Hotel owner on business insurance rip-off: SA insurers run as Covid-19 comes calling

Hotel owners and others in the hospitality industry have been paying for business interruption as part of their business insurance policy premiums. But, insurers are refusing to pay for the extreme revenue losses incurred as governments have ordered businesses to close their doors to halt the spread of Covid-19. Insurance companies are ducking and diving around policy wordings and playing a tactical delay game to save themselves from having to pay out vast sums. Many hospitality businesses cannot survive a double whammy of their insurers refusing to pay and other large companies, like online travel agencies Booking.com and Expedia forcing them to refund non-refundable deposits. Corporations like Expedia, which dominate search engines, have rewritten contracts in their favour – and to the detriment of hotel owners – as the Covid-19 situation has evolved. In this interview with BizNews founder Alec Hogg, hotelier William van der Riet and insurance claims expert Ryan Woolley unpack the business insurance rip-off of the century. – Editor

William van der Riet is the owner of Cathedral Peak Hotel, a four-star hotel in the Drakensberg and Ryan Woolley, the CEO of Insurance Claims Africa. Both of these guys are having serious issues now with this business interruption insurance. William, perhaps you can just tell us your story of Cathedral Peak and why you decided in the first place to go for business interference or insurance.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___