Can compensation for food poisoning be claimed if it happened abroad?
Compensation for food poisoning is something that nobody wants to have to claim. Sometimes a bout of food poisoning can last for only a day, causing little disruption to your holiday, however, a bad case can last for up to two weeks – which is when a holiday or trip can be completely ruined. There are a number of reasons why food poisoning can occur – even in the most exclusive, expensive resorts. It is always important to try and locate the cause of your food poisoning so that you may question your hotel or resort manager about it at the time. This way you will have proof that the hotel has caused you food poisoning which well certainly help your compensation for food poisoning claim.
Stomach bugs can be an unhappy reality when it comes to holidays. However, things can deteriorate very quickly and seriously if a bad case of food poisoning occurs. The question that a lot of holiday makers who have travelled outside of the UK ask is whether or not they can gain compensation for food poisoning if the food poisoning happened to them whilst they were on holiday? There is no one answer to this question, as each case obviously depends on the circumstances, though it may be helpful to state that there have been a number of cases where compensation for food poisoning has been granted when the incident has happened to the victim on holiday in a foreign country. In these instances, it is usually the booking agent or the hotel/resort itself that is held responsible for serving contaminated food. Of course, other parties may also be held responsible; it completely depends on the specific circumstances of each given situation.
Michael was holidaying in Marrakech on a business trip as a sustainable business consultant with his firm. They were staying in a luxury hotel as part of a team building exercise and brain storming seminar. Michael had thought that this hotel looked like the least likely place for any type of food poisoning to occur. This was, unfortunately, not the case. On the second evening in the hotel, Michael began experiencing excruciating stomach pains and was unable to move from the hotel room bed. Eventually food poising symptoms began to show themselves. Michael was taken to the nearest hospital, where they rehydrated him and told him how to best recover. On returning to the hotel, the symptoms continued for another three days. Michael knew that the hotel’s food must have been responsible – he had eaten nothing else since arriving in Morocco.
It was how Michael’s trip to Marrakech was organised that led to him eventually gaining compensation for food poisoning. The trip had been organised by Michael’s consultancy company through a business travel agency who had a special arrangement with the Moroccan hotel. The paperwork between Michael’s consultancy and the travel agency stated that their business prided itself in ‘providing the ultimate business retreat service, including meeting room requirements, social arrangements and appropriate cuisine’. This statement in the contract between Michael’s consultancy and the travel agency proved to be exactly how Michael gained compensation for food poisoning whilst abroad. His case was a strong one against the business travel agency and they provided Michael with the full amount of compensation for food poisoning. They also took full responsibility for the incident and sent a team of professionals to Marrakech in order to inspect the food preparation process in the hotel kitchens.
Our second case study demonstrates an instance where the hotel itself was held responsible and fined compensation for food poisoning as a result. Rita was on honeymoon in a hotel in New York when she became a victim of food poisoning. This obviously ruined Rita’s honeymoon and she was highly distressed about this fact. Rita actually notified the hotel in New York whilst she was staying there about her food poisoning. It turned out that a number of people staying in the hotel were suffering from similar symptoms at this time. The hotel did some investigations itself and came to the conclusion that some chicken left over from the day before had been left uncovered and unrefrigerated overnight and accidentally served as dinner the next day. The hotel did offer the guests who had suffered from food poisoning a night’s free stay at the hotel, however Ritadid not think this was adequate compensation for food poisoning. She did not want to change her flights to stay another night and she could not foresee herself and her husband travelling to New York at any time in the foreseeable future.
When Rita returned home she sought legal advice to see what could be done about the incident. The hotel in New York actually had a UK office and this made it easy to begin talks about Rita claiming compensation for food poisoning. The hotel agreed that the incident had been entirely their fault and agreed to compensate Mr Pembroke.