Reply With QuoteHave you contacted your travel operator and made them aware of the issue ?
Pete
Hi guys, any help or advice would be much appreciated.
Currently sitting in my hotel room for the 3rd day having been sufficiently unwell through a “intestine infection” which I believe has been caused by the hotel I’m staying in. (Now confirmed as gastroenteritis). God knows how, but I never took travel insurance so have had to pay 2k dollars in hospital fees for myself and son.
Basically, flew out of Gatwick fit and healthy on Tuesday last to Dominican Republic for what was meant to be a 2 week holiday. Having arrived, all was well for 3 days, no issues. On the third evening, myself and son ate the same food but my Mrs ate differently. Me and my son woke up at 2am that night in excruciating pain which resulted in son being sick and having diarrhoea and myself having diarrhoea all night and day. Having gone to the hotel medical centre the next day they advised hospital as we were in a dreadful state. Hospital wanted to keep us in overnight as after blood and stool tests, it was confirmed we had gastroenteritis. As we had no travel insurance we didn’t want to pay the 6k dollar bill. Anyhow we took the medication and paid the 1900 dollar bill.
Now back at the hotel and having spent 3 days in the room suffering, I’m starting to get really annoyed.
Do I have a claim at all against the travel operator TUI? We haven’t left the resort since we arrived and have only eaten on site. We’ve got copies of the medical reports etc, receipts from the hospital and photo evidence of the effects of the illness. I understand I should have had insurance in place but surely the insurance company would be chasing the holiday company for the money back as it’s clear as day we contracted the infection from the resort. Also, I’ve read lots about dodgy holiday compensation claims, this is actually a genuine instance! Am I entitled to anything seeing as I’m missing my holiday and my kids are suffering? This was meant to be a dream holiday which wasn’t cheap and as the days whittle by I’m becoming very bitter!
Any help or advice would be much appreciated!
Have you contacted your travel operator and made them aware of the issue ?
Pete
Sounds like a nightmare! Sorry to hear how it’s going, sometimes your bank account has travel insurance with a current account, mine does, Nationwide Flex account, worth a check?
Cheers..
Jase
Yes, hotel management, and tour operator rep on site are aware plus I’ve rung uk to make them aware.Originally Posted by ptcoll
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Get everything evidenced and keep all paperwork.
Tell your rep about what happened. There should be a rep onsite at least once a day. Make sure they fill in some kind of report.
Nothing much more can be done until you get home. I’d instruct solicitors once you get back.
Cancelled my fee paying account a couple of years back as hadn’t used any benefits for years!
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You need to contact your travel operator who will have the terms and conditions of your booking. Almost certainly they will have no liability and would of advised you to take out travel insurance. I think you are on your own here.
As stated, some banks offer travel insurance as part of a banking package, fingers crossed that you are one of them.
Surely if the hotel is at fault then even if i had insurance the insurance company would chase the tour operator for any money the insurance company would have paid out? Also, why was there such a big thing in the papers about holiday compensation being paid out to people who suffered illness on holiday?
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Have you involved your TUI rep? If they are not available in resort, then you can contact TUI through their app. If you have any chance whatsoever of making a claim against TUI, you'll need to have informed them as soon as possible.
Sorry to hear that your holiday is going do badly.
Hi mate, yes I contacted the rep immediately and they tried to wriggle out of all responsibility. Currently 1900/2k dollars out of pocket and 4 days out of a £6k holiday have been spent in hospital/hotel room.
Very sorry to hear your misfortune. The hotel will owe you a duty of care (not to cause you illness through serving you with food, if that is what has occurred), so you may perhaps be better served addressing your claim directly to them - hopefully with the support and assistance of TUI (who will no doubt rely on their Ts&Cs with you to limit their own liability). Perhaps contact a lawyer in the field tomorrow when they open after the weekend.
The hotel will only be liable if you can medically prove that it was the them that gave you the food poisoning. If half the hotel guests go down with it, you will have a strong case, if just two guests out of hundreds go down with it, the onus will be on you to provide medical evidence to that effect.
My view is that you have no hard evidence to link your illnesses with the hotel. Yes on the balance of probability it was sourced at the hotel but that doesn't constitute legal evidence. Under these circumstances the hotel would be well advised legally to ignore any claims made against them and probably will.
You said it yourself about having travel insurance. Hope the both of you are feeling much better very soon.
I was fine for 3 days and haven’t left the resort. Have only eaten and drank from the resort...hard for them to deny responsibility?
Don’t make too much about the insurance that you might have had going after anyone: they would but only if there was clear evidence it came from the hotel AND they had a chance to recover anything.
Here you probably only have circumstantial evidence (I doubt your hotel froze a sample of your dish).
So the insurance would have compensated you and wouldn’t have pursued it further.
TUI may help but unfortunately, they may also coldly tell you to speak with your Travel Insurance...
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Thanks for that, starting to think this is the only option. Looks like it’ll be a legal claims company il have to engage with...
^^^^^^ sums it up perfectly.
You have to think like a Lawyer, you make an allegation, they will refute it. You will almost certainly have to give proof that their kitchen was 100% the cause of it. Just being there for 3 days and with no one else being affected is putting you in a weak position.
You have to prove that it was their fault and until you do, to the satisfaction of their Lawyers, you will achieve nothing. That is the hard commercial reality.
Do you know (either from the rep or chat round the pool) if other guests have been ill?
Haven’t been out of the room since hospital so wouldn’t know!
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If this is the case il chalk it up to a bad experience and let it be a lesson to all...don’t forget your travel insurance!!
On the other hand, I’m sure I read of people getting compensation claims with nothing other than proof of a receipt of diarrhoea medication?? If this was the case, how can I not have a case after being hospitalised?
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If you can prove that it was indeed the hotel food that caused your problem, you will win the day.
So far you have no proof. You only hope is that half of the other guests are sitting on the WC howling in pain.
Without any insurance I think you’ll struggle to get anywhere as proving it will be hard. I’m sure with all the claims and issues in the last few years the tour operators would have covered themselves in the terms and conditions. What I’d strongly suggest is that you (or your wife maybe as you’re ill) speak to as many guests as you can to see if others have been infected. If there’s a group of you that’s bound to strengthen your case - my parents were on a cruise and during a stop in China they did a bus tour and the driver drove like a complete lunatic on very bad roads injuring my dad’s back. Back on the ship they kind of dismissed it, but when he went to the Medical centre there were others there who were injured and they kept in touch. The minute the cruise company realised that half a dozen people or more they started making offers. In the end they gave him $5,000 off a future cruise. They also offered a lesser cash sum.
There are other ways of contracting gastroenteritis other than from food poisoning. I'd think it would be difficult to prove that the resort is at fault unless, as has been said earlier, half of the residents have gone down with it as well.
Yes as in dirty swimming pool water. As had been said, I was here for 3 days and haven’t left the complex. Where else could I and my son have contracted this?
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Lesson learnt I guess as I know it doesn’t help but, how can you book an expensive holiday without taking travel insurance when you book (I pay £90 pa to cover any holidays). It’s not just stuff on holiday it covers but also cancellation for lots of reasons.
You have no chance of claiming from the hotel as some stomach bugs can take 3 days so it could have been a plane meal etc. and as others have said you can’t prove the hotel are at fault- could have been caused by another guest not washing their hands and handling stuff at the buffet.
As said before, by several people, your best bet is to find out if several other people went down with your symptoms. Also if any of them left the hotel, for any reason, then that will undermine your case.
To summarise, so far you cannot prove that it was the hotel that caused the infection. Your best bet is to enquire if other guests have been infected and preferably, they never left the hotel.
To be frank, I think you are going to have to take this one on the chin but contacting a specialist lawyer can do no harm.
If this is the case then il have to accept it. Il still try and fight it. Remember myself and my son have the same infection. Strange we all ate the same on the plane and the one night the mrs ate differently we have become ill and she hasn’t.
The shame is that we only go away once a year and this has taken a chunk out of our holiday. If we don’t get compensated, we are out of pocket and out of a holiday!
Thanks for everyone’s input...
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Mrs has been on the case and it now transpires others who ate the same as me and my son were struck down with sever stomach cramps and had to cancel excursions. Taking details from them so solicitor can take this over tomorrow. Maybe there’s hope yet.
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This is looking much better. Good luck.
Did you pay for the holiday by credit card?
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Yes..
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I honestly can’t believe that anyone would take their family away on holiday without insurance, even more unbelievable that you would skimp on the medical care as you had to pay.
Excellent news! If that perhaps is not the best way to greet hearing of large scale food poisoning. Good luck.
Last edited by Skyman; 14th July 2019 at 15:43.
I’m not sure TUI would be too interested, this is a quote from their T & C’s
Insurance:
Please Note: Adequate and valid travel insurance is compulsory for all our travellers and it is a condition of accepting your booking that you agree you will have obtained adequate and valid travel insurance. We recommend you take out insurance as soon as your booking is confirmed.
It happens..won’t happen again. Also, I hardly scrimped. It was a 6k dollar overnight stay to get medication via an iv drip which would result in a quicker recuperation or oral medication at the hotel. Anyhow, thanks for your helpful input. At best, I’ve reinforced your educated stance on holiday insurance!
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Maybe il lose the argument regarding the medical bills but one would hope to be compensated for being made ill.
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Regardless, companies cannot contract out of their duties to third parties for loss or damage caused by their own negligence.
I would say you have skimped. Your son needed urgent medical treatment to ensure a full recovery and you decided not to pay. Food poisoning can have serious long term affects if not treated correctly. It was your previous thread about cashing in the chips that made me question your priorities. Hopefully you and your son make a full recovery and enjoy the rest of your holiday
Once again, thanks for your helpful input.
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Your credit card may offer legal advice, it may offer some basic travel insurance, your real hope is that there's 'strength in numbers' get names and details from anyone else affected, perhaps contact the UK representative ie consul, consider contacting any local public health dept and don't forget newspapers.
I don't hold out a huge amount of hope but without others that have also suffered any chance shrinks to almost zero, that said the hotel might cough up vouchers for a free stay but that's probably not going to put a smile on your face.
Good luck.
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...ou-pay-by-card
Last edited by number2; 14th July 2019 at 16:40.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
All swimming pools have water lapping around peoples' shitty arses, babies crapping in it, puking in it. Loads of other ways to be at the wrong end of faecal-oral transmission. I don't expect that the cross infection control is up to hospital standards.
You can contract norovirus, for example, from getting the faeces or vomit of an infected person in your mouth, have direct contact with a person who is infected with the virus or sharing food or eating utensils with them. I've never come across a restaurant which routinely autoclaves it's cutlery.
Just saying that the burden of proof will be a hurdle.
I was going out for an Indian but strangely I’ve gone off the idea
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In order to prove that the hotel was to blame the DNA profile of the bug that infected you would need to be matched with the DNA isolated from the bug on the offending food. No other evidence is definitive. My advice, forget it and get on with your holiday.
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But that view ignores nuisance value as a basis of settlement. Flawed in my opinion.
Out of interest what would you expect them to pay in compensation. You won’t get anything from TUI as you probably don’t have a contract with them, as you failed to take out travel insurance which was a condition of them accepting your booking.
All this aggro for the sake of a £30 travel policy.
How does nuisance value feature in this situation?
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Mate you don’t have to remind me re. travel insurance. I can assure you it wasn’t to save the cost of the insurance, I simply forgot to book any.
When I say compensation, you only have to read stories online of people merely saying they had food poisoning and providing proof of medicine they had purchased abroad as there proof. I’ve actually been hospitalised. Point being why would all the fraudulent claims be settled for £kks and I get nothing? Anyhow, we’ll find out in the morning when I ring a solicitor.
Below taken from one of many “claims solicitors” online...
Can I still claim compensation if I didn’t have travel insurance?
Yes, you can still make a claim for holiday sickness or an accident abroad if you did not have travel insurance.
When you book a package holiday through a UK tour operator, your trip is covered by The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tour Regulations 1992, meaning your holiday is protected by British legislation. The regulations cover things like the transport, accommodation and, more importantly if you have contracted food poisoning, the food provided by your hotel whilst you are away.
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Last edited by Yeti; 14th July 2019 at 18:35.
All too easily done. In our case it was because Mrs MCH is Dutch. We used to buy travel insurance for holidays but, when we went to visit family in Holland, we often forgot. In our mind we weren't 'on holiday', we were visiting family - the same as if we were visiting my parents in Cumbria. Fortunately we never got caught out but we did have a (dental) 'near miss' which was one of the things that prompted us to get annual cover.
Apart from anything else, I hope the OP is over his botty problems and can get on and enjoy the rest of his holiday.
Why didn't you take out holiday insurance?.A small amount to pay considering your holiday cost 6k!.Maybe this confirms why holiday insurance is something you need to take out.
We see those that need to be flown home in a very expensive air ambulance jet and then do crowd funding to ask others for help because they decided not to pay the insurance!.
What would you say if someone hit you car who also had no insurance,or even you had no insurance and hit someone........it seems to me certain insurance is totally acceptable and a crime not to take out,and yet holiday insurance isn't seen the same!!.......why?.
Well in our case we book the holiday and the insurance immediately after,that's because right up until the date you travel you may need to cancel or whatever.This has just happened with what would have been our next holiday to Greece in September,can't go now as the Wife will soon be having her hip operation.
Good job we took out insurance hey...
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