Willis and Kiln have created a joint policy aimed at limiting the financial fallout from negative PR.

Their ‘Hotel Reputation Protection 2.0’ policy has been created to respond to incidents that lead to, or are likely to lead to, losses resulting from adverse publicity through any medium, from traditional to new media.

Specifically, the policy provides cover for lost revenue based on RevPAR figures, a performance metric in the hotel industry that measures revenue per available room. It also provides cover for the cost of hiring a crisis management consultant to assist during the first weeks of an incident. The policy will pay up to €25m for both the crisis management costs and the reimbursement of the reduction in RevPAR.

The Willis-Kiln cover is designed to protect hotels against some of the most common causes of brand damage, including the death or permanent physical disability of a guest, and food poisoning caused by malicious or accidental contamination. Also covered are outbreaks of Norovirus, which is responsible for about 90% of stomach illnesses, and Legionnaire’s disease, a potentially fatal lung infection that can be contracted through the consumption of contaminated water.

Laurie Fraser, global markets leisure practice leader for Willis said: “In the extremely competitive hotel industry, reputation accounts for approximately 30-40% of a business’s overall worth. Therefore, damage to reputation, which spreads virally through social and other media channels, can have a significant financial impact. Our product is designed to tackle both the actual loss of revenue and the costs of containment.”

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