Luxury Christmas Holiday Ruined by Illness
We recently took instruction from a client whose luxury Christmas holiday to the Dominican Republic was ruined when they contracted holiday illness.
Christmas getaway ruined
Our client booked to stay at the Grand Bahia Principe El Portillo in the Dominican Republic over the Christmas period in 2013. Unfortunately just a few days into their stay at the 3* hotel, our client started to suffer with various symptoms related to food poisoning.
The claimant reports suffering with diarrhoea; abdominal cramps; vomiting; nausea and fatigue.
Poor food hygiene standards
As the holiday was booked as an all-inclusive package deal, all of the food and drink consumed by our client was provided by the hotel.
The claimant avers that their illness was was directly caused by the food provided by the Grand Bahia Principe El Portillo. According to our client, food hygiene standards at the on site restaurant and surrounding eating areas was very poor. Our client reports:
• Buffet Style food service which was often tepid in temperature and left uncovered for extended periods of time.
• A large quanitity of flies around the eating area
• Food appeared to be reheated and partially cooked
• Certain foods were being recycled for reuse in other meals
• Members of the catering staff were not wearing gloves when handling the food products
• Hot food was often added to trays containing cooler food of the same type.
• Drinks served tasted as if they were watered down
• Ice in drinks which was believed to be made from local tap water
Furthermore, our client complained of several hygiene issues not related to the restaurant, including:
• A strong smell of sewage around the hotel grounds
• The rooms were not properly or regularly cleaned
• The bed sheets were dirty and not changed regularly
On this occasion, we managed to secure a total of £2,500 in compensation for our client.
Holiday illness claims – expert advice
If you believe that your holiday illness symptoms are linked to poor hygiene standards within your package deal hotel, you may be entitled to holiday illness compensation. There are certain steps that you could take in support of your claim:
•Note all important dates
•Report any hygiene issues to your holiday rep
•Document any suspected poor hygiene (e.g. photo, video)
For further information on holiday sickness compensation, please see our ‘Package Holiday Claims’ page.
To discover how much compensation you could be entitled to, call our expert team of travel law solicitors today for instant answers. Whatever your experience with holiday sickness, we may be able to help. We offer you a FREE no-obligation consultation. Call 0800 888 6 888 or email .
