BnB Sure“I own a guesthouse (or a B&B). What should I look for when buying insurance for my business?”

It’s probably the question insurance brokers hear most often – and there are two simple, but equally important answers:

1. What the policy covers

No other business in the country is quite the same as a guest house or B&B – so an ordinary commercial policy won’t work for you. But then neither will a personal policy. Not by a long shot.

The answer, of course, is to look for a policy that’s been designed in conjunction with the guesthouse industry – not simply one that claims to have been designed for the industry, but one in which guesthouse and B&B owners have played an integral part in the design of the cover.

This will mean that everything that’s included in the policy will have been put there at the request of the industry. That every change made to the policy is made as a result of changes to the business environment in which the industry has to operate. And that extensions that some insurers might laugh off as smoke-and-mirrors are included because the guesthouse industry has asked for them.

In fact only one insurer in South Africa meets these criteria: BnB SURE.

“Our policy has been created by B&B and guesthouse owners for B&Bs and guesthouses,” said the company’s director, Dave Jack. “We don’t believe that one-size-fits-all.”

This is unique in an industry notorious for telling the public: “This is what you need. We have decided” – and that then loads your premiums when you ask for anything beyond the standard cover (like when guesthouses need to insure themselves for specific risks).

Unlike other, more generalised policies, BnB SURE’s product has all the cover the industry has asked for – and it continues to provide updated cover, too. One of the latest examples: cover for loss of revenue following infestations by bees, wasps or hornets – and that includes the cost of removing the swarm. Sound silly? It’s not – not if a guesthouse owner has asked for it.

2. What the policy excludes

In insurance, exclusions are just as important as cover. There’s no point in buying a policy that contains exclusions or even conditions which you simply cannot meet. You could be asked to provide a guarantee that your alarm will be activated every night, even though guests are coming and going. You could be required to compel guests to lock their jewellery in a safe when they’re not wearing it (but what if you don’t have a safe?). Or you might have to compel every guest to sign a disclaimer – failing which there’ll be no liability cover (bearing in mind that disclaimers have to comply with the Consumer Protection Act, which states that they have to be written in plain, understandable language. But whose plain, understandable language? Yours? The guest’s? The courts?). And so it goes – on and on.

The old saying that ‘goedkoop is duurkoop’ is true, you see. You get what you pay for. And if you choose a cheap policy – as any economist will confirm – it’s simply not possible to pay a little and get a lot.

So get the right thing.

Ask your broker for more information about BnB SURE  (and if you haven’t got a broker, you can find one on the company’s free Brokerfinder site).