Specialist Travel Illness Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have agreed settlement for holidaymakers following their stay at the Playa Del Carmen Hotel in Mexico

Expert travel illness lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have secured a settlement from tour operator Thomas Cook Tour Operations Limited for a family whose holiday in Mexico was ruined when three of the four members of the family fell ill.

Licia Wolff, 51 from Morecambe, Lancashire travelled to Mexico for two weeks in June 2013 with her husband Michael and her two sons, Joshua and Joe after booking to stay at the four-star The Gran Caribe Real with Thomas Cook Tour Operations Limited.

However, when they arrived for their relaxing family break the hotel was extremely busy as it was Spring break and as a result they asked to be moved. They were moved to the Gran Port Real. The family had concerns about the hotel not being “like for like” quality as the first hotel and as such asked to be moved again.

They were moved once again to the Royal Playa Del Carmen and just a few days into their stay there Licia, Michael and Joshua all began to suffer with severe gastric symptoms, including diarrhoea, stomach cramps, vomiting, fever and a lack of appetite.

Thomas Cook denied liability for the families’ illness; however settlement has been agreed with Irwin Mitchell securing a five figure sum for the family.

Despite the family’s positive review of their hotel room at the Royal Playa Del Carmen hotel the family complained that the supposedly hot food on occasions was served luke warm and on occasions some of the food seemed repetitive in that similar dishes appeared at both lunchtime and for the evening meal. The family have also reported that food sometimes appeared to be reheated.

All three have continued to suffer from the symptoms since their return to the UK, with Licia and Joshua both losing more than a stone in weight due to the ongoing impact of the illness they suffered in Mexico.

Expert Opinion

Licia and her family were expecting a luxurious and relaxing break in Mexico, but they endured a terrible experience and as well as having to move to three different hotels, three of them developed horrendous symptoms.

“We have seen through our work with thousands of holiday illness victims that gastric problems can have sometimes have serious consequences for victims, such as Licia, Joshua and Michael. All three of them continued to suffer from the horrible symptoms on their return to the UK and Licia and Joshua lost a significant amount of weight due to the problems they endured. The family are extremely relieved that they have received a settlement from the tour operator. We hope that our clients can now start to move on with their lives and put this experience behind them” Nichola Blackburn - Paralegal

Licia, a Beautician, was forced to take three weeks off work on her return to the UK as her symptoms continued.

She said: “We were all really looking forward to this break as it was one of the last holidays I was going to have with my sons before they leave home but it ended up being an absolute nightmare. We were expecting a luxury four-star break, but our experience was as far from luxury as I could have imagined.

“We were forced to move hotels twice as they were not up to the standards we expected and to add insult to injury we ended up falling ill while staying at the Playa Del Carmen. The last thing you expect when arriving at a hotel is to see cleaning staff spraying the hotel with chemicals.

“It wasn’t the best first impression and made us question what was wrong with the hotel. After a few days three of us were suffering terrible symptoms which continued long after we came home and caused a huge disruption to our lives.

“We would like to thank our legal team at Irwin Mitchell for their support and now we will look to put this ordeal behind us”.

If you or a loved one has suffered an illness whilst in a hotel abroad, our accident and illness abroad solicitors could help you to claim compensation. See our Hotel Illness Claims page for more information.