Does Your Hotel Insurance Minimize Risk?
Does your Toronto hotel insurance minimize risk? Your hotel insurance should have a risk management strategy to help prevent lawsuits that could involve guests, suppliers, and members of the public.
Have you identified the potential risks your Toronto hotel could face and chosen hotel insurance that financially minimizes it?
Western Financial Group, a 100% Canadian company, can help you navigate your business, car, and home insurance during this period of economic uncertainty.
Wherever your small business is located in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), or elsewhere in Ontario, a Western Financial Group business insurance broker will get you commercial coverage that uniquely protects what you do.
Western is a trusted, national insurance brokerage that has partnered with Canada’s top insurance companies to provide commercial insurance. We work with our insurance partners to find the best business coverage at the best rate for you.
We make the process easy by getting insurance quotes for you to choose from and giving you policy coverage options that suit your Toronto business’s specific needs at the right price for you.
How to minimize lawsuit risks at your Toronto hotel with business liability insurance:
Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance
Commercial general liability insurance would cover the legal costs to defend your Toronto hotel in court against a legal suit and the costs to cover any court settlements awarded to third parties (guest, supplier, member of the public).
It’s the building block of your Toronto hotel insurance package.
Here’s what commercial general liability insurance covers:
- Injury to another person who is not your employee
- Damage to someone’s property, damage to rented property.
- Medical bills if someone is injured
- Legal and settlement costs of liability lawsuits filed against you.
- Helps over the costs of liability lawsuits related to slander and libel
Cyber liability insurance
If your Toronto hotel keeps financial information belonging to your guests and suppliers, your computer system could be hacked by cyberthieves. Cyber liability insurance will help financially protect your hotel in the event of a cyberattack.
Depending on the size of the data breach and the information that was taken, the guests or customers who are affected can hold you liable and sue you for damages.
Liquor liability insurance
If your Toronto hotel offers alcoholic beverages with room service, in a mini fridge, at a bar, or if your hotel restaurant serves drinks, you will need liquor liability coverage.
Liquor liability insurance helps cover the costs of lawsuits, settlements, and legal fees if a person is injured or causes property damage after becoming intoxicated while served alcohol at the insured establishment.
Commercial umbrella insurance
Commercial umbrella insurance addresses gaps in your hotel’s liability coverage. It’s used when the primary liability coverage, for example on your commercial general liability insurance, has reached its coverage limit.
Umbrella insurance applies only to expenses related to liability such as legal fees, court fees, and legal settlements.
Did you know? You can protect your hotel from risk with the Hospitality Insurance Program (HIP) offered by Western Financial Group. Our HIP Lodging program offers rate stability for Canada’s premier hotels and multi-layered protection to help stop claims before they happen.
Here’s how Western’s HIP program benefits your Toronto hotel
Identifies risks
Western’s risk management team helps you mitigate future risks by identifying and addressing potential threats to Toronto your hotel before they happen.
Combats rising rates
Western battles rising insurance rates by helping hotels find potential risks to avoid costly claims. We provide all HIP members with a library of loss prevention tools and resources. Average annual savings are 8-10% for qualified properties across Canada on commercial insurance.
24/7 claims team
We’re here to minimize disruption and get you back on your feet by managing the claims process to get you faster payouts.
Member-owned pool
This fund allows the unique opportunity for premiums to be returned to members when surpluses are built as a result of years with low claims. Under a traditional insurance program, insurers would retain these funds as underwriting profit. One of Western’s key goals as program administrator is to provide resources to support loss prevention, which ultimately aids in providing long-term rate stability or returns of premium.
What other types of coverage are in a hotel insurance package?
Equipment breakdown insurance
If there’s a power outage, air conditioning or heating failure, or appliance breakdown, it can lead to property damage and possible business interruption at Toronto your hotel.
Equipment breakdown insurance provides coverage for property damage from the sudden and accidental breakdown of insured equipment that’s not automatically covered by a standard commercial property policy. It covers property damage, business interruption when it’s included in your policy, and spoiled inventory or contents when specified kinds of mechanical, electrical and pressure equipment are damaged, including power surges.
Commercial crime insurance
Employees, guests, suppliers, and even members of the public have the opportunity to steal from your Toronto hotel. If one of your guests is a victim of theft, your hotel could be held responsible for the loss.
Crime insurance helps protect you against losses that are not covered by a standard commercial property policy, such as employee theft, credit, debit or automated teller, counterfeit money, or loss of money at your hotel.
Commercial property insurance
Commercial property insurance can provide financial coverage for physical loss, such as a fire, or damage to your Toronto hotel property and its contents. It also protects the building and provides coverage for your equipment, inventory, furniture, computers, and other electronics.
Business interruption insurance
Business interruption service is essential for your Toronto hotel. It supports you when your hotel can’t operate due to a covered loss.
There are a number of losses that could force your business. Some examples are:
- Damage to your equipment from fire or vandalism
- A major reduction in revenue due to a client/supplier facing losses of their own
- A disruption in your supply chain
Business interruption insurance can help with these expenses:
- Payroll
- Rent
- Utilities
- Property taxes
- Alarm monitoring
- Relocation of your business
Commercial auto insurance
Your personal car insurance doesn’t cover your hotel business vehicle(s).
Commercial auto insurance will cover damage to your business vehicle if you or one of your employees gets injured in an accident and your liability to others. It also provides replacement car coverage if you need to rent a temporary car for your hotel/motel business after a covered accident.
Add sewer backup insurance and overland flood insurance to your hotel insurance package
Heavy rainfall, melting snow, and storms can overwhelm drainage systems, leading to sewer backups and overland flooding. If your hotel is located in a flood-prone or an area with aging infrastructure, it could be at risk for sewer backup or overland flooding.
In Canada, most standard commercial property insurance policies do not automatically cover sewer backup and overland flooding. Coverage is often offered as an optional add-on to your main business insurance policy. Are you sure your hotel is covered for these events?
What do I do if I have a claim against my Toronto business?
Contact your broker immediately after any business-related mishap. Waiting to file a claim can confuse insurers about the severity of the damages to your business.
- Know your policy so that when you contact your broker you are familiar with what will be covered or not.
- Document the damage. Take photos right away and write down what happened.
- Do not throw away damaged goods after taking photos. Keep the physical evidence so that your adjustor can see it.
- Do not invite lawsuits. Don’t say anything that could be used against you, especially if you aren’t sure what happened.
- Be honest about what your damaged property is worth. Damaged commercial property is generally valued according to its actual cash value or replacement value.
Here’s an insurance checklist:
- Do you have the best Toronto business insurance rate that suits your work?
- Do you have the right amount for your deductible and regularly review it to make sure it’s the right amount for you?
- Are you or your employees using personal vehicles for work?
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Western Financial Group has licensed BUSINESS INSURANCE EXPERTS to get you the right business liability insurance coverage. Our experts are available now to help you navigate the business insurance journey to protect your Toronto business.