What coverages does hotel & motel insurance provide?
Commercial general liability insurance
You could be held liable for a wide range of things, including slip and fall accidents, physical injuries, and more. Your hotel or motel business can be protected against common risks with the aid of commercial general liability insurance against costly claims or legal action.
Commercial property insurance
Your business can be completely destroyed by a fire, water damage, or even a natural disaster. Commercial property insurance protects your company’s assets, including furniture, equipment, fixtures, and building accessories, against insured risks. Examples include:
- Property damage due to natural disasters, flood, fire, vandalism or theft.
- Property damage or theft of electronics, equipment, company documents or employees’ personal belongings.
- Inventory theft by employees.
Additionally, it helps in offsetting the expense of replacing or repairing equipment that has malfunctioned due to external influences.
Business interruption coverage, which guards your company in the event that you are temporarily forced to close it down because of an illness or injury, is an additional option for commercial property insurance that you can add to your policy. It helps in reducing ongoing expenses brought on by lost revenue, such as rent, bills, and employee salaries.
Commercial Crime Insurance
Internal theft occurs more frequently than you may imagine. As such, you are guarded against internal theft, fraud, and even employee dishonesty with commercial crime insurance. It also insures any money that is stolen while it is being transported away from your place of business, such as while heading to make a bank deposit. This coverage cannot be added to your policy unless you have commercial property insurance.
Cyber liability insurance
Undoubtedly, your company accepts payments from customers using debit and credit cards through a point-of-sale system, a website, or another method. Cyber liability protects you from the costs of cybercrime. For example, a data breach that exposes the private and financial information of your clients or if your company is the target of a cyberattack like ransomware or phishing. If hackers gain access to your guests’ information, cyber liability insurance allows you to warn and protect your guests.
Food and Product Liability Insurance
This coverage protects you from claims of bodily harm or property damage brought on by faulty goods sold in your establishment, including any food and drink items. This is necessary for any hotel and motel business that either sell pre-packed food or cooks their own menu in a kitchen. Should a customer become sick with food poisoning due to something your kitchen staff made or a product they bought at your business, they could sue. This is an available add-on to your general liability insurance. It may pay for both your legal defence fees and any third-party medical bills.
What other coverages should property managers consider adding to their insurance policy?
Host liquor liability
This insurance is a necessity if your hospitality business sells alcoholic beverages. In most cases, host liquor liability will protect you in the case of a claim for property damage or personal injury where drinking alcohol is a significant contributing factor. Here’s what may be covered, depending on your particular policy:
- Legal fees, such as a court-related lawyer, payout, or settlement costs.
- Damages, in the event that the court determines you are the liable party.
Legal Expense Insurance
If your other insurance policies do not already cover your legal needs in a certain situation, legal expense insurance offers overall legal protection to fill in the gaps. This insurance can pay for the costs of getting legal counsel and hiring a lawyer.
Equipment breakdown
You might want to think about adding equipment breakdown insurance to your policy based on the size of your company. Although your hotel or motel and its contents, including your equipment, are covered by property insurance, this insurance does not cover equipment damage brought on by internal sources, such as mechanical, electrical, air conditioning, refrigerators and freezers, boilers, and computer malfunctions.
Business Umbrella Insurance
In addition to traditional commercial liability insurance, an umbrella policy provides higher liability limits. It could fill in the gaps in circumstances where your commercial general liability insurance coverage doesn’t entirely pay for the costs of an insurance claim. Despite being optional, this kind of insurance can be a wise investment. The amount of umbrella insurance may not be obvious, but you can discuss your alternatives and what umbrella liability coverage might be useful for your company with an insurance advisor.
Commercial Auto Insurance
You need commercial auto insurance if you or your staff use any vehicles for work-related activities because personal auto insurance does not cover vehicles used for employment-related activities. The following is included in commercial auto insurance:
- Third-party liability
- Accident benefits
- Uninsured automobile coverage
- Direct compensation-property damage
