Seal of insurance adds extra level of safety to on-line bookings

BnB Sure, South Africa’s specialist Bed & Breakfast underwriter, hasannounced the launch of itson-line Seal of Insurance.

This symbol is designed to offer travellers and the travel trade an extra level of comfort when booking accommodation via the web. “With more and more businessgoing on-line, we’re finding more and more people looking for this kind of assurance,”said the company’s CEO, Dave Jack.

How safe is it to stay at South African guest houses?

As a bed& breakfast or guest house guest, the traveller usually finds the food superb, the accommodation great, the setting beautiful, but what about the insurance?

As a travellers, whether South Africans travelling at home or international visitors to our shores, the guests at an establishment will want to ensure that wherever they chose to stay during their
travels, the accommodation is of the level they would expect.
Accommodation that suits them, food they enjoy and a location in which they can relax.
But what about the insurance of the establishment they have chosen? It is interesting to note that an increasing number of foreign travellers and their travel agencies are making enquiries
about the insurances before they make a reservation.

TAKE COVER with HIU

Hospitality Industries Underwriting Consultants (Pty)
Ltd (HIU) was established in 1998 as an asset protection and risk management solution to all the many segments
comprising the Hospitality Industry.

HIU’s commitment to service excellence, belief in it’s excellent product offering and willingness to tailor any of the products to suit the needs of the hospitality establishment has ensured that HIU has become a leader in Hospitality and Tourism insurance over the years.

Don’t guess your insurance needs

It is estimated that there are some 30,000 B&B or guest house establishments scattered around South Africa and
only a handful of these establishments are correctly insured.

So what about the rest of them? Surely they are insured? Well some of them are, but have policies that don’t always do the job
properly, or sometimes not at all.
One of the things we know is that a huge number of B&B and guest house establishments are operating on a personal type policy, the same personal type policy they had before they changed the home into a commercial venture and they are blissfully unaware of the fact that in these circumstances in the vast majority of cases the Liability insurance they carry to protect
them against injury by a guest is – NIL!

How to insure a B&B or guesthouse

The question is often asked with a degree of surprise why there should need to be any sort of special consideration given to the insurances of a B&B or guesthouse.
“Surely there is nothing different about it” is the comment made.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and as a result of this misconception there are literally thousands of B&B and guesthouse establishments throughout South Africa exposed to all
manner of risks simply because of incorrect or inadequate insurance or in some cases, no insurance at all.