It’s a rainy summer day. Your hotel guests can’t use the pool or go to the beach, but they’re surprisingly happy. With their Weather Guarantee reimbursements, they’re enjoying your indoor amenities like the hotel spa and restaurant.
This is the magic of a Weather Guarantee–a protection product that automatically reimburses guests if bad weather occurs during their hotel stay. It keeps your guests satisfied on rainy days, or days that are uncomfortably hot, yet your business doesn’t pay anything to offer the guarantees.
Read on to learn all the ways your guests (and your hotel) benefit from this protection.
1. Peace of mind to book with confidence
Weather guarantees make guests feel at ease right from the point of booking. Just look at the numbers—76% of consumers in our customer survey said weather guarantees made them feel more confident about booking. Fifty-five percent purchased weather guarantees because they wanted peace of mind.
How do guarantees reassure guests during booking?
Offering guests a Weather Guarantee at the point of booking lets them know lousy weather doesn’t have to spoil their trip. The booking page explains the guarantee program’s price and reimbursement conditions in detail so guests trust their trip will be covered if there’s weather that negatively impacts their trip, like rain or high heat.
To see how this works, let's look at The Renwick Hotel’s weather guarantee booking process.
The hotel explains how the guarantee program works to set clear expectations, highlighting the:
Reimbursement weather requirement,which varies based on the dates of coverage
Automatic payout process
Weather Guarantee’s price
Daily hotel rate that’s reimbursed if bad weather occurs
The Renwick clearly explains the reimbursement weather conditions and the payout process, so it’s clear the protection is legitimate.
Once guests trust the Weather Guarantee, they’re likely to book the room if they’re concerned about weather affecting their travel—and many travelers are. Fifty-three percent of consumers say weather is the most important factor when choosing a travel location.
George Allen, Area Director of Sales and Marketing at Noble House Hotels, says this revenue share is one of his favorite perks of Sensible Weather’s Guarantees.
“Activating Sensible’s Weather Guarantee in our Rev Raise booking flow was a quick and easy way to enhance our guest experience and open a new ancillary revenue stream for our hotels,” said Allen. “It’s an easy lay-up for any hotel and can be flipped on in a single day.”
Luckily, companies can partner with a weather protection provider that fully handles this work at no cost. Look for a provider with sophisticated technology, built to handle Enterprise security and scale, for calculating weather-based guarantee prices and a support team to manage guest communications.
2. Proactive refund if the weather is bad
Reimbursement claims often require guests to fill out paperwork or call a support team. But with Weather Guarantees, guests don’t have to deal with any of these hassles. Here’s how the refund process works:
Every morning of a guest’s stay, the weather guarantee provider checks the daily forecast.
If there are two or more hours of predicted rain, the guarantee provider tells the guest in the morning that they are receiving a reimbursement immediately via their preferred payment method.
If there’s less than two hours of predicted rain, the guarantee provider contacts the guest in the morning to inform them they won’t receive a reimbursement.
This process helps guests make the most of their trip, even when the weather is crummy. They receive their reimbursement immediately, and the morning notification gives guests enough time to make indoor plans.
We’ve found that nearly all guests are happy with this reimbursement system, whether bad weather happens during their stay or not. 89% of consumers in our survey said their Weather Guarantee was worth the price, and 91% reported they would buy a guarantee again.
3. No need to cancel their stay, even with bad weather
Typically, refunds require guests to return the product or service that’s being reimbursed. Not the case with Weather Guarantees. Guests are already at the hotel when they receive their reimbursement notification, so they stay in their room as planned with no extra charge.
We’ve found that many consumers are happy to stay on their trip when it rains. Eighty-six percent of people reported they continued their weather-related activity—in this case, their hotel stay—after receiving their guarantee. These guests also rated those activities well, 7.6 out of 10 on average.
Weather Guarantees are a win for you and your guests
If there’s one point to take away from this post, it’s this: guests are happier with their hotel stays when they have Weather Guarantees. Fifty-five percent of consumers reported they were more satisfied with their activity provider because of their weather guarantees.
Sensible’s Weather Guarantees are an easy way to give guests peace of mind and generate extra revenue. Curious about partnering? Reach out to our team today.