Hostel Occupancy for Insurance

[Canhostel]

Hello Hostel types,

I was asked today for occupancy % for hostels by my insurance adjustor today. What a way to start a thread! First a little history. A year ago my building died that I was leasing due to a heating system crash during the coldest part of winter. After an emergency evac, the building was condemned by the owner. Been looking for a new building since but locations in my area are few and far between or so overpriced (although now getting lower) that one has to laugh.

I have been involved with insurance for business interuption and of course have had to educate as to what a backpackers hostel is. No it is not social services, no it is not free, no... But there is a bit of an issue. After giving my audited statements for the time we were open as well as probably future earnings, the insurance adjuster has nothing to compare any of my numbers to as they cannot find another hostel that has had what happened to us. What is interesting is my adjuster was perplexed as the cash flow was proportionally higher and expenses were much much lower then hotel insurance claims that they were able to compare. But after much educating by me over 11 months has increased the payout due but would like to be able to confirm average hostel occupancy for urban properties. I know HI tabulates this as I used to be an HI manager before opening up my independent hostel but they kind of have a hate on for me after I opened up the hostel.

I have googled trying to find occupancy rates and the best I can find is countrywide or statewide which will show rural and urban mashed together. Do any of you have statistics that you can divulge that would be city wide (example, all the London hostels). If you believe you may have something but do not wish to make it public, you can PM me and I will not divulge it to anyone but the insurance adjustor.

This could be important for you in the future if you ever have to go through business interuption insurance due to a catastrophic event. At least with my seemingly groundbreaking introduction to insurance it may make it easier for the next hostel that finds themselves in this same situation to get a claim based on what they do and not what hotels do. Remember I was leasing and was not the owner so our situation is different then hostels that own their buildings. Even a fire would have been better as I would have been able to make a claim. Instead I have multiple storage containers with everything to start that I affectionately call hostel in a box.

[Canhostel]

I am wondering if any of you have statistics available that may have been compiled by government agencies (occupancy statistics). I know the hotel industry in Canada has at least PKF Consulting. http://www.pkfcanada.com/ But I do not believe there is one that does studies for hostels! Can anyone at least lead me in the right direction for statistics?

I had hoped the European and Australian hostels would have had some public information available. I understand the need to protect your own hostel information but if it is a country or zone (large city) there would be anonymity in that.

[aboriginalhostel]

Still have no clue, sorry. I guess you could write an e-mail to hostelworld.com, if they are willing to help you, they can provide you numbers. My guess would be anywhere between 60-80% but it depends on a lot of variables. The best info you could get is your own statistics, what was your occupancy before the accident?

[Canhostel]

Hello aboriginalhostel,

We were running 72% for our first full year with no marketing budget and at time of closure we had 113 beds as we were adding 6-10 beds a month (renovating) and would have maxed out at 160. If people want to PM me their occupancy that may help with the insurance claim (I would not divulge to anyone but the insurance company as there would be limited value to myself but could be important for the insurance company with statistics for future events). My market was one of a city of 1 million with only two hostels, ourselves and an HI. Again this is to solidify a claim as per my first post. Thus far it is me comparing myself to no one else and there are no statistics for insurance companies for hostels, but many for hotels. This could eventually benefit other hostels as well if a disaster occurs.

Hostelworld would be of limited use as they only know reservations they make for properties not the full occupancy of properties. We had 30 beds available on hostelworld at a time out of our total.

[TnT]

Sorry to intrude, but did you have any trouble finding an insurance company to insure you? I am attempting to open a Backpackers in Hamilton, Ontario and am having a terrible time finding someone to insure.

[Canhostel]

Hey TnT,
check out insurance brokers as the have multiple companies that the can check out. Big thing though is be prepared to educate the broker on what a Backpackers hostel is. Many people including insurance types think a hostel is a social services homeless shelter. You can refer them to check out Backpackers.ca and of course you can talk directly to the GMs or owners of hostels in the Toronto or Niagara area. The have their insurance and have brokers who are already more knowledgeable about our industry.