Anxious to make holiday plans? There is insurance to cover your spend

Worried about refunds for a last-minute cancellation of a planned getaway? Anxious that there could be another round of lockdown restrictions? planned by the government? Or just bothered that airlines might cancel your flight without informing you?

Coronavirus and the ensuing lockdown sent the leisure and corporate travel industry into a tizzy. Bookings and reservations got cancelled en masse with many ending with exchange of upsetting conversations with the travel agent.

As travellers will be itching to head for a break after a multi-week government enforced lockdown the single biggest risk for them will be the full or partial forfeiture of booking amount as hotels and resorts open gradually. That is why hoteliers are rolling out solutions for exactly this.

Fairfax-owned Sterling Holidays, a resort company chain run on a hybrid model (memberships or non-memberships), is giving away complimentary insurance coverage that starts from the moment the traveller leaves home till the time he gets back from the holiday.

The coverage takes care of trip cancellations, accidents, lost or  delayed baggage, delayed or cancelled flight, missed connections, emergency accidental treatment and evacuation and even personal liability and bail bond.

Ramesh Ramanathan, chairman and managing director, Sterling Holiday Resorts said, “All hotels have third party insurance at site. We realised that holiday starts when the traveler leaves his home. We spoke to Digit Insurance, another Fairfax-owned company of which Sterling holidays is also a part of. They offered us an insurance which will cover the traveler from home-to-home which is all travel from the home to the destination and the return travel back home. Each person is covered up to Rs 3 lakh under the package which is voluntary and complimentary. We have kept it free”.

Like its peers Sterling too is preparing to welcome guests. Sterling has 41 resorts across the country having 2,400 rooms. Agra, Anaikatti, Corbett, Dabhosa, Daman, Darjeeling, Dindi, Dharamshala, Durshet, Gangtok, Goa, Jaipur, Kanha are some of the places where Sterling has properties.

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While presently only the Karwar property in north coastal Karnataka is operational but bookings for later dates at other properties have begun.

During the past three months hoteliers had to host quarantined guests at the request of the state governments which meant keeping the entire hotel open instead of a few rooms. But after running standard operating procedures (SOPs) formed internally and those formed by the state government hotel properties are preparing restart operations.

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