$750,000 Hotel Trip and Fall Settlement in Manhattan

The rug in her hotel room had lifted — just enough to catch a foot, just enough to cause a fall, and just enough to fracture a knee in three places. A Manhattan hotel failed the most basic obligation a business owes its guests: a safe room.

Trip and Fall at a Manhattan Hotel

Our client was staying at the Refinery Hotel at 63 West 38th Street in Manhattan when she tripped on a lifted rug inside her room. The edge of the area rug had curled upward, creating a raised lip that was not immediately visible against the room's flooring. As she walked through the room, her foot caught the lifted edge and she fell hard to the floor, landing directly on her left knee.

The fall fractured her left knee in three places — a devastating multi-fragment injury that required surgical repair with hardware to stabilize the shattered bone. She also sustained injuries to her right knee, right elbow, right wrist, and left shoulder from the impact. The knee surgery was performed days later, followed by months of non-weight-bearing recovery and intensive physical therapy to restore function.

Hotel Duty to Maintain Safe Room Conditions

Hotels owe their guests a duty of reasonable care to maintain rooms in safe condition. This includes regular inspection of flooring, rugs, fixtures, and furnishings. A rug with a lifted edge is a foreseeable trip hazard that housekeeping staff should identify and correct during routine room turnovers between guests.

Our attorneys obtained the hotel's housekeeping logs and room inspection protocols, which showed that the room had been turned over the morning of our client's stay. The inspection checklist included flooring condition, yet the lifted rug was not identified or reported. We retained a hospitality industry expert who testified that standard hotel inspection protocols require staff to walk the room and physically check rug edges, furniture placement, and flooring transitions — a step that was either skipped or inadequately performed.

"A curled rug in a hotel room is not a freak accident — it's a maintenance failure. The housekeeping staff turned over that room the same morning and either didn't check the rug or didn't care that it was lifted. Three knee fractures later, that oversight cost our client months of recovery and permanent joint damage." — Corey T. Flick, Attorney

$750,000 Settlement for a Manhattan Hotel Trip and Fall

This $750,000 settlement covers left knee surgery with hardware, right knee treatment, elbow and wrist recovery, shoulder rehabilitation, lost wages, travel-related expenses, and the permanent knee limitations our client now manages. It holds the hotel accountable for a room hazard that basic inspection should have caught.

If you were injured in a hotel due to a dangerous room condition, our premises liability attorneys have experience with hotel and hospitality injury claims and are ready to review your case.