Occidental at Xcaret Destination – Family hospitalised, Salmonella diagnosed

Two families have reported that they contracted dangerous food poisoning infections including Salmonella during April holidays at the Occidental at Xcaret Destination in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Travel firms including First Choice, Thomas Cook and British Airways operate package breaks from the UK to the 5-star resort on the Caribbean coast.   Heather, from Dorset says in her TripAdvisor review that her party were stricken by ‘completely debilitating’ food poisoning that marred their break and led to them cancelling planned excursions.  She warns:

“If you are here or have suffered from a bug here, please get yourself checked out by a doctor for shiga toxin 1 ,salmonella and also Cyclospora. ”

Tests confirm family’s infections

April guest Eric S, from the USA, writes on TripAdvisor that his family contracted serious infections during their stay:

“My wife, 2yr old child and myself contracted Shiga toxin 1, Salmonella and Norovirus during our stay in Building 20 during our vacation April 1 – April 8.

I was hospitalized the day we returned to the United States as I was passing blood in my stools and had severe abdominal pain.
My lab results tested positive for Shiga toxin 1 and Salmonella.

The next morning my daughter and wife who also got sick during our vacation went in for testing. They both tested positive for Shiga toxin 1 and Norovirus.”

Eric goes on to claim that gastric illness was not confined to his family:

“I don’t think I have ever written a review before in my many years of traveling but this is a very serious public health concern.

I don’t know if the cleanliness of our room, the pool water, the food, a combination of the three, or something else at the resort was the source of our illnesses, but we were far from the only guests sick in our building (we could hear guests in other rooms getting sick on both sides of us through the walls of our room, especially near the end of our vacation).” 

March visitor Jessie J says that 3 out of 4 in her holiday group got sick from “water contamination”, while another reviewer from Vancouver says that he is “embarrassed for the resort” and claims that the whole family were sick in their rooms.

Expert help for Occidental guests

We are very concerned to hear these reports and are keen to speak to anyone whose health has been impacted by events at the Occidental at Xcaret Destination.

We are assisting many package holidaymakers in making claims for compensation after bouts of distressing illness on holidays in Mexico.  Tour Operators who offer all-inclusive breaks should work with their partner hotels to make sure food hygiene standards are adhered to so that the well-being of their customers is not compromised.

Where something goes wrong through the negligence of another, it is absolutely fair to seek reasonable damages; often you will need legal expertise to put forward your case and ensure your claim is properly investigated.

Call 0161 813 2131 to speak to our team or use our online form and we’ll arrange to call you back.