Latest Hotel News
As mentioned previously, a number of hoteliers are facing nonrenewal notices and scrambling to locate acceptable coverage. A major carrier has decided to pull out of the hotel/motel business, leaving thousands of insureds searching for another carrier. Agencies handling these policies are forced to halt any new business marketing as they themselves go on a search for a credible, stable replacement for their policyholders’ business insurance.
‘Tis the season – not only for holidays, but for nonrenewal notices. At least one major hotel insurance carrier has sent out its nonrenewal notices, meaning that some of you reading this blog will be shopping for coverage. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself buying what appears to be a great deal, only to find that on the next renewal, the deal evaporates or worse, the company dumps the book of business, leaving you searching once more for hotel insurance coverage.
Hoteliers have see it all, heard it all, and dealt with it all. It would be hard to find a hotel manager or owner who hasn’t had to ask a guest to leave due to bad habits or behavior. But what happens once you clear the hotel of the bad guest can you breathe that sigh of relief?
If you’re smart, your hotel will have a process in place, and in use, for reporting the incident. It’s a litigious world we live in, and a strong policy, consistently enforced, can go a long way to avoiding or lessening any claims against the hotel.
It’s the news no hotelier wants to hear – union staff have voted to walk out. Not only do you have to find interim help that’s willing to cross picket lines; you have to find guests who are also willing to do so.
A work strike could cost your company more than just dollars. As with the case of the downtown Chicago Sheraton hotel locations facing such a strike the last week of October 2009, staffing shortages could seriously impede your business as usual. In the case of the Sheraton unionized workers, over 1,000 staffers were set to vote on whether to walk. Finding replacement help – adequate replacement help – is a crippling task. What’s more, interim staff have a higher risk associated with them. Because they’re not familiar with your business model, there’s a good chance your guest relations ratings could suffer. Not to mention the variables you can’t control – temporary employee unreliability, theft, and the chance that these employees weren’t vetted properly. Inefficient performance is one thing – guest safety, entirely another.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you already know that real estate values have taken a mighty hit. What once was up has indeed come down, which may not be all bad news for your hotel business. At a time when occupancy is lagging and costs are increasing, wouldn’t it be nice to catch a break?
That break could be in the form of a tax reassessment. In general, local governments (usually county entities) assess taxes on a set schedule. The last time your hotel received an assessment could have been prior to the dip in the real estate market. In essence, you could be paying more than you’re hotel is worth.
