Looking for Hotel Insurance?
Whether you run a large hotel, guesthouse or small boutique establishment, hotel insurance will help to protect you financially and give you peace of mind too.
When it comes to hotel insurance, there are three main things that you’ll want to ensure are covered in your policy: your property, your people and your income.
The building itself as well as any outhouses, along with the contents such as furniture, equipment and fixtures.
This doesn’t just include your guests, but also your staff as well.
Your hotel is your livelihood, so if something happens and you’re unable to open then you’ll be losing money each day.
Although there isn’t a blanket hotel insurance policy that could provide cover for all three, you should be able to bundle a number of policies to make sure that you’ve got the protection you need in place.
Protecting your property with hotel insurance
Running a hotel or guesthouse can be expensive, but if there’s building repairs or even rebuild work needed, the costs can very quickly mount up. Taking out building insurance will help with this cost but make sure you’re including all buildings on your property such as extra accommodation, pools and try to provide an accurate valuation of things like your fitted kitchen and bathrooms.
When it comes to insuring contents you’ll want to include as much as you can in the policy. For example, if there was a fire and you found yourself having to replace even just all the beds and bedding, it would quickly reach the thousands in the blink of an eye.
Taking out liability insurance
Part of your hotel insurance policy should be in place to help you if a claim is made against you by a guest or member of staff. Having employer’s liability insurance and public liability insurance will help you cover the cost of a compensation claim, as well as any associated legal costs.
This is legally required if you employ staff, no matter if they’re temporary, part-time, full-time or work experience. If an employee is injured or falls ill during their employment with you then they may want to raise a compensation claim against you. If found negligent, you could end up facing hefty legal costs too, so this hotel insurance could help cover the costs.
Although not compulsory, this hotel insurance will help you pay for damages, losses or injuries to third parties at your property which essentially means your guests. Whether they’ve slipped on a wet bathroom floor, or tripped by the pool, you’ll want to be able to pay their claim and legal costs too.
What happens if you have to temporarily close?
If you need to temporarily close your hotel for repairs, refitting the kitchen or even just decorating, you won’t be able to house guests and so will lose money. Having business interruption cover as part of your hotel insurance policy will help you to still pay your outgoings. Even without guests you will still need to pay:
It’s better to be over cautious when estimating how long repairs or a rebuild will take, and you will need to take into account things like debris clearance, planning and any delays in the process that might have an impact on time and budget.
What else can be covered under hotel insurance?
Aside from offering protection for the main business assets, there are other policy extensions that could be beneficial depending on the size and type of hotel you’re running:
This covers you for any income you may lose and the lowering of the value of your business if you become unable to sell alcohol.
This will help to cover your personal belongings, or those of your staff if you reside in the hotel.
Not all guesthouses or hotels will have all of these, or even any at all, which is why they are not included as standard.
Hotel Insurance – Useful FAQs
As there are so many different sizes, locations and additional assets (like pools or gyms), your monthly hotel insurance premiums can vary dramatically from one establishment to the next. When taking out your policy make sure you’ve got plenty of information to hand in order to give an accurate valuation.
Even if you’re renting the hotel property rather than being the owner, you can still take out building insurance to help with repair and rebuild costs.
In the event of a guest being injured they may want to make a claim for compensation. Public liability insurance can help to cover this claim and the legal expenses of both parties and some insurers can offer legal advice as part of their policy offering too.
Usually premises with less than 15 rooms require guest house insurance, larger premises will need hotel insurance.