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You may book a hotel for business, when you’re on vacation, or as a stopover on your way to another location. It may feel like a luxury or a place to relax as you sit around the pool or have dinner at the hotel restaurant. The American Hotel and Lodging Association reports that there are nearly 60,000 lodging properties in the U.S. with approximately 2,270 new hotels, motels, and inns added since 2016.
During your stay in a hotel, you should have reasonable expectations that its premises are free of any hazards that can cause you injury or harm. In Missouri, hotel owners have a legal duty to ensure the safety of all guests. The same duty of care applies to resorts and motels. But thousands of people are injured due to hotel or motel negligence each year. Cited in PR Newswire, the National Floor Safety Institute estimates that 40% of all hotel guest accidents are slip and falls, and the number one cause of injuries from slip and falls is on wet surfaces—bathtubs, showers, and floors.
If you’re going to submit a hotel negligence claim, it requires a law firm experienced in personal injury cases. The lawyers at Peterson Law Firm know that most travelers are surprised and scared when they’re injured at a hotel, especially if they’re from out of state. Most don’t know what to do or how to seek compensation while they’re recovering in an area or state where they don’t live. If you were injured in a hotel away from home, it's crucial to understand the steps to protect your rights. Our Kansas City slip and fall lawyers explain.
Hotel Injuries
You may wonder how often people are really injured in hotel slip and falls. The answer may surprise you. Here are some statistics about hotel injuries:
- Falls are the leading cause of unintentional injuries for hotel guests.
- According to the National Safety Council, more than 8.5 million people were treated in emergency rooms for fall-related injuries in 2022.
- Many hotel slip and fall accidents go unreported, as victims struggle to navigate unfamiliar legal systems and insurers far from home.
Hotel Slip and Falls: Watch Out for Dangerous Areas
Although people may like to think that hotels are relatively safe places to stay, most all have areas that create a higher risk of falls. These areas can include the following:
- Entranceways and lobbies. Hundreds of people a day can come and go through the front entrance of a hotel. Constant foot traffic can leave floors slippery and treacherous, especially during the winter months when snow and ice get tracked in.
- Pool areas. Locker rooms and pool areas can have slick tiles and standing water that create the perfect conditions for slip and falls.
- Stairwells and hallways. It’s possible for equipment like vacuums and cleaning carts to block the hallways in a hotel. Boxes and storage containers might be placed on the landings of stairwells, obstructing access to doors. All of these can make it difficult to walk and cause fall injuries.
- Walkways and rooms with carpeting and dim lighting. Many hotels have carpeting in the hallways and in their guest rooms that can be ripped, torn, and unsecured. Also, these areas can have dim lighting that makes it difficult to see when walking, creating risks for falls.
- Bathroom showers. Sometimes, hotels have bathroom showers with curtains that don’t close all the way, and water collects on the floor. If it’s a shower that has glass doors, sometimes these doors don’t shut tightly, and water spills onto the tile. No matter how hard you try, you can’t keep the floor dry. This pool of water creates a dangerous hazard, and your slip and fall could cause a head trauma if you hit the hard, marble countertop or the tile floor.
Hotel Injury Compensation: You Might Face an Uphill Battle
If you're hurt in a hotel when you’re far from home, maybe in another town or another state, it can seem especially challenging to get justice. Out-of-state victims face a variety of hurdles when seeking fair compensation, especially understanding how a cross-state personal injury claim works.
Cross-State Personal Injury Claim: Determining Where to File Your Claim
If you have an accident while you’re in a hotel in a state other than the one you live in, you will need to understand that state’s laws regarding statutes of limitations, liability, and legal doctrines about negligence. Each state has its own laws, and to build a successful personal injury case, it’s important to understand how each of these may impact your claim.
One of your main challenges will be determining where to file the claim. Typically, you have two options: your home state or the state where the accident occurred:
- The state where you were injured. Filing in the state where the accident happened is often necessary because the laws and courts in that state have direct authority over the case. For example, if you were injured in a car accident in Maine but you live in Michigan, Maine courts would likely have jurisdiction. You would probably need a local attorney familiar with that state’s laws and procedures.
- The state where you live. In certain situations, you may be able to file the claim in your home state, particularly if the defendant also resides there. This option can simplify proceedings by keeping them closer to home, but it may not always be viable due to jurisdictional constraints.
Determining Fault: Was the Hotel Negligent?
To recover damages in a case against a negligent hotel, you have to show strong evidence proving that the hotel was aware of the danger that caused your fall, or should have known about it, and failed to remedy the hazard within a reasonable amount of time.
Your Hotel Liability Claim
To establish negligence in a hotel liability claim, you need to prove four crucial elements:
- Duty of care. The hotel owed a duty of care to you as their guest.
- Breach of duty. The hotel breached this duty by failing to provide a safe environment.
- Causation. The breach of duty directly caused your injuries.
- Damages. You suffered damages as a result of the injury, such as medical bills, lost wages, or emotional distress.
If you want to hold a hotel accountable for negligence, all four elements must be present in your claim. You also need to provide clear and solid evidence. It’s important to note that hotels are usually cooperative when one of their guests gets injured because they want to avoid litigation and protect their reputation. However, don’t agree to any settlement offer without talking with our slip and fall lawyers. Most hotel insurance companies will be quick to make you a low-ball offer that will likely not cover the full amount of your recovery.
Fault-Based Negligence
If you’re hurt in a Kansas City hotel, the hotel isn’t automatically liable for your injuries just because they occurred on the property. Premises liability claims are fault-based cases. As an injured victim, you must demonstrate that the hotel failed to meet a reasonable standard of care in maintaining safe conditions. Most often, this requires showing that the hotel knew or should have known about the hazardous condition and did not take appropriate action to rectify it. An experienced Kansas City premises liability lawyer can help you build a strong case.
Missouri’s Comparative Negligence Rule and Hotel Injury Cases
Missouri follows a “pure comparative negligence” rule, which can affect your hotel liability claim. Under this rule, you can still recover damages, even if you were partially at fault for the accident. However, your compensation may be reduced based on your percentage of fault.
For example, if you slipped and fell in the hotel pool area but were talking on your phone while walking, a court might assign you a portion of the blame. If the court determines you were 30% at fault, your compensation will be reduced by that percentage.
Contact Peterson Law Firm When You’re Injured at a Hotel
If you want to file a hotel liability claim, whether you file in your own state or the state where you were injured, you’ll need to have solid evidence. Contact Peterson Law Firm Injury to get help managing the claims process effectively and to pursue fair compensation. Read our case results to learn how we’ve helped other clients who were injured at a hotel.
