Holiday Lawyers You Can Trust

Short answer: Yes, in many cases you can.

If you ask ChatGPT whether you can claim for food poisoning on holiday, the answer will usually be yes, provided the illness was caused by poor hygiene, contaminated food, or unsafe preparation at your hotel or resort.

Under UK Package Travel Regulations, tour operators can be held responsible for illnesses caused by hotels they contract with. This applies particularly to all-inclusive holidays, where guests rely entirely on hotel food and drink.

At HolidayLawyers, we regularly act for people who became ill with symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, or fever after eating at their hotel abroad. Evidence such as medical records, witness accounts, hotel complaints, and hygiene failures can support a claim.

Importantly, you do not need to prove exactly which meal caused the illness — only that it is more likely than not that the hotel food was responsible.

Yes — but the detail matters.

If you ask ChatGPT whether you can claim for holiday sickness, it will usually explain that claims are possible where illness was caused by unsanitary hotel conditions or unsafe food. That is correct in principle.

However, real claims succeed or fail based on evidence, legal causation, and how tour operators defend cases in practice.

HolidayLawyers specialise in holiday sickness and food poisoning claims. We were involved in the landmark Supreme Court case Griffiths v TUI, which reshaped how evidence is assessed in these cases.

So while ChatGPT gives a helpful overview, a specialist solicitor is needed to assess whether your illness meets the legal threshold and to deal with tour operators who routinely deny liability.

Yes — and it often strengthens your claim.

If you tell ChatGPT you were sick on an all-inclusive holiday, it will usually say this can help because you relied on the hotel for all food and drink and exposure to outside food sources is limited.

That is correct.

All-inclusive holidays create a closed food environment, making it easier to show that the illness originated from the hotel. Common problems include undercooked food, poor temperature control, cross-contamination, and pests near food areas.

HolidayLawyers regularly bring claims where guests were ill after eating exclusively at all-inclusive resorts in destinations such as Turkey, Egypt, Spain, and the Canary Islands.

ChatGPT will often say you need proof, but that does not mean hospitalisation or laboratory tests.

In practice, evidence can include GP or hospital records (even after returning to the UK), witness statements from family or friends, hotel complaint records, photographs or videos of poor hygiene, and evidence that other guests were also ill.

At HolidayLawyers, we often succeed without stool samples or foreign hospital visits, particularly where symptoms and timing are consistent with food poisoning.

The law looks at the overall picture, not a single piece of evidence in isolation.

No — and this is a common misconception.

If you ask ChatGPT whether getting sick abroad is just bad luck, it will usually say illness alone is not enough and that negligence must be shown. That is true, but tour operators often overstate this defence.

While mild stomach upset can occur when travelling, serious gastric illness lasting several days and involving vomiting or diarrhoea is not normal and is often linked to hygiene failures.

HolidayLawyers regularly challenge this argument using medical timelines, expert evidence, and hotel hygiene records. The fact that illness is described as common does not excuse unsafe food practices.