In a hospitality business the loss falls within a single shift: a till system that stops taking payments on a Friday evening costs you an evening you will not make up.
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In brief
The chain in a hospitality business is short and entirely digital: ordering on a handheld, sending it through to the kitchen and bar, taking payment at the terminal, booking in the reservation system and planning in the rota. All those parts hang on one till supplier and on the internet connection in the building. If something drops out, there is no fallback; guests are at the table and the shift goes on. That makes the waiting period of the interruption cover more important here than in almost any other sector.
On the data side the volume is smaller than at an office, but not nil. The reservation system holds names, telephone numbers, dietary requirements that may say something about health, and sometimes credit card details as a guarantee against no-shows. There is also personnel administration with citizen service numbers and copies of identity documents. If that leaks, the duty to report to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch data protection authority) within 72 hours applies, and possibly the duty to inform guests and staff.
Ordinary business interruption insurance does nothing here: usually it requires physical damage to property as the cause of the interruption. A till system taken down digitally does not meet that. What does count is the operational reality of the sector: high staff turnover, shared login details behind the bar and a guest network that too often sits on the same connection as the till. Insurers ask about this, and incorrect answers affect Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code and the consequences in Article 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code.
What does cyber insurance for the hospitality sector cover?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
Immediate help
Incident response
Specialists who look into it within hours.
24/7 reporting line
Forensic investigation
Recovery and restart
Your business
Own damage
What the incident costs you yourself.
Data recovery and reconstruction
Business downtime
Ransom under consideration
Towards third parties
Liability
Claims from customers and data subjects.
Claims after a data breach
GDPR notification costs
Legal assistance
What is covered
Situation
Cyber
AVB
BAV
Ransomware brings your systems down
Yes
No
No
Data breach involving personal data
Yes
No
Sometimes
Costs of notification and informing those affected
Yes
No
No
Fraud through a falsified payment instruction
Sometimes
No
No
Administrative fine from the regulator
No
No
No
Hardware that is physically damaged
No
No
No
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
Your loss is per shift, so the waiting period counts
A twenty-four-hour waiting period means that an outage lasting one evening produces nothing, while that is precisely the most common loss. Ask for the shortest waiting period available and have it explained how the loss of turnover is calculated: on an annual average or on comparable days in the season. For a beach pavilion or a business that runs on weekends, that difference is considerable.
Keep the guest network separate from the till
Free wifi for guests and the till network do not belong on the same connection or behind the same password. That is not just good practice; at many insurers it appears as a condition in the policy. The same applies to the handheld network used by the waiting staff. Have your till supplier set out in writing how this is arranged at your premises. After a loss it is the first thing the investigation looks at.
Shared login details are the weak point
Behind the bar almost everyone works with the same code or the same manager login, and former staff still know it. After an incident it is then impossible to establish who did what, which slows down the forensic investigation and leaves the extent of a breach undetermined. Work with personal codes and change them when someone leaves; turnover in this sector makes this a recurring task, not a one-off.
What falls outside the cover
Not covered are spoiled stock caused by refrigeration failing without a digital cause, fines of a punitive nature, and replacing or improving your till equipment afterwards. An outage at your internet provider without an attack is usually excluded as well, as are intent and wilful recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code. Physical damage to terminals belongs on the business contents cover.
What does your premium depend on?
Annual turnover and number of covers. Turnover is the basis for calculation; capacity says something about the loss per hour of downtime.
Number of sites on one till system. If several businesses run on the same system, one incident brings them all to a halt at once.
Storage of payment and guarantee details. If you keep card details against no-shows, that makes the assessment of the data risk more serious.
Separation of guest wifi and till network. A separated network set-up is a firm condition of acceptance at many insurers.
Waiting period for the downtime cover. The number of hours before cover starts is the most important choice in this sector.
Seasonal pattern. A business with a short peak season needs a different basis of calculation from a year-round operation.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
How we arrange it
You request a quoteWe take stock of your situation, your risk and your wishes.
We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
Our till was down for an evening. Does that produce a payout?
Only if the outage lasted longer than the agreed waiting period and had a covered cause. An attack or infection is covered. An ordinary fault at the supplier or an internet interruption usually is not. So when taking out the policy, ask for the shortest possible waiting period and have it recorded which causes do and do not count.
We keep credit card details for no-shows. Is that allowed?
It is, but then the requirements of your payment service provider on storage and encryption apply, and those requirements are adopted by the insurer as a condition. Keep no more than you need and no longer than you need. Have your reservation supplier confirm that the data is held with them and not locally on the premises.
Is loss of turnover through a digital outage also covered on our business interruption policy?
As a rule, no. Business interruption insurance requires physical damage to insured property as the cause, such as fire or water damage. With ransomware or an attack on the till system that physical damage is absent. The interruption cover of cyber insurance is intended for precisely this scenario.
We work with a delivery platform and an online reservation site. Who is responsible?
For the data you record yourself you are the controller, even if it is entered through a platform. If there is a breach at the platform, that platform reports it to you and you assess whether you have to report it yourself. Set out the period within which they must inform you. Without that agreement your own 72 hours keeps running in the meantime.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
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