Though we associate holidays with fun, relaxation and happy experiences, there can be unpleasant experiences that may not only ruin that holiday but also have repercussions that even last beyond the holiday.
There are however factors that will ameliorate the situation and redress your bad holiday experience. In the UK it is possible to make claims for compensation of an accident or illness that you may have suffered. There are laws in place that let you make a claim for compensation of the loss you may have suffered as a result of your holiday.
For instance take a scenario like this – you and/or your family have booked and gone on a package tour offered by a travel agency; one of those all-expenses-included kind of deal. If anything goes wrong and you suffer any problems due to the tour operator’s act or omission or any kind of negligence, you may be able to a claim against the tour operator. Here it is important to keep a record of other travelers who may have been similarly affected by the circumstances. Also take pictures, and keep all records in terms of bills and so on.
Similarly, falling ill while on holiday due to unhygienic living conditions, poor quality food, even an unclean pool should be the responsibility of the tour operator and the company should be made to compensate you for the stress, aggravation and pain, to say nothing of the expense that this would have caused.
In fact the Judicial Studies Guidelines have set out the following suggestions as to holiday illness compensation amounts that should be paid out to aggrieved travellers:
- Sometimes a person can suffer an extremely severe form of food poisoning that required not only a lengthy stay but also long term repercussions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and hemorrhoids. Other health problems such as reactive arthritis and even incontinence can sometimes result from severe food poisoning, impacting a person’s whole life negatively. In such cases, the compensation amount could range between 24,500 to 33,500 pounds.
- If you contract salmonella while on holiday, the symptoms could continue even weeks after your holiday, in some cases years and in such cases the compensation amount could be in the region of £6,150 to £12,250.
- Even if a person has made a full recovery within a few weeks, but had fairly severe symptoms, at the time of the illness, the compensation amount could be between £600 to £2,500.