5 Things To Do If You Get Injured At Your Travel Accommodation

The main purpose of staying in travel accommodations like hotels and motels is to make the most out of vacations or business trips. But if you’ve been to these places before, you should be well aware that things don’t always go the way you expect. The bathroom might be too small, the room service might’ve been lackluster, but, most importantly, you might get into an accident and get injured during your stay. In this case, you have the right to seek compensation from the owners or managers, and that’s because they’re responsible for ensuring their guests’ safety.

However, it’s important to note that you can’t simply demand compensation upon getting an injury in a hotel or a hostel. There is a step-by-step process to how this goes. On that note, here are five things you need to do after sustaining an injury at your travel accommodation:

• Seek Medical Attention 

Before you worry about anything else, you must first seek medical attention. Usually, when you get into an accident, a witness or someone nearby will call the staff’s attention, and then you’ll receive appropriate treatment from there.

Some accommodations also have a dedicated room for these kinds of emergencies. But in the case of serious injuries, it might be best to call 911 immediately since hotels can only provide basic first aid. Fortunately, this digital age has enabled us to gain knowledge and experience that could prove invaluable in such emergencies. Online courses and certificates in Basic Life-saving skills (BSL) will equip you with the skills to save a life until medical help arrives. Furthermore, after the treatment, it’s advisable to get a copy of the medical records for your stay in the healthcare facility as it’ll help you with your injury claim.

• Look For The Manager Immediately 

A general rule of thumb when it comes to personal injury claims is that the more time passes by, the less likely people will believe your claim. Right after the accident, you must look for the manager immediately and make the report. For instance, if you stepped on a shard of a broken mug, the best course of action is to ask for the manager through the accommodation’s directory and stay where you are near the scene of the accident, given that you’ve already treated the injury.

Upon calling the manager, your next step is to collect their information, such as their name and contact details as well their insurance company.

• Talk To Other Guests 

Since you were pretty busy dealing with the situation, you might not know what caused the incident, which is not a good thing since you need to show the accommodation company that it was due to their negligence that you got the injury. For instance, you might’ve slipped on a wet floor within the hotel, and since there was no ‘Wet Floor’ sign, this accident can be attributed to the management’s negligence. However, after a few minutes, you’ll lose your only piece of evidence as to the floor slowly dries. Your only hope now is if to gather witnesses as the whole accident unfolded. In this scenario, you need the help of another pair of eyes, which in your case, are the guests.

If you sustained an injury in a rather public location, chances are a few people may have witnessed the accident. So your next step is to talk to other guests about the accident and get them to help you, especially since hotel owners probably wouldn’t believe your statements.

• Document The Incident

You’ve probably been told this a couple of times, but it’s imperative that you collect as much evidence as you can. After all, the scene can be tampered with. Like the previous example, if there was a broken shard earlier, the staff may clean it right away after you report the injury, which might make your claim a bit unbelievable. Your best bet would be to preserve the scenes, and what better way to do that than by using your smartphones or devices to take a photo of everything about the incident, including the cause of the injury and the injury itself.

• Ask For Assistance From Employees

You might also want to ask for assistance from the employees after taking a photo of the incident, as an employee’s statement can be a great way to prove your claim. For example, an employee might’ve been complaining about the lack of signages for wet floors, which was what caused your injury. This statement can go a long way in proving that your claim is, in fact, valid.

Wrapping Up 

While you’ll have to prove to the hotel owners that you sustained the injury due to their negligence, it’s worth noting that accommodation companies are often very agreeable. After all, they wouldn’t want to tarnish their reputation by putting their all into disproving your claim. As such, your injury claim would most likely win, given that it was indeed due to their negligence.