Hotel Insurance
Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Canberra

A hotel’s risk profile extends beyond its room count. Describe restaurants, bars, function rooms, pools, gyms, car parks and any shops or concessions operating on the property. Identify which areas the hotel manages directly and which are run by other businesses. Explain services such as valet parking, airport transfers, guest laundry and room service if they are offered. A small number of specialised activities can change the exposure significantly. Insurer information should also reflect how the premises are occupied through the year, including seasonal closures, renovation works and periods when only part of the hotel is trading.

Building and contents information should distinguish the property owner’s assets from the operator’s fit-out and equipment. Kitchens, lifts, air conditioning, commercial laundry and booking systems can each be important dependencies. Review their condition, maintenance arrangements and replacement lead times. Guest property is a separate issue from hotel contents, particularly where luggage is stored before check-in or after departure. Explain how keys, access cards and master access are controlled. Those practical details help frame questions about property, liability, crime and interruption cover without assuming that one broad hotel policy automatically addresses every part of the operation.

Keep the lease or management agreement, major event terms and booking platform arrangements available for review. They may allocate responsibility for buildings, maintenance, guest complaints, refunds and damage caused by outside contractors. Conference and wedding bookings can involve deposits, minimum commitments and promises that differ from ordinary room reservations. Ask how those contractual obligations interact with the proposed insurance, especially where the hotel agrees to liabilities beyond those it would otherwise have. A contractual insurance limit alone does not explain the scope of cover required or the exclusions that could affect a particular event.

When considering interruption arrangements, provide occupancy patterns, room revenue and income from food, beverages and events separately where useful. A loss during a peak period may affect the business differently from the same loss in a quiet month. Discuss whether an incident could close one wing, the kitchen or the entire property and how alternative operations would work. The indemnity period should be considered against investigation, design, repair, approvals and reopening needs, with the policy’s trigger and calculation basis checked carefully. Projected revenue and gross profit are not interchangeable terms for every insurance wording.

Front desk, housekeeping and maintenance teams may each hold part of the record after an incident. Establish a way to bring together factual reports, photographs where appropriate, maintenance logs and relevant guest communications. Preserve available footage in accordance with appropriate privacy and access arrangements. A water leak discovered during cleaning may have a different timeline from the first guest complaint, and both can matter. Staff should know how to escalate injuries, suspected theft and system failures promptly. The insurance reporting process should support that work without encouraging speculation about liability or promises about a guest’s compensation.

Before renewal, review substantial refurbishments, new facilities and changes in outsourced operations. Check asset values after replacing room furnishings or commercial equipment and update the description of any new functions or services. Consider a practical disruption exercise involving an unavailable booking system or an extended loss of hot water. Identify who communicates with guests, manages cancellations and records extra expenses. These preparations can improve the quality of a future claim record, but the availability of cover still depends on the insured event, policy conditions and applicable limits. They also help the hotel identify dependencies that insurance alone cannot remove.