights back to the UK today has been moved to Monday, and the hotel is putting us up for an extra 2 nights.
My question is what kind of compensation should I be seeking? Travel insurnace will pay for flights, the hotel will presumably pay for our food while we’re here, but this doesn’t address pain/suffering/inconvenience. I haven’t been in this situation before and have no idea how to even quanitfy this or what is appropriate to extract from the hotel in this situation.
Thanks a lot in advance!
£ 3.50? It would have been £ 7.00 but I applied the duplicate post penalty.
Seriously it’s not something to rush into into claiming immediately.
Firstly I’d have a discussion with your travel insurer when you get home and the wound has had chance to heal and your own doctor can examine it and assess any longer term effects it may have.
Possibly nothing? I don’t know, I suppose it depends whether you lean more towards the American style of “sue everyone for anything at every opportunity”, or the British style of “accidents happen, take it on the chin, chalk it up to experience”. Perhaps it’s just me, and call me old fashioned, but I find the “how much compensation can I get” type questions (which feel like an almost daily occurrence on here?) rather distasteful, but each to their own. Sounds like the hotel are doing their best to look after you, and maybe it will be appropriate for them to offer something further, and hopefully your travel insurance will cover any costs or losses etc – but most importantly, I hope you make a full and speedy recovery without any lasting consequences. As to compensation, perhaps better not to expect or seek but rather see what the hotel does proactively? If they have a good attitude (and it sounds like they do, given actions already taken?), they hopefully might want to make a service recovery gesture – and if they don’t, well, that speaks volumes about them (in which case feel free to take them to the cleaners if you feel so inclined 😉).
I’d get it seen by a Doctor when you get home so they can create an accurate record of your injuries.
It is unrealistic to expect anything meaningful in the way of pain/suffering/inconvenience compensation in the UK or Europe. The hotel would be expected to cover all reasonable costs such as the doctor, extra nights while you can’t travel but beyond that, it’s really getting something from them to cover their embarrassment – effectively a gesture of goodwill, such as some free nights at a hotel in the same chain or not charging for the earlier part of the stay. Insurers won’t offer any compensation of that nature; their principal role is to indemnify you for unexpected losses.
One needs to approach these situations rather skilfully because unfortunately hotels get a lot of people seeking compensation rather opportunistically so you need to be very reasonable but make it clear they have ruined your trip and you are sure they want to put that right.
Also you don’t have to agree anything immediately.
If they make a verbal offer politely them and ask them to put it in writing / email and you’ll consider it carefully when you get back home.
As per @JDB, you’re unlikely to get a Greek hotel to admit liability and offer much of anything. A couple of years ago I was in Majorca with my friend and her little boy and his arm got sucked into an uncovered drain in the pool. Fortunately he suffered nothing worse than bruising and distress but I had to insist that the hotel management send someone to cover the drain and didn’t even bother going beyond that! The UK gets a lot of criticism but most people don’t realise how well protected we are here in term of Health and Safety. There have been high-profile cases of tourists dying in Greece and Spain as a result of things like unmaintained swimming pools and faulty gas boilers.
I hope your foot heals soon – and if you booked through a tour operator they are probably the best people to make representations to, again as @JDB says, they won’t want the embarrassment of one of their resorts being labelled as dangerous.
Thank you all. Very helpful.
The incident really shouldn’t have happened (this hotel has only been open for a year) but the hotel has done it’s part in mitigating the damage. Will see if they offer anything in goodwill (seeing the cut was deep and the bleeding hasn’t fully stopped) but I am unlikely to ask for anything from them unless offered.
Sounds unpleasant but hopefully something that will heal quickly without undue effect on you such as having to take time off work. I’d take photos of where the accident happened and the defect just to be on the safe side in the highly unlikely event that the injury doesn’t resolve as anticipated.
I would suggest using Slater and Gordon. They would take a large part of any settlement, but they operate on a “no win, no fee” basis, and are experts in this area.
https://www.slatergordon.co.uk/personal-injury-claim/holiday-accident-claims/hotel-resort/
Good discussion, hope your foot heals soon.
Just to touch on what others have said above, If not offered any goodwill gesture from the hotel I would be asking the management if they would invite you back for free to their hotel another time as this incident could have ruined/inconvenienced your current stay.
I’m with @Jon and @NorthernLass.
Do what @stillinthesun says just in case. Also follow @BAFIS’s advice not to fully close this till you’re sure it’s on the mend.
If the healing does have followup issues you’d be unlucky but just in case have a read of your insurance policy ts and cs. Some also have a nasty clause terminating cover as soon as you return home from a single trip even if the policy runs longer. Get under your doctor’s supervision when you return but hopefully you’ll be fine soon.
If hotel wants to talk, be gracious as you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Accept what you like but don’t sign anything saying full settlement/final resolution although with normal luck some concession from the hotel will be all you need. As @JDB says, in UK/Europe formal settlements are normally not worth the fight in this kind of case. Charm and seeing what they might do is likely to get you feeling better.
Very much appreciated all. Considering the bleeding still hasn’t stopped and the local doctor’s note isn’t sufficiently detailed for the insurer to book my flight back, this is turning into an even bigger nightmare.
Definitely won’t close the case until I’ve had a doctor in london look at the injury first.
Thanks a lot everyone for the super helpful advice.
At this point do you need to go to the Greek equivalent of A & E and maybe get it stitched?!
At this point do you need to go to the Greek equivalent of A & E and maybe get it stitched?!
Doctor already involved as per very first paragraph of the OP.
Thanks, Anna. The doctor here has decided to place the flap of the meat (which is 25% attached to the foot) back on and bandage it up fully, so no stiches. I checekd with a medic friend in the UK and apparently this can sometimes be a reasonable course of action.
Looks like the insurer can now book me a flight back tomorrow evening. Thank you all for your input – it has been super helpful to get a brainstorming session for this niche/freak incident.
At this point do you need to go to the Greek equivalent of A & E and maybe get it stitched?!
Doctor already involved as per very first paragraph of the OP.
Yes but my point was that the ministrations of the local doctor don’t sound to have been entirely effective! Especially if the insurer has decided it warrants repatriation 😮
Hi @Anna
Luckily the injury happened on day booked to return ie yesterday. So not true that insurer wanted repatriation the OP was already due to travel back. Stay has been extended a day or two to allow a doctor to initially treat and report back.
Now that’s happened the OP is flying back tomorrow so only a slight delay to return. RTFP.
Thank you – I will make sure I get the injury checked out by a doctor when back in London – agreed that it is hard to know if the local doctor is any good, esp. when they were clearly heavily coached by the hotel in limiting any liability
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