Whether you’re traveling for work or business, your hotel is your home away from home. No matter if you’re staying one night or 12, you expect that the management of your hotel is paying attention to safety matters both inside the rooms and out.
However, if you or a family member gets injured due to an accident or an assault while staying at a hotel, you may have the right to sue the management or owners for having negligent or unsafe conditions. You may be entitled to compensation for medical expenses, lost income, pain, and suffering, or even wrongful death.
Here are some hotel safety expectations that hotel management and owners should be attending to for the sake of their customers.
THE LIGHTING SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT IN PARKING LOTS AND ROOMS
A lot can go wrong when there’s not sufficient lighting in a hotel. If you don’t have good lighting in your room, then a slip and fall accident is more likely to occur stepping out of the shower or tripping over a rug in a room, which can cause anything from a scraped knee to a traumatic brain injury.
Insufficient lighting outside a hotel can also lead to patrons tripping on curbs or pavement because of ice or snow accumulating on the parking lot during the winter, potholes or cracks, or major differences in height between the sidewalk and the pavement.
Hotel management is obligated to ensure their premises have adequate lighting so guests can safely walk inside and outside of the hotel room during their stay.
THE LOBBY AND ROOMS SHOULD BE REASONABLY PROTECTED FROM BURGLARY AND THEFT
When you stay at a hotel, you should feel like your safety—and the safety of your belongings–is taken seriously. This means that your hotel room should only be able to be accessed from a key or a chipped hotel card. There should also be a person on staff at the hotel 24 hours who is there to check people in or out and be able to notify the authorities if there is an emergency.
THE HOTEL SHOULD BE ACCESSED BY GUESTS AND STAFF ONLY
Hotels shouldn’t allow access to those who are not guests or staff of the hotel for the protection of the hotel guests. If hotel access is provided to non-guests or staff, then there’s a chance the hotel could be liable for any theft or injuries they may cause to hotel guests.
Did you stay in a hotel in Georgia and incur any injuries or property damage or theft? You might be in need of legal representation to pursue compensation for these damages. Click here for more information about Randy E. Fry, a personal injury attorney in Georgia.