Motels can be large or small, but either way, they need to provide clean and safe rooms for their guests. It is the responsibility of the motel owner or manager to make their guests comfortable. If you own a motel, you are in the business of hospitality, therefore your guests are your first priority. However, you should also be aware of the various risks associated with your type of business and obtain the right kind of insurance protection for each risk. Some of the common risks you will contend with include fire or flood that could damage rooms, liabilities involving injuries to your guests, employee and other forms of theft, losing the master keys to rooms and similar risks. Motel insurance will ensure these and other risks are covered.
Types of Motel Insurance
There are a number of different types of insurance policies for motels, the most important of which are listed below:
Motel General Liability Insurance
One of the first policies you should consider for your motel is general liability insurance. General liability includes three types of coverage; customer liability or personal injury, products liability and completed operations. For a motel, the personal injury of your guests is the most important aspect of general liability insurance. Say for example a guest trips over a cord in her room that wasn’t tacked down appropriately and sprains an ankle. The general liability policy will cover the medical costs for the sprained ankle and any lawsuit that might be brought up against your motel. Products liability is also important in some cases. If your motel provides shampoo or body products and the products cause an allergic reaction or damages the guest’s hair, the impending lawsuit will be covered.
Motel Commercial Auto Insurance
Any time you use a personal or company vehicle for business-related errands, you should have business auto insurance. This is a commercial insurance policy for cars you use for business tasks, such as picking up supplies for your guests’ rooms. If you get into a collision with another vehicle on your way to the supply store, any damage to your vehicle or the other vehicle will be covered by the business auto insurance policy. Likewise, many policies also cover personal injury, theft, and vandalism.
Motel Business Owners Policy (BOP)
If you want to get business insurance in a bundled package, you can do so by getting a package policy called a business owner’s policy (BOP). This type of policy allows you to customize it with different types of coverages according to your probable risks. For example, you can include general liability, equipment breakdown coverage, electronic data coverage, building and contents, and employee dishonesty coverage. If you experience a fire in the motel that causes loss of your electronic data, the cost of replacing this data and anything else destroyed during the fire would be covered by the BOP according to the terms of your policy.
Motel Employee Theft Insurance
One of your biggest risks as a motel is that of employee theft. Even after running background checks on employees, you still have the risk of employee theft. Employees who are cleaning guest rooms and working in the lobby could steal money or belongings from your motel guests. To protect against this type of crime, get an employee theft insurance policy. This will offer more coverage than a traditional crime insurance policy and is highly recommended.
Motel Business Property Insurance
Another risk to be aware of is damage to your business property. Not only would it cost a lot of money to fix it, but you lose business if the repairs are taking too long. By getting a business property insurance policy, you have assistance with necessary repairs, replacing any items that were destroyed, and having protection against the business income you lose while the repairs are being completed.
Your employees are an integral part of your motel running smoothly, and therefore, you should also get proper protection for them. One way you can do this by getting worker’s compensation insurance. Worker’s compensation covers employees if they were to get a work-related injury or illness. For example, a housekeeper could slip and fall while mopping the bathroom of a guest’s room and need medical treatment. A cook in motel’s kitchen could get a nasty burn from a pot of boiling water that spills over. The medical costs and lost income experienced from a work-related injury is covered by worker’s comp.
Motel Crime Insurance
Finally, there is the crime insurance policy. Aside from employee theft, you are at risk from other crimes like theft from guests and vandalism. If, in the middle of the night, your motel is vandalized, the crime insurance policy would help cover the cost of repairing the building. If someone steals items from your motel, the crime insurance policy also covers these types of losses. The same can be said for guests using stolen credit cards or committing other types of fraud.
Choose the types of motel insurance policies wisely to be sure you’re protected. You want to focus on protection for your business, employees and your guests for a full amount of coverage.
