Creative Solutions to Insurance Imperatives – Insider Information from an Expert

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As a leader in camp, conference, and retreat center facility management services, we find ourselves with years of experience to impart when it comes to saving time, headaches and money. Our organization helps camp, conferences, and retreat center owners manage the daily ins and outs of: 

  • Reservations 

  • Marketing 

  • Accounting and Finance 

  • Human Resources 

  • Regulations Compliance 

  • Cooking 

  • Cleaning 

  • Facility Maintenance and Operations. 

Today we share with you some insider information on managing the insurance needs of hosting groups that come to stay at the facilities we so dearly love. 

Our resident expert, Tina Heck, Director of Reservations and Communications applies her 20 years of experience in working with insurance here to share with our readers. 

Insurance Insider Information 

In the camp, conference, and retreat center industry, we know that requirements for insurance are a necessity for groups and individuals that come to stay at our properties. For nonprofit organizations, schools, and churches, this is a relatively easy process because these types of groups already carry liability coverage. In one easy phone call or email, groups from these categories can simply reach out to their insurance carrier and request a certificate of liability to stay with no additional cost for the certificate. 

Back in the old days in the camp world, an individual could stay for a night or two and not have to worry about insurance coverage as most of the organizations who owned the property had insurance that would cover such an individual. However, we have found that many of the property owners’ insurance no longer covers these types of situations. At the camp and retreat centers that we provide facility management services to, we have a few stand-alone cottages that are rented to families for which the property owners’ insurance still provides coverage, but that seems to be the exception, not the rule. 

Many in the camp and retreat industry want to continue to offer individuals and informal groups the opportunity to enjoy these beautiful facilities. Clergy, for example, enjoy going to their denomination’s camp or retreat center for a study leave getaway. Perhaps a family wants to enjoy a weekend at camp on their own and are not part of an organized program. The most common example is an informal group of people gathering for a book club, crafting weekend, or family reunion wanting to stay at a camp or retreat center. These types of groups or individuals still need to provide insurance coverage for their stay at the property. 

Here are a few solutions we have established that may help your customers either obtain insurance or be covered by the camp, conference, or retreat center owners: 

Get a non-profit organization or business to sponsor the event 

If a group of people or a family from a church want to go on a retreat, their church may be willing to sponsor their outing and provide insurance coverage. Conceivably, a group of artists may be able to have a guild or association that a participant is a member of, sponsor their time away. In some cases, the event may be opened to other people which is a great way to gain more participation and increase the chance that one of the group members has access to a nonprofit willing to provide insurance coverage. 

It is also helpful to note that it is possible a member of an informal group or family reunion can cover the event on their own business’ insurance coverage. In this case, the agreement or contract would be with the business itself and not with the individual or family reunion group. 

Partner with an event insurance company 

Many people may be surprised to know that event insurance can be extremely affordable. It may be costly for one person to spend one night since event coverage typically covers one to forty people for up to 5 days at about the same rate. But with organizations like Event Helper 100 people at an indoor/outdoor reunion for 4 days in California would pay just $150.63. We like Event Helper because it’s easy to enter in the number of days the group will stay, the type of event, and the number of participants followed by an instant quote. 

In 2022 at UCCR we have seen insurance rates for a multi-day conferences or meetings as low as $104. Keep in mind that rates vary slightly by state, number of participants, and event type. 

We suggest that camps and retreats set up a link on their website with pre-filled information about the camp and retreat to make it easy for your guests. For example, UCCR partners and links to Event Helper on our website with pre-filled fields so it is easy to access for our customers. 

Create a contract for the camp and retreat property owners for individual & family stays  

During the Covid-19 pandemic, since many camps were either cancelled or taking far fewer days, we were seeking a creative solution for families and individuals to be able to stay in our camp cabins without having to secure event insurance which added expense for one family to stay for only a few nights. Adding $104 for insurance to a $100 event seemed unreasonable. 

Sharing our three step solution, here is what we did. 

Step 1: Create Family Camping Contract 

We created a “Family Camping” contract for the entire year with the denominational conference or region that owned a particular camp. Thus, the “Family Camping” became an official program of that region or conference and the insurance was provided by them. 

Step 2: Designate Special Rates 

In that contract, we created special rates for renting a cabin or tent camping. We stipulated that we would not provide food service but outdoor cooking or the use of one of the smaller kitchens would be allowed. At the camp and retreats, we made sure that basic meal prep areas were clean and ready to go. 

Step 3: Families or Individuals Make a Reservation 

Members of these denominations, both individuals and families, would contact the church’s regional or conference office and make a reservation for cabins or tent camping. Typically, a volunteer or staff person for the conference or region would track those requests and communicate with us to ensure the cabins are available and get the reservations into our master calendar. In one case, the families and individuals contacted the camp directly.  

We had several families come together over Labor Day weekend in 2021 at one of our California sites and tent camp together. They were able to enjoy the pool, campfires, s’mores, and exploration of trails in the forests. They created games and activities on their own for both kids and adults. They expressed after their long weekend what a luxury it was to have the property to themselves. 

This was a great solution during the pandemic to provide a safe environment where families or individuals could practice social distancing and stay in their pods and cohorts’. 

This was very successful in paving a way for folks to enjoy camp without having to provide insurance or sign individual contracts as well as arranging an outstanding and reliable location in the midst of the chaos of the pandemic. In fact, two of our facilities have continued with this kind of contract for 2022. The only limitation is that these types of contracts are limited to members and families of the denominations that own the camps. 

Summary 

We hope you found this information helpful and can put some of these insurance insider informational tips to use. For more tips on how to run camp, conference and retreats effectively subscribe to our newsletter or reach out to us to find out more about our facility management services. 

UCCR
800-678-5102
mikecarr@uccr.org