Tourism and Hospitality
A hotel establishment brings together under one roof activities that are subscribed separately: accommodation, catering, swimming area, event halls and, frequently, ongoing construction. Whether all are included in the contract depends on how the insured activity is worded, and this wording is reviewed when preparing each season.
Seasonal values, guest liability and cancellation
A hotel insures complete seasons
An establishment invoices the year in a few weeks and prepares during the rest, so the insurable magnitude is the gross margin of the season and the time it takes to reopen it. Alongside this is the relationship with the guest, which begins with the effects they bring into the establishment and continues in the kitchen, swimming area, and hot water circuit. Above both is the calendar: a claim in November and another in July are similar in the amount of material damage and differ in everything else.
The indemnity period is counted in seasons.
Material damage in November can affect the opening of the following summer, and the loss of profits is compensated until the expected result is recovered. Twelve months of indemnity period cover a complete season only if the reopening occurs in time to sell it, and therefore the term is measured by counting opening weeks and not calendar months.
The deposit of traveller's effects.
Articles 1783 and 1784 of the Civil Code place the responsibility on the hotelier for the effects that the traveller brings into the establishment, and article 1784 itself excludes armed robbery and force majeure. The cover usually goes to first risk with its own sub-limit, and distinguishes between what is kept in a safe and what remains in the room.
One incident and several guests.
The kitchen, the bathing area, and the hot water circuit are the three points where a single incident affects several people at once, and where the claim arrives in a group and months after the stay. Underwriting relies there on the self-control protocol and the installation's treatment record, which is the documentation that supports the defence when the file is opened with the establishment already closed for the season.
Renovation with the establishment in operation.
Renovating in phases while continuing to accommodate changes two things at once: personnel who are not yours enter the premises, and the activity declared at subscription is altered. The construction insurance should be agreed with the contractor; the hotel's own decision is how much it is worth arriving late to the season, and for that, there is the cover for delay in commissioning, which compensates the margin of the lost opening weeks and is contracted before the first team enters.
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Something disappears from a client's room. What are we responsible for?
Articles 1783 and 1784 of the Civil Code make the hotelier responsible for the effects that the traveller brings into the establishment, provided they have been informed of them and the client has observed the indicated precautions. Article 1784 itself excludes armed robbery and force majeure, which are transferred to the establishment's damage policy. The cover includes the rest in a deposit guarantee with its own sub-limit, and normally separates what is kept in a safe from what remains in the room.
How do we calculate the capital for loss of profits in a seasonal business?
By taking the complete season as a unit, because it is the real billing unit of the establishment: the year's result is concentrated in a few weeks and a monthly average dilutes them. From there, the indemnity period is set to cover the entire next opening, because damage in November that arrives late in June costs a season even if the repair lasted six weeks. If the capital falls below the value, the proportional rule of article 30 of the Insurance Contract Law applies.
And if we have to close without there having been material damage?
The ordinary business interruption cover is triggered by a covered material damage, so a closure ordered by the authority without such prior damage is outside its mechanism. For this, specific extensions exist —closure by administrative resolution, food contamination, inability to access— each with its own sublimit and term. Alongside these, cancellation cover is taken out, which covers reservations and events cancelled for the reasons named in the policy terms and has its own sublimit and indemnity period, different from that of business interruption. Deciding which are of interest is part of the renewal preparation.