Table of Contents

DESERT HEAT MAKES ORDINARY HAZARDS WORSE

Heat turns routine resort conditions into injury risks:

• Burns from hot surfaces. A 2019 study in the Journal of Burn Care & Research, based on patients at a Las Vegas burn center, found more than 88% of pavement-burn admissions happened when the air temperature was 95°F or higher. In Palm Springs, average highs are above 95°F every month from June through September. Unshaded concrete pool decks, metal stairs and walkways can burn bare feet, and a guest who falls on hot pavement can be burned while lying there.
• Heat illness. Riverside County recorded 1,627 emergency room visits and 65 deaths from heat-related illness in 2024, the county’s public health department reported. Broken air conditioning in a guest room, a shuttle left in the sun, or no shade or water at a resort event can all contribute.
• Crowded pools. More guests in the water means more diving injuries, collisions and missed swimmers. Between 2020 and 2024, Riverside County emergency rooms recorded 430 visits for drowning and submersion injuries among children under 18, according to California Department of Public Health data cited by the county. Nearly 84% of those visits involved children younger than 5.

A hotel can’t control the weather. It can control shade, surface temperatures, air conditioning, staffing at the pool and how quickly staff respond to a guest in trouble.

TWO PLACES THAT SHAPE HOTEL CASES IN THE COACHELLA VALLEY

Hotels along Palm Canyon Drive. Our office is at 500 S. Palm Canyon Drive, near the hotels that line Palm Canyon Drive through downtown and south Palm Springs. Pool heaters, water heaters and other fuel-burning equipment near guest rooms are where carbon monoxide risk sits. In November 2013, a 48-year-old guest at a hotel on East Palm Canyon Drive died of acute carbon monoxide poisoning from pool-heating equipment below his second-floor room, KESQ reported. The family’s lawsuit said another guest had become ill in the same room about two weeks earlier. The family’s lawyers later reported settlements totaling about $6 million. See our Palm Springs wrongful death page.

Since January 1, 2017, California has required carbon monoxide detectors in existing hotel and motel rooms that have a fossil-fuel heater or appliance, a fireplace or an attached garage (Health and Safety Code section 17926). If you got sick at a hotel, whether your room had a working detector is one of the first questions we ask.

La Quinta Resort & Club. The resort advertises 42 pools across its grounds. Large desert resorts like this one, and others in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, can mean dozens of pools and spas, golf carts, long walkways and events spread over many acres. We name it only as an example of the scale of Coachella Valley resorts, not to suggest any problem there. At that scale, the questions are about staffing and inspection: who checks each pool, how often, and who responds when a guest is hurt far from the main building.

Festival season adds pressure. The Coachella festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio runs over two April weekends, followed by Stagecoach the next weekend. Hotels and vacation rentals across the valley fill up, staff are stretched and temperatures can already be high.

TWO CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT CASES FROM PALM SPRINGS HOTELS

Palm Springs hotels produced two of the decisions California courts still rely on in hotel injury cases.

In Haft v. Lone Palm Hotel (1970), a father and his 5-year-old son drowned in a Palm Springs motel pool. The law required either a lifeguard or a sign saying no lifeguard was on duty, and the motel had neither. The court held that the burden shifted to the motel to prove its violation did not cause the deaths. Today, Health and Safety Code section 116045 carries the same lifeguard-or-sign rule for hotel pools.

In Peterson v. Superior Court (1995), a guest slipped in the bathtub of a Palm Springs hotel and suffered serious head injuries. The court held that a hotel is not strictly liable for every defect, but that a guest “reasonably can expect that the hotel owner diligently will inspect the hotel room for defects and will correct any defects discovered.” That inspection duty is the core of most hotel injury claims.

VACATION RENTALS AND SHORT-TERM RENTALS

Many Coachella Valley visitors stay in vacation rentals instead of hotels, especially during festival season. The owner and the property manager may each have a role, depending on who controlled the property and knew about the hazard. Unfenced or unlocked pool gates, weak balcony railings and overcrowded parties are common problems.

Short-term rental cases can be hard-fought. Gomez Trial Attorneys recovered $3,900,000 for a family after a death connected to a fraternity event at a short-term rental property. Liability was fought hard, and at one point the case involved more than 40 defendants.

COMMON HOTEL AND RESORT INJURIES WE HANDLE

• Slips in bathtubs, showers, lobbies and wet pool decks
• Drownings and near-drownings in pools, spas and resort lakes
• Burns from hot surfaces, scalding water and hot food or drinks
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Falls from balconies, stairs and poorly lit walkways
• Golf cart and resort shuttle accidents (see our golf cart accident page)
• Assaults caused by poor security
• Food poisoning and waterborne illness

CASINO RESORTS ON TRIBAL LAND

Some of the valley’s best-known casino resorts sit on tribal land. A claim for an injury there usually goes through the tribe’s own claim process, not state court, and California Indian Legal Services says the window to file is usually 180 days. Don’t wait to call.

OUR RESULTS

Gomez Trial Attorneys has recovered more than $1 billion for clients over 20 years. In one resort case, a federal jury awarded nearly $6.5 million in 2019 to a family whose infant was burned by coffee served at the table; the case resolved for $5.8 million after the resort appealed. See more on our case results page, our Palm Springs premises liability page and our Palm Springs burn injury page.

Results depend on the facts of each case. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

WHAT TO DO AFTER AN INJURY AT A DESERT HOTEL OR RENTAL

1. Get out of the heat and get medical care first. Heat illness and burns can get worse over hours.
2. Report the injury to the front desk, manager or rental host in writing.
3. Note the time and temperature, and photograph thermostats, missing shade, or the surface that burned you.
4. Photograph the pool area, gate, railing or room where it happened.
5. Save your booking confirmation, rental listing and messages with the host.
6. Get names of staff and witnesses. Festival guests scatter fast.

HOW LONG YOU HAVE TO FILE

Most injury claims in California must be filed within two years (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1). If public property was involved, a written claim usually has to be filed within six months (Government Code section 911.2). Tribal casino resorts follow their own, shorter processes.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

I WAS VISITING FROM OUT OF STATE. CAN I STILL FILE A CLAIM?

Yes. An injury at a Palm Springs or Coachella Valley hotel is usually governed by California law, except at tribal casino resorts, which follow the tribe’s own claim process. We can handle the case after you go home.

CAN I SUE A HOTEL FOR HEAT STROKE OR A BURN FROM A HOT POOL DECK?

Possibly. The question is whether the hotel acted reasonably for desert conditions, for example by keeping air conditioning working, providing shade and water, and keeping walking surfaces safe.

WHAT IF I WAS HURT AT A VACATION RENTAL, NOT A HOTEL?

The owner, the property manager or both may be responsible, depending on who controlled the property and knew about the hazard.

I GOT SICK AT A HOTEL AND WAS TOLD IT WAS CARBON MONOXIDE. WHAT NOW?

Get medical care and ask for your records, including any blood test for carbon monoxide. California has required detectors in many hotel rooms since 2017, so whether your room had one matters.

WHAT DOES IT COST TO HIRE GOMEZ TRIAL ATTORNEYS?

Nothing up front. We work on contingency, so our fee comes from what we recover, and there is no attorney’s fee unless we win.

TALK TO A PALM SPRINGS HOTEL AND RESORT INJURY LAWYER

Call 833-GET-GOMEZ or our Palm Springs office at (760) 259-2166 for a free case review. We’re at 500 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 207, Palm Springs, CA 92264. Hablamos español.