A hotel in south Gran Canaria is celebrating a major success against the local council over damage caused by a falling rock to its premises and earnings.
The long-running battle began in September 2022 when a boulder weighing three tons dislodged from the hillside behind the Mogán Princess Hotel overlooking the Taurito Beach. Two rooms and several hallways were damaged and the hotel was forced to close twenty rooms until November 2024 when Mogán Council finished work to shore up the rocky hillside.
The hotel’s owners filed a claim for 1.7 million euros against the Council, not just for the actual damage but for the loss of revenue caused by the lengthy closure. The compensation claim was rejected by Mogán which, while not denying liability as the owner of the land on which the steep hill stands, argued that the hotel had not supported its claim with evidence of the loss of earnings. Among the arguments used, the Council said that there was no firm proof that all twenty rooms would have been occupied during the closure and the hotel should have supplied records of past years, including a breakdown by months, of its occupancy rates to justify the 100% rate assumed in its claim.
The matter was sent for resolution to a formal panel known as the Canarian Advisory Council, which is often used to rule on legal matters affecting public bodies. In a 23-page report, the panel sided with the hotel and pointed out that Mogán had not taken appropriate action following previous rockfalls from the hillside in 2019. It also ruled that the financial calculations used in the compensation claim “were not made up or exaggerated”. However, it did strike out, for lack of evidence, almost 10,000 euros of additional costs which the hotel said it had sustained when it had to reaccommodate guests affected by the impact of the rockfall.
Photo of Mogán Princess Hotel
