411: Premises Liability and Hotel Responsibility

Over the past month, families from all over the country have flocked to vacation destinations to celebrate the holidays, the New Year, and time off from school. As many families unfortunately learn the hard way, a time of celebration can turn into a time of grievance as, in the midst of over-booked hotels and overjoyed vacationers, individuals sustain injuries while on vacation.

So, if you or a loved one sustains an injury at a hotel, what are you to do? The first and most important thing that you should do when you incur an injury at a hotel, or on another type of resort property for that matter, is not brush it off. Do not be too proud to claim that you’ve been injured and to ask for medical assistance. There is no harm in being too careful, but there can be a great deal of harm in not being careful enough. Many injuries take weeks or even months to fully take form. If a month after you hurt yourself at a hotel, you make a claim against the hotel at which you injured yourself, the hotel can and will point to the fact that you claimed that you were “okay” and didn’t need medical attention as a justification for not taking responsibility.

But what are the ways that you could sustain an injury at a hotel? First and foremost, hotels have a great deal of floor space over which thousands of people walk, spill drinks, drop food, etc. Hotel lobbies are especially dangerous places to walk; if it’s raining outside, rain is tracked inside; when people leave the restaurants, they often spill drinks on the floor. Hotel staff members generally attend to the messes as quickly as possible, but sometimes they aren’t quick enough, and guests find themselves slipping and falling and injuring themselves before the mess can be cleaned up.

Another way that guests frequently incur injuries at hotels is through accidents that occur in the fitness room. Many places, such as gyms, have fitness rooms stocked with heavy weights and complex machines, but such gyms are almost always supervised and utilized by people who know how to properly handle the equipment. In hotels, a fitness room is simply an amenity that is unsupervised and used by people who are often unfamiliar with proper gym protocols and are only using the gym because of its close proximity and the downtime that vacation affords them. If a weight falls on you because something broke on the machine, or if your body is injured while on a cardio machine that breaks, you can sustain serious injuries. The hotel may be responsible for covering these injuries due to premises liability law for the same reason that they would be responsible for the injuries of a guest who falls and hurts himself or herself on a slippery lobby floor.

If you have sustained an injury while at a hotel, reach out to our experienced personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg. We’ve probably handled a case like yours and we know how to get you the results your case deserves. You shouldn’t have to cover the costs of the injuries you sustained due to the negligence of others; we can help you eliminate the burden of having to do so. For a free consultation, please call us at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@build.simple.biz. 

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