{"id":2728,"date":"2022-05-11T20:44:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T20:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estrategist.com\/website\/members\/?p=2728"},"modified":"2022-05-11T20:44:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T20:44:54","slug":"hotels-resorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/hotels-resorts\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotels & Resorts"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is a Pollutant?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any material, substance, liquid, product, etc\u2026 which is introduced into an environment for other than its intended use \/ purpose. In other words, something that ends up where it doesn\u2019t belong. Fresh water, cheese, and milk have all been classified as pollutants by Insurance Carriers under various circumstances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most commercial insureds assume that claims arising from their operations are covered by the general liability policy. However, claims resulting from a \u201cpollution incident\u201d are excluded from most general liability policies, which leaves commercial insureds with gaps in coverage. What pollutants are impacting your business?<\/span><\/p>\n

Environmental Exposures Impacting Hotels & Resorts\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

May include, but are not limited to<\/b>:\u00a0 Storm water runoff;\u00a0 Natural resource damages;\u00a0 Pollution from neighboring properties migrating onto yours;\u00a0 Vapor intrusion;\u00a0 Meth labs;\u00a0 Pollution cleanup and third party liabilities that occur after a fire;\u00a0 Wastewater treatment plants\/pumping stations, exposures from nuisance odor;\u00a0 Raw sewage backup or rupture;\u00a0 Sick building syndrome;\u00a0 Asbestos;\u00a0 Lead;\u00a0 Mold \/ Legionella;\u00a0 Historic site conditions;\u00a0 Chemicals stored and used for pool and spa facilities; Aboveground and\/or underground storage tanks;\u00a0 Leaks from elevator hydraulic fluid storage tanks; Storage and use of pesticides (Glyphosate) and herbicides; Spills\/releases during loading\/unloading operations from trucks or other delivery devices;\u00a0 Waste handling and disposal operations;\u00a0 No auditing of waste handling and disposal companies;\u00a0 Possible adverse reactions and interactions of chemical compounds that accidentally commingle during a fire; Maintenance\/Service garages;\u00a0 Generators for backup power;\u00a0 Language barriers with employees;\u00a0 Easements that cross the property which may leak or spill hazardous materials;\u00a0 Impacting underground utilities during construction;\u00a0 Release of pollutants during a convention or special event;\u00a0 Janitorial cleaning compounds;\u00a0 No emergency and spill control plans; Brownfields\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

Environmental Claim Scenarios<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A chlorine release from a wastewater treatment plant at a resort resulted in toxic air emissions. Resort guests, area residents and businesses were evacuated, and several people were hospitalized for inhalation of fumes. Bodily injury claims amounted to $70,000 and business interruption claims totaled $120,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Several hotel guest complained of air in the hotel that was making them nauseous.\u00a0 Hotel security discovered a meth lab operating in one of the hotel rooms.\u00a0 Emergency responders were called in to properly handle and dispose of hazardous materials.\u00a0 Clean up costs, remodeling, third party bodily injury claims exceeded $100,000- and first-party business income was in excess of $60,000.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. A new hotel had construction halted after the discovery of an abandoned unknown surface lagoon used by a past property owner as part of their manufacturing operations.\u00a0 As a result of haphazard business practices by the former owner, there were a wide array of waste materials disposed at the site. An investigation revealed that the waste materials covered about two acres.\u00a0 The cost to remediate the site exceeded $2 million.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Maintenance workers were unloading a tote holding 400 gallons of muriatic acid which is used as a pool chemical.\u00a0 The tote was dropped releasing 150 gallons of the acid which ran into a nearby storm sewer.\u00a0 The acid caused an aquatic life die and other natural resource damages.\u00a0 Remediation costs and natural resource damages exceeded $400,000.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. A major fire breakout and the fire department\u2019s high-pressure hoses forced melting plastics, metals, insulation, roofing, drywall, chemicals, and other materials to build up inside the building\u2019s foundation, creating a toxic \u201csludge\u201d. Some of the \u201csludge\u201d escaped the building and migrated onto to neighboring properties. The hotel owner was responsible for clean-up, 3<\/span>rd<\/span> party property damage & business interruption, and natural resource damages, which totaled over $3,500,000.\u00a0 <\/span>NOTE: fire departments are immune to pollution claims arising from their work while putting out fires. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. During a medical convention, one of the vendors with a booth that supplied medical gasses had a faulty valve release anesthesia.\u00a0 Attendees had to be evacuated and the convention shut down while emergency responders cleared the air.\u00a0 Several people needed medical attention.\u00a0 Cost for emergency responders, bodily injury claims and business interruption for the convention exceeded $125,000.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. A dairy farm had a pipe break on their manure lagoon releasing in excess of 250,000 gallons of raw manure into a nearby stream.\u00a0 The stream went through a resort where it then emptied into the ocean.\u00a0 The smell from the manure in the stream caused the hotel to relocate guests.\u00a0 Business income for the hotel was in excess of $2,500,000.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Legionella was discovered in the water supply of a resort.\u00a0 The resort hotel had to be vacated while their water system went through treatment for the Legionella.\u00a0 In addition to the remediation costs, several guests sued the resort claiming bodily injury from exposure to Legionella.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. The concrete secondary containment of a 10,000-gallon diesel aboveground storage tank was cracked. A release from the tank spilled 8,000 gallons into the containment. The diesel seeped into the underlying soils and required costly excavation and removal. The total cost for investigation, removal and disposal exceeded $320,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. A maintenance employee could speak English but they could not read English.\u00a0 The employee accidentally mixed a hazardous chemical with a cleaning solvent which created a hazardous vapor cloud.\u00a0 The building had to be evacuated and several people were treated for inhalation of the toxic fumes.\u00a0 Remediation and bodily injury claims exceeded $1,000,000.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  11. The presence of Legionella was detected in the hot water system of a resort.\u00a0 The state health department got involved and a consultant was hired to investigate and remediate the property.\u00a0 A claim was made immediately for the remediation and what could have been an extensive and lengthy remediation process was completed efficiently \u2013 significantly reducing the length of business interruption for the resort owners.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Benefits of Environmental Liability Insurance<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Unlike most liability exposures impacting Hotels & Resorts, pollution losses are not a frequency risk, but rather a severity risk. Since every Hotel & Resort has numerous environmental liabilities, consideration needs to be given to the economies of scale afforded with environmental liability insurance as part of your risk transfer strategy, versus self-insurance.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Furthermore, most commercial insureds only consider the remediation costs associated with a pollution event. However, often the clean-up costs are far less than other costs that can arise from the loss.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Overlooked benefits<\/b> of Environmental Liability Insurance:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Defense Costs<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0 <\/span>Environmental liabilities are relatively new and very litigious.\u00a0 Even if you do nothing wrong you can still get named in a suit and must expense defense costs i.e. legal fees, environmental investigations, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Claim Management<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0 <\/span>All policies come with specialists to assist you in handling a claim.\u00a0 Who oversees communications, public relations, emergency response, government compliance, financial management, third party claims for bodily injury, property damage, natural resource damages\u2026.?<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Third Party Liability<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0 <\/span>The majority of the time the cost to clean up the environmental problem\/s is far less than the associated claims that come in from third parties for bodily injury, property damage and business interruption.\u00a0 You need to look at your client\u2019s and neighbors that can be impacted if you or a sub-contractor\/vendor cause an environmental loss. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Environmental Liability Insurance Products\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

      Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL)<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

      EIL is for Hotels & Resorts susceptible to economic loss caused by pollution that actually or allegedly originated from their operations.\u00a0 Sometimes referred to as pollution legal liability this coverage is for those who own, operate, lease, or have any other insurable interest in real property and the operations. Coverage can be written in a variety of ways addressing unknown preexisting conditions or new conditions.\u00a0 Coverage can include third party bodily injury and property damage along with business interruption and extra expense, on and off site cleanup costs, legal defense expenses, non-owned disposal sites, transportation and more. EIL can be offered on multi year terms.\u00a0 Sewer lines and pump\/lift stations can be covered by EIL.\u00a0 Most EIL policies cover above ground storage tanks.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Property Transfer Coverage<\/b><\/p>\n

      When buying or selling property there can be unknown preexisting environmental conditions. Since a Phase I or Phase II survey cannot guarantee uncovering all potential environmental liabilities, insurance companies have created property transfer insurance. This coverage protects the new owner or any party with an insurable interest, against unknown environmental conditions that may be discovered during the policy period, that were not caused by the new owner.\u00a0 This coverage not only helps to keep the property at its maximum value, it will assist the purchaser in being able to secure the necessary financing to complete their transaction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Transportation Pollution Liability<\/b><\/p>\n

      Generally, business auto or trucker\u2019s policies will exclude pollution losses arising from spills or other releases of their cargo. Transportation pollution liability affords coverage during the loading, unloading and transportation, for a spill, release or sudden upset and overturn of transported cargo.\u00a0 Note:\u00a0 An MCS-90 endorsement is not pollution coverage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Underground and Aboveground Storage Tanks<\/b><\/p>\n

      Financial responsibility requirements ensure that owners and operators of underground storage tank systems have the ability to financially handle a release from an underground storage tank. The responsibility encompasses the ability to pay funds for corrective action and third party bodily injury and property damage from non-sudden and sudden and accidental releases from a regulated underground system.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Contractors Pollution Liability (CPL)<\/b><\/p>\n

      Hotels and Resorts have potential indirect environmental exposures from the service vendors & contractors they hire to perform work on their behalf.\u00a0 CPL insurance protects Hotels and Resorts should their vendors cause or exacerbate an environmental condition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Environmental exposures include Storm water runoff;\u00a0 Natural resource damages; \u00a0 Sick building syndrome;\u00a0 Asbestos;\u00a0 Lead;\u00a0 Mold \/ Legionella;\u00a0 Historic site conditions and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[202,398],"class_list":["post-2728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-risk","tag-property-owners","tag-resorts","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2733,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions\/2733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}