Premises Liability in Hotels, Resorts & Rentals: What Guests Should Watch For

You usually have many choices for places to stay when visiting Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, or Sevierville. However, these hundreds of rooms or rentals are not always safe. The potential dangers guests should be aware of include slow responses to bad weather, broken stairs, and poor lighting. Premises liability in hotels, resorts, and rentals is a serious issue, and a personal injury lawyer may be able to help if you are hurt during your stay. Here’s what guests should watch for.

Slip-and-fall risks

Water can be dangerous in its various forms, posing different slip-and-fall risks. Areas near the Smoky Mountains can get unpredictable weather, such as sudden rain or snow.

Other slip-and-fall hazards that water poses are not necessarily related to weather. Hotel, resort, and rental guests should watch for wet lobby floors, spilled drinks in hallways and other common areas, and slick poolside areas.

Not all of the risks come from water, of course. Keep an eye out for uneven sidewalks and loose rugs or mats. Bad lighting and maintenance pose their share of slip-and-fall dangers, too.

Property owners may be liable for guests’ injuries if they knew or should have known about dangerous conditions and did not take reasonable steps to address them.

Bad lighting risks

It’s easy to get hurt by something you cannot see. If bad lighting prevents you from spotting, say, uneven sidewalks, an obstacle in a hallway, the steps, or other hazards in the parking lot, you may slip and fall. Also, poor lighting can increase the chances of assault, robbery, or other criminal activity, especially if there is a history of such criminal activity.

Be on the lookout for dark areas of the parking lot, dark areas inside, lights that do not work, and burned-out lightbulbs.

Dangerous stairways, railings, or balconies

If you rent a cabin in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, it may come with a deck, balcony, or outdoor stairway. These can give you amazing mountain views if they are properly maintained, but water can cause structural damage over the years. Cabins, hotels, and motels may have these risks:

• Weak or rotting wood on stairs or balconies
• Loose or missing guardrails
• Broken stair treads
• Uneven steps
• Overloaded balconies

Property owners should be inspecting these areas regularly.

Pool and hot tub dangers

Pools or hot tubs may have broken drains or suction hazards, missing gates, broken ladders, and slippery surfaces. Children are especially vulnerable, and property owners do not always follow safety protocols or maintain their equipment.

Subpar maintenance

Sometimes, you just know a property isn’t taken care of appropriately. Indicators include broken elevators, loose tiles, water leaks, damaged flooring, and bad wiring (for example, sparking outlets, flickering or dimming lights, and loose outlets or switches).

What if you notice a dangerous condition and tell the owner?

Reporting a hazard before your injury can show that the property owner had actual knowledge of the risk. However, liability may also depend on whether the owner had enough time or opportunity to act appropriately.

You still have some responsibility to act reasonably. For instance, it could hurt your case if you lean on a deck railing you reported was loose.

It does not automatically mean you have no case, though. Tennessee uses modified comparative fault for premises liability and personal injury. You can recover damages if you are less than 50% responsible for your injuries.

If an insurance adjuster or jury thinks you knowingly exposed yourself to risk, you may get assigned a percentage of fault. However, reporting the hazard can help prove the property owner knew or should have known about it. Good ways to report include these:

• Emails or text messages (preferably with photos or videos)
• Messages through a vacation rental platform
• Reports filed with hotel or resort staff
• Witnesses who saw or heard you make the report

What should you do after an injury?

If you’re hurt, take photographs and videos of the scene, the hazards, and your injuries, if possible. This documentation helps prove that a hazard existed, even if the property owner fixes it right away or says it did not exist. General steps to take include these:

• Document the scene
• Get medical attention (this helps with your recovery and creates a link between the incident and your injuries)
• Work with your lawyer or make the appropriate requests to gather evidence, such as surveillance footage, witness footage, and witness statements
• Report the incident to the property owner or manager
• Follow any reporting procedures if you’re using a vacation platform such as Airbnb

Keep records of everything, including your medical bills. Consult with a premises liability lawyer as soon as possible. A lawyer can review your rental agreement, the insurance coverage available, and the potential next steps.

You can pursue a case even if you visited from out of state. It helps to work with a lawyer who has experience with situations involving tourists or visitors. You can participate in many aspects remotely. In many cases, injured guests may not have to return to Tennessee since their lawyers do the required in-person work. (Depositions, medical exams, or a trial may require you to return.)

Be careful when negotiating with insurance companies. Their offers may not reflect the full value of your injuries, and they may try to make you appear more responsible for what happened than you are.

Why might Tennessee hotels, resorts, and rentals be at higher risk of hazards?

In addition to the weather, several factors contribute to the potential risks in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville. They include heavy guest turnover, aging buildings or cabins, and pressure to keep lodgings available for booking (versus closing them temporarily for necessary repairs).

Property owners do not have to 100% guarantee perfect safety, but they do need to act reasonably. Often, this means frequent and routine inspections, proper maintenance, prompt repair of known hazards, and warnings to guests of known hazards to avoid when immediate repair is not possible.

The attorneys at Delius, McKenzie & McCarter can help

The attorneys at Delius, McKenzie & McCarter can help you understand your options after an injury at a hotel, resort, cabin, or vacation rental. Our team can investigate what happened, review available evidence, deal with insurance companies, and determine whether the property owner, management company, rental platform, or another party may be responsible.

Contact us today for more information.