If you are happily running, or thinking of running, a nice profitable business taking in paying guests, one of the last things that might cross your mind is the need for bed and breakfast public liability insurance. Although it is probably not at the top of your list of business requirements, however, there are certainly many possible circumstances in which you might be glad that you bothered with something that is typically at the heart of any small business insurance package.

Some bed and breakfast owners might say that they have indeed considered public liability insurance, but have dismissed the need for it because:

• there is no legal requirement for establishments offering bed and breakfast accommodation to have such cover; and
• the standard buildings insurance which covers the property already includes an element of protection against such claims.

With respect to these arguments, it is true that there is no legal imperative. Nevertheless, the settlement of certain public liability claims might prove very expensive indeed and one that an ordinary bed and breakfast business might well not survive financially. In fact, without adequate insurance to indemnify the owner, it might even be necessary to sell the property in order to meet such claims.

It is also true that certain categories of commercial buildings insurance also contain provisions for meeting the owner’s public liabilities. However, this is not necessarily true of all policies or all types of claim. Bed and breakfast public liability insurance, therefore, remains one way of ensuring that such risks are covered.

Types of claim

When it comes to public liability insurance, claims might be prompted by a surprising and extremely diverse range of situations. They might be prompted by the seemingly trivial, yet also include such hefty awards in damages or compensation that the entire bed and breakfast business hangs in the balance. Consider just a handful of examples:

• You are serving breakfast to a couple of guests planning to attend a relative’s wedding. You trip on the carpet and the breakfast slips from the plate into the lap of one of the guests. You are liable for paying an expensive, emergency dry-cleaning bill;
• Another guest goes outside to check his car, only to find that the wrought-iron gate you’d failed to secure has swung open and caused a huge dent in the wing of the vehicle. You have an even more expensive car repair bill to settle;
• During the night, a severe storm uprooted a tree, which fell across the road, onto a passing car. The driver and his passenger were both injured and hold you liable.

In each of these – not so far-fetched scenarios – bed and breakfast public liability insurance may typically come to your rescue by compensating you for the financial claims made, subject to you making a successful claim of course.

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