Lawsuits Against Hotels

You were hurt at a hotel or resort: a fall on a wet lobby floor, a scalding shower, an attack in a hallway, a meal that made you sick. Maybe it happened far from home, and your trip is over. If you’re hurting, in a strange place and unsure what to do first, that’s a normal reaction.

Here’s the plain answer. A hotel can be responsible when it failed to use reasonable care and that caused your injury, for example by ignoring a hazard it knew about or should have found. Under the traditional rules that Michigan follows, a paying guest is owed the most care the law gives any visitor. Whether you have a claim usually turns on proof, on who ran the hotel, and on deadlines that depend on where it happened. Michigan’s rules are in the boxes marked “In Michigan.”

The hard part is usually the proof. The video, the incident report and the maintenance records are in the hotel’s hands, and its insurer handles claims like yours every day.

Hurt at a hotel and not sure where you stand? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

What should you do right after you’re hurt at a hotel?

You may be far from your own doctor and checking out in a day or two, so act before you leave:

1. Get medical care, even far from home, and even if you feel all right; some injuries show symptoms later. Tell every provider how you were hurt, and follow up at home.
2. Report it to the hotel in writing and keep a copy. Stick to the facts, and don’t guess about fault.
3. Get the incident-report number, and a copy of the report if you can. Keep your key card, folio and booking confirmation.
4. Get witnesses’ names and phone numbers, including employees’, before other guests head home.
5. Ask whether a camera covered the spot. Footage can be recorded over.
6. Take photos and video of the hazard, the lighting, any warning signs or the lack of them, and your injuries as they heal.
7. Send a preservation letter, a formal written request, usually from a lawyer, that the hotel keep specific evidence, such as video, incident reports, and maintenance and pest-control records; see how to preserve evidence. In Michigan, if a party fails to produce important evidence it controlled, without a reasonable excuse, jurors may be told they can infer it would have hurt that party (M Civ JI 6.01).

What does a hotel owe its guests?

A hotel doesn’t guarantee your safety: “landowners are not insurers,” as Michigan’s Supreme Court repeated in 2023 (Kandil-Elsayed v F & E Oil). But it must use reasonable care. Under the traditional rules, a paying guest is an invitee, someone there for the owner’s business, and invitees get the most protection. Some states have dropped these categories and simply ask whether the owner acted reasonably; California’s Supreme Court held in 1968 that a visitor’s status “is not determinative” (Rowland v. Christian).

What must you show? Usually that the hotel knew or should have known about the danger and didn’t fix it or warn you in time, and that this caused your injury, by a preponderance of the evidence: more likely true than not (Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, or LII; in Michigan, M Civ JI 8.01). If the hotel broke a safety statute meant to protect people like you from the kind of harm you suffered, a Michigan jury may infer negligence (M Civ JI 12.01).

Which injuries lead to hotel claims, and what must you prove?

Many hotel claims are premises liability claims about a dangerous condition; others involve careless staff, a defective product or a crime.

Slips, trips and falls

Wet floors, torn carpet, broken steps, dim lighting and ice at the entrance. The key question is usually notice: did the hotel know, or should it have known, and did it clean up, repair or warn in time? If staff created the hazard, say by mopping without a warning sign, you generally don’t need separate proof that the hotel knew about it (M Civ JI 19.03, note on use). Since July 2023, an open and obvious hazard no longer automatically ends a Michigan invitee’s claim; it bears on whether the owner acted reasonably and on each side’s share of fault (Kandil-Elsayed). See slip-and-fall claims.

Pools and hot tubs

Drownings, dives into shallow water and drain entrapment can lead to claims against whoever ran the pool; see pool injury and drowning claims.

Assaults and robberies

If another guest or an intruder attacked you, the hotel may share responsibility with the attacker if it fell short of what its state’s law requires. States measure that duty differently; see negligent security claims.

Bed bugs

Bed bugs aren’t known to spread disease, but their bites can cause allergic reactions, in rare cases severe ones, and skin infections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says. The question is whether the hotel knew or should have known about them, for example from complaints or pest-control records, and still failed to treat the room, move you or warn you. Photograph the bugs and your bites, report them in writing, and keep receipts for anything you treat or replace.

Burns, scalds and fires

Scalding shower water can be a dangerous condition the hotel knew or should have known about. A server who spills a hot drink can make the hotel responsible, because a business generally answers for the negligence of its agents, the people it has the right to control (Little, Michigan Court of Appeals, 1990). A defective coffee maker or heater can bring in its maker and others along its chain of manufacture and sale, depending on the state (LII; see product liability claims). For fires, see fire and burn injury claims.

Food poisoning

An illness from a hotel restaurant, room service or a buffet can support a claim for negligence, strict liability or breach of warranty, depending on the state (LII). In Michigan, serving food or drink for value is a sale that carries the implied warranty of merchantability (MCL 440.2314(1)), and if you don’t tell the hotel about the problem within a reasonable time, you can be barred from any remedy for the breach (MCL 440.2607(3)(a)). See how to trace an illness to a meal.

Elevators and escalators

An elevator that drops, stops out of level or closes on someone can lead to a claim against the hotel, its maintenance company or the manufacturer; see elevator and escalator accident claims.

Who is responsible: the brand, the owner or the operator?

The name on the sign may not belong to the company that runs the hotel: one company may own the building, another may manage it, and a third may license the brand. The duty usually follows control of the property: in Michigan, the question is “who has possession and control over the land where a person was injured, not merely who owns the land” (Janini v London Townhouses Condominium Ass’n, 2024).

The brand. In Little, a 1990 Michigan Court of Appeals case, a woman who slipped on an icy walkway at a franchised restaurant sued the franchisor and lost. The franchisor set standards and could inspect, but had no right to control day-to-day operations such as hiring, supervision and maintenance, so the franchisee wasn’t its agent. A brand can also be responsible under ostensible agency if, among other things, its own acts or neglect led you to reasonably believe the business was its agent and you were harmed because you relied on that belief; the plaintiff in Little had no such evidence. Other states apply their own tests.

Contractors. Whoever controls the hotel can’t escape its duty by hiring others: a possessor who owes you a duty “may not delegate that responsibility to another and thus avoid liability” (M Civ JI 19.10). A contractor whose own carelessness hurt you may be responsible too: a contract doesn’t erase the duties the contractor owes to people outside it (Loweke v Ann Arbor Ceiling & Partition Co, 2011).

Not sure who owned or ran the hotel? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

What if the hotel was in another state or country?

Courts once simply applied the law of the place where an injury happened. Many states now use other tests, such as which state has the greater interest or the “most significant relationship” to the claim, as Michigan’s Supreme Court described in 1997 (Sutherland v Kennington Truck Service), so more than one place’s rules, including deadlines, can matter. And a court can decide a case against the hotel’s owner only if it has personal jurisdiction over the company, which generally requires enough contact with the state (LII). That may mean suing where the hotel is, even abroad, under that country’s law and deadlines.

The fine print. Booking terms may include a forum-selection clause, naming the court and place where disputes must be decided (LII). The U.S. Supreme Court enforced one on a cruise ticket, in an admiralty case decided under federal law, noting that such clauses in form passage contracts “are subject to judicial scrutiny for fundamental fairness” (Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute, 1991). Whether a clause in a hotel booking binds you depends on the court and the law that applies.

How long do you have to file?

Every state sets its own deadline to sue, and some claims need written notice much sooner; miss one and the claim can be lost, however strong it is (injury deadlines in every state). Deadlines change, too: Florida cut its deadline for most negligence claims from four years to two, for claims that arose after March 24, 2023 (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a); ch. 2023-15, Laws of Fla.). If a government agency ran the property, immunity rules and short notice deadlines can apply; see claims over dangerous public property.

What to do next

1. Get care and keep every record, and follow up at home.
2. Report it in writing and save the evidence before you check out: the report number, photos, witnesses’ names and receipts.
3. Ask in writing for the video and records to be kept, or have a lawyer send a preservation letter.
4. Be careful with the hotel’s insurer. You don’t have to give it a recorded statement, and it’s safer not to before you’ve had advice; see talking to an insurance adjuster. Don’t sign a release until you know how badly you’re hurt.
5. Talk to a lawyer before the first deadline. Get a free case review, or compare Michigan injury lawyers. For every Michigan rule in one place, see the Michigan personal injury law reference.

What waiting can cost

• The video. Footage can be recorded over before anyone asks for it.
• A claim over public lodging. In Michigan, notice of a public-building defect is due within 120 days (MCL 691.1406).
• The right to sue. Michigan generally allows 3 years (MCL 600.5805(2)); Florida allows 2 for most negligence claims.

What a good outcome looks like

Whoever was responsible for the danger answers for it: the company that ran the hotel, a contractor or a manufacturer. Your medical bills and lost pay are covered, along with harm that has no receipt, such as pain and suffering (in Michigan, M Civ JI 50.02, 50.05, 50.06). Any share of fault assigned to you matches what actually happened, and the right deadline, in the right place, is met. From wondering whether you can take on a hotel hundreds of miles away to knowing who ran it, which deadline applies and what your claim needs.

For more guides on injuries caused by unsafe property, browse slip, fall and unsafe property claims.

Updated September 29, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.