August 2009
Birthdays are important milestones, a time to count our joys and forget our sorrows.
August is a huge month for us and in a great weekend get together the staff of BnB Sure and our Insurers from as far away as London went to a country venue to celebrate our 10th Birthday.
10 Years of service to the
B&B and Guesthouse Industry
We opened our doors on 1 August 1999 which means we are now ten years old. During that time we have forged relationships with many key role players in the industry and we have provided the very best possible in terms of insurance cover.
When we started in 1999 we decided on 5 key factors.
1. The best policy available to the B&B and guesthouse industry.
2. To assist the insured in putting guests into their beds.
3. To find ways of reducing the overall costs to our policyholders without having to slash cover to do so.
4. To encourage brokers to deal with us by giving top class service at all times.
5. To make it as easy as possible for brokers to understand what we offer.
We believe we have had a large degree of success with these key factors and we continue to develop these all the time. The policy, for example, is substantially more comprehensive now than it was in 1999. The introduction of all the value add facilities in terms of “More Than Just Insurance” that can lead to very big savings if used correctly so much so that on the bottom line we have had some policyholders reporting that they have had months where their insurance was free so large were the savings.
In terms of our broker friends we have recently introduced BROKER ASSIST that sets out in easy to understand language everything about the policy and value add benefits. It is a requirement of FAIS that brokers complete a Needs Analysis for their clients. There was not one in the market that suited BnB SURE so to assist our brokers we created our own.
That in a nutshell has been the first 10 years of BnB SURE that seems to have flown past with so many exciting things happening such as our endorsement by the National Accommodation as their insurance policy of choice. The very close relationship we have with AA Travel Guides that has led to our being one of their sponsors of their quality assured awards. Our involvement with Chambers Accommodation in their ongoing training of establishment owners.
But none of this would have been possible had it not been for our insurers and we thank them all, especially Zurich.
WORLD CUP INSURANCE REQUESTS
We have been approached repeatedly asking whether we are able to offer “stand alone” liability for the World cup next year and we are delighted to advise that we are able to do this for any private home owner who intends taking in guests or letting their house. The liability in isolation is not the only problem facing people who are letting guests stay and we have checked with a few of our friends in the domestic insurance market who have confirmed that they will not under any circumstances honour a claim in terms of a contents policy held by them if guests to the world cup are paying the insured to be there. As a result of this we are able to offer our full policy for a minimum of three months. We are aware that there are already requests to various workers coming in for up to 6 months. This could create a very real problem for a householder with a conventional domestic policy.
SASRIA
It has been widely reported that SASRIA has decided to increase rates and in our case we will be following our insurers, Zurich and we are required to implement the increase in November this year.
We have mentioned the fact several times in the last few months that BnB SURE is considering the environment and cutting down as much paper use as possible and in view of this we will be sending out the endorsements giving change to the SASRIA premiums electronically to brokers enabling our brokers to forward these to policyholders quickly and easily.
These endorsements will be sent before the end of October.
BnB FINDER WEBSITE
The BnB Finder website listing B&Bs and guesthouses insured by us and therefore carrying the correct liability insurance and with a minimum of R30m. we now have a total of 1823 establishments listed which makes BnB Finder the largest website in the country listing only B&Bs and guesthouses. We are seeing a large number of reservations being made off the site. Imagine if each of them offered their guests the car hire service mentioned below – they would end up paying hardly anything for their insurances!!!!
BnB Find-a Car
We are delighted by the excitement generated by the introduction of BnB Find-a-Car. In some cases policyholders have earned enough to pay their monthly premium and by asking two simple questions to their guests they will be providing an extra service for the guest PLUS. This in many cases will lead to return business and a regular source of income where the busy business traveller does not have the time to do this themselves and they get off a plane and find that their guesthouse has arrange a car for them.
BnB SURE TELEPHONE NUMBER
Our new centralized telephone number is now operating for all our branches so instead of calling the old number for each branch, please call 0861 BnB-SURE (0861 262-7873) from 1 March and you will find Rachel answering that. She will be able to connect you to any person in any of our branches in the country. We have had a few brokers saying that this number will push up the cost of their calls. This is not correct as the call is charged as a normal LOCAL landline call so no additional charge at all and in fact cheaper if calling from, say, Cape Town to Johannesburg and then on top of that the advantages to the new switchboard are many.
ELECTRONIC POLICY WORDING
Our new electronic policy wording has been received with enthusiasm by many people who are “thinking Green” and who are concerned about the environment and of course who don’t want piles of paper lying around. Please advise us if you require an electronic policy wording instead of the hard copy which for policyholders is a lot easier to store and can have a simple icon on their computer for immediate access to the document.
BRANCH OFFICES
Contact details of BnB SURE offices are:
Johannesburg - Fax No. (011) 886-1725
Cape Town office - Fax No. (021) 948-3582
Durban office - Fax No. 086 685 6509
East London - Fax No. (043) 721-3112
Bloemfontein - Fax No. (051) 447-4088
Nelspruit - Fax No. (013) 752-4831
Managers: Johannesburg - Constance Sithole
Cape Town - Trudy Venter
Durban - Merran Johansson
East London - Lynne Reynolds
Bloemfontein - Dalene Lemmer
Nelspruit - Marinda Welgemoed
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
Winston Churchill
“Any information or suggested structures for insurances are by way of example and based on general information rather than client specific information. Should any of these suggestions appear to be relevant it is vital that these are discussed with the specific requirements of the policyholder in mind.
Any information on the BnB Club service suppliers or partners is intended to provide basic information (including contact details where applicable) only. Any of their information is not intended to be an endorsement by BnB SURE of the service providers. It is the responsibility of each person making use of the BnB Club facility to conduct further enquiries as needed, to check on the suitability of the service providers listed herein.
Furthermore, BnB SURE cannot guarantee the accuracy of any of the information listed in any article written by a third party.”
