Hospitality & Hotel Insurance
Property, guest liability, liquor, and umbrella for hotels, resorts, and hospitality portfolios.
By Dan Wentz, commercial real estate insurance broker · Updated
A hotel is high-value property with a crowd inside it: pools, bars, banquets, and guests who sue.
Juries returned close to 200 verdicts of $10 million or more against companies in 2025, a record per Marathon Strategies, with $2.3 billion of that against hotels, restaurants, and leisure businesses. A clean claims history won't protect you in the wrong venue or brand tier. Put the property on the coast and you're also placing named-storm coverage in a market that keeps shrinking, all while the flag dictates limits and terms in the franchise agreement. The program has to do everything at once.
Wondering what hotels pay? See hotel insurance cost per key, built on published CBRE figures, and how an increase affects your DSCR covenant.
Who this is for
Built for accounts like yours
Coverage
What we structure
Property (incl. wind/named storm)
High-value property with coastal and CAT capacity where the standard market has pulled back.
Guest & premises liability
Liability for guests, pools, amenities, and common areas, sized for what hospitality verdicts cost now.
Liquor liability
Coverage for on-site bars, restaurants, banquets, and events.
Umbrella & brand-required limits
Excess towers built to franchise and lender requirements.
Case study
A 10-hotel portfolio
10 hotels
limits re-sized to modeled loss exposure
The owner had worked with the same agent for years, and every renewal came back higher than the last. Nobody had asked whether the program itself still made sense. They came to us looking for a more efficient way to insure the portfolio.
They shared the program details, and our analytics team found the problem quickly: the portfolio was buying full limits at every location. Ten hotels spread across a region don't all burn down in the same event, so paying for a total loss at all ten at once was money spent on risk the owner didn't have.
We modeled the portfolio's real loss exposure, sized the limits to it, and took the new structure to market. The result came in $100,000 under the incumbent policy.
Results depend on each account’s exposures, loss history, and market conditions at renewal. Past results don’t guarantee future savings.
“It felt like you were sent by God to help us.”
Tools & guides
Tools and guides for this asset class
Free tool
Hotel Insurance Impact Calculator
Free, no email required: insurance is a fixed charge, so it never touches GOP. It comes out of EBITDA and capitalizes. See the premium per available room against your RevPAR, the ADR move a renewal implies, DSCR headroom, break-even occupancy, and whether business income funds a peak-season closure.
Run your numbersFree tool
Wind & Hail Deductible Calculator
Free, no email required: a percentage deductible applies to each affected location's insured value, so one storm applies several. Size what you actually retain, per location, per storm, and per season, and what a buy-down is worth against it.
Run your scheduleGuide
Hotel Insurance Cost per Key
Published CBRE per-room insurance figures by hotel type and region, what drives the number, and a worked example for a select-service hotel and a Gulf Shores beachfront property.
Read the guideGuide
Wind Deductible Buy-Down Guide
A 5% named-storm deductible on a $20M building is $1M out of pocket. How a buy-down shrinks that retention, what it costs per dollar removed, when it pays, and how to place it before hurricane season.
Read the guideMore tools
- FORTIFIED Roof ROI CalculatorFree, no email required: enter the roof cost over a standard replacement and the credit your carrier quoted. See the break-even credit, payback, NPV, and a value sensitivity at your cap rate.
- Coinsurance Penalty CalculatorFree, no email required: a coinsurance clause cuts every claim, not just a total loss, when the limit trails replacement cost. See the exact payout on your loss, the penalty across loss sizes, and what it takes to cure the gap, plus the margin clause that replaces it on blanket programs.
- Commercial Insurance Rate BarometerFree: what moves property, general liability, and excess renewal rates, from cat losses and reinsurance costs to construction prices and jury verdicts, with the data on ALRenewalIndex.
- Captive Insurance CalculatorFree, no email required: a first screen for whether a captive is worth a look. See break-even loss ratio, capital tied up, and good, expected, and bad years side by side. Illustrative only, not a savings promise.
More guides
- Hotel Portfolio Insurance GuideOwn three or more hotels? Blanket vs. scheduled limits, catastrophe aggregates across locations, brand and lender requirements, and a portfolio review checklist.
- Franchise Hotel Insurance Requirements GuideWhat your flag requires you to carry, why requirements change mid-year, and how we negotiate grandfathering so updates land at renewal instead of mid-term.
- Gulf Coast Hotel Insurance GuideWhy coastal hotels end up in E&S, how named-storm deductibles work, hurricane-season binding moratoriums, and a checklist for closing a refi, acquisition, or PIP.
- Captive Insurance GuideWho a captive fits and who it doesn't. Ballpark entry points and costs for group, single-parent, cell, and deductible captives, fit by property type, and a worked GL example.
- Hired and Non-Owned Auto GuideWhy general liability won't answer an employee's crash on company business, where HNOA comes from, and a checklist for owners and managers.
FAQ
Common questions
Can you meet my franchise / brand insurance requirements?
Yes. Flags spell out limits, additional insureds, and coverage terms, and the evidence of insurance has to match or you hear about it. We build the program to the brand standard first, then market it for price. Compliance and competitiveness aren't in conflict when the account is presented well.
My resort is coastal. Can you place the property?
Usually. Coastal and named-storm hospitality goes to surplus-lines and London capacity, often in layers, and the wind deductible is where the real negotiation happens. We assemble the capacity and structure the deductible so the limit stays adequate without gutting your cash position after a storm.
Do you handle liquor liability for hotel F&B?
Yes. Bars, restaurants, banquets, and events all run through liquor liability coordinated with the GL and umbrella, so a claim doesn't fall between policies.
Coverage described on this page is a general summary, not a quote, coverage recommendation, or offer of insurance. Requesting a quote doesn't bind coverage. Terms, exclusions, and availability vary by carrier, state, and property, and only the policy actually issued determines coverage. Insurance is placed through producers licensed in the state where the property is located.
Free renewal review
Talk to a hospitality & hotels specialist
We'll reply within one business day with when to start marketing it and what to have ready. Built for accounts with $50,000+ in annual premium.
- A second set of expert eyes on your program, free.
- Marketed to the carriers that actually want your risk.
- No obligation, fully confidential.
Book 20 minutes or call (205) 999-4884