How Much Does Hotel Insurance Cost in Texas? Build the Quote Packet First

Three 70-room properties can produce three entirely different submissions. Rather than guess at a range, build the packet that lets insurers evaluate the same hotel on the same facts.

There is no responsible statewide hotel insurance price that can be calculated from room count.

A 70-room exterior-corridor motel with no food service, a 70-room boutique hotel with a restaurant and event space, and a 70-room Gulf Coast property running a shuttle have the same number of keys and three different submissions. Building, location, revenue, operations, staffing, vehicles, contracts, loss record, deductibles, limits and forms all move the answer, and several of them move it more than the key count does.

That is why a broad online premium range creates false confidence. It rarely tells you the values, the deductibles, the causes of loss, the income period, the liability exclusions, the loss history or the coastal arrangements sitting behind the number.

So the useful first step is not guessing a range. It is building the packet that lets insurers evaluate the same hotel on the same facts. Our hotel, motel and hospitality page covers what the coverages do and what Texas lodging law asks of an operator; this article is about the submission.

A hotel premium is several exposure calculations

“Hotel insurance” is a program, not a policy. Depending on the property and its agreements, the submission may include property, business income, general liability, workers’ compensation, cyber, crime, auto, liquor liability, employment practices and an umbrella or excess layer.

Each part is rated from different information:

• Property starts with buildings, contents, equipment, valuation, construction, protection, location, causes of loss and deductibles.
• Business income starts with revenue, continuing expenses, seasonality, dependencies and a realistic recovery period.
• General liability considers operations, receipts, occupancy, amenities, guest traffic, contracts and loss history.
• Workers’ compensation uses payroll assigned to classifications, carrier rates and experience. TDI is explicit that carrier rates differ even when the classification does not.
• Commercial auto considers vehicles, drivers, use, routes, passengers, radius and losses.
• Cyber underwriting considers revenue, data, systems, vendors, controls and prior incidents.
• Umbrella or excess pricing depends on the underlying policies, limits and the terms the excess form will actually follow.

A lower total can reflect a lower price, less coverage, a larger deductible, a different valuation basis, an excluded operation, or several of those at once. Price becomes meaningful only once those differences are visible.

Build the packet in nine sections

One folder, one index, and an “as of” date on every schedule so an underwriter can tell current information from last year’s file.

1. Entities, ownership and agreements

List the exact legal names and the role each plays:

• property owner;
• hotel operator;
• management company;
• brand, franchise or flag;
• lender or mortgage holder;
• tenant and concessionaire entities;
• any parent, subsidiary or special-purpose entity that needs review.

Add the effective date you are asking for, plus the insurance sections of the franchise, loan, management, lease and major vendor agreements. Those agreements may specify lines, limits, deductibles, valuation terms, insurer requirements, endorsements or evidence deadlines.

Do not assume a certificate satisfies the agreement. TDI is clear that a certificate does not alter, amend or extend the underlying policy. Where an agreement asks for additional insured, waiver, primary and non-contributory, mortgagee or loss-payable status, identify the policy provision or endorsement expected to provide it — and confirm it exists.

2. Property statement of values

A row per location and, where the program needs it, per building:

• street address and occupancy;
• year built, square footage, stories, construction type, room count;
• interior or exterior corridor configuration;
• building replacement value;
• contents, furniture, fixtures, equipment, signs and other property values;
• roof age, material, shape and documented updates;
• dates of electrical, plumbing, HVAC, elevator, sprinkler, alarm and life-safety updates;
• cooking, laundry, boiler, chiller, generator and other major equipment;
• flood zone or flood determination available to the business;
• current wind, hail and flood arrangements;
• current valuation report or replacement-cost support;
• any renovation, purchase, sale or construction planned during the term.

Keep market value, tax value, loan balance, acquisition price and reconstruction cost separate — they answer different questions and only one of them is about rebuilding. TDI distinguishes replacement cost from actual cash value and advises comparing policies with similar coverage rather than comparing price alone; the commercial property page covers that boundary.

For a coastal or Galveston Bay location, identify which policy is expected to answer wind and hail and which is expected to answer flood. Neither can be inferred from the word “property,” and the percentage deductible arithmetic is worth doing on paper before a proposal is chosen.

3. Operations and amenities

Room count is the beginning of the description. Also describe:

• annual and peak occupancy;
• room revenue and total revenue;
• restaurant, bar, room service, breakfast, catering, banquet or event operations;
• pool, hot tub, spa, gym, playground, rooftop, marina or beach access;
• meeting rooms and maximum event size;
• laundry — guest, in-house or outsourced;
• shuttle, courtesy van, valet, parking, vehicle charging;
• security staff, in-house or contracted;
• smoking rooms, extended stays, pets, any residential use;
• retail, concession or leased operations;
• vacant rooms, closed wings, seasonal shutdowns;
• construction or renovation that will change guest access or occupancy.

Show who operates each amenity. Outsourced is not the same as no exposure — include the vendor’s contract and its insurance requirements.

4. The business-income worksheet

Property values do not answer the income question. Through the approved transfer route, provide:

• trailing revenue and expenses;
• current budget and forward projection;
• occupancy, average daily rate and seasonality;
• room revenue against food, beverage, event, parking and other revenue;
• payroll and other expenses that would continue after a loss;
• expenses that would stop;
• estimated extra expense to maintain or restart operations;
• utility, reservation, management, laundry and other dependencies;
• a realistic repair, permitting, equipment, franchise-approval and ramp-up timeline.

Do not pick an income limit from last year’s total revenue without working through the form. The definition, waiting period, restoration period, limit method, coinsurance or monthly limitation and dependent-property provisions each change the result. The business interruption page covers the trigger and the calculation.

5. Liability and guest activity

Provide the receipts and occupancy data the market asks for, plus amenity, event, alcohol, pool, fitness, parking, shuttle and security details; a high-level incident and claim summary; guest-property and safe procedures; maintenance, inspection and life-safety programs at a high level; contracts that transfer or retain responsibility; and any material operational change planned for the quote period.

Do not omit an amenity because a vendor runs it or because it earns very little. The insurer needs the premises and the contract, not the revenue ranking.

6. Employees, payroll and contractors

Separate employees by actual duty and location — housekeeping, maintenance, food service, clerical, management, drivers, security. Also list employee counts, seasonal and temporary labor, staffing-company arrangements, the certificates and endorsements required from vendors, prior workers’ compensation classifications and audits, and material changes in payroll or duties.

Most private Texas employers may choose whether to carry workers’ compensation, but a franchise, lender, management agreement or vendor contract can require it regardless. The election and the contract requirement are two separate questions, and only one of them is decided by state law. The workers’ compensation page covers the mechanics.

7. Vehicles, shuttle and valet

For owned vehicles: schedule, use, passenger capacity, routes, radius, mileage, garaging and driver process. Separately identify rented or leased vehicles, employee-owned vehicles used for hotel errands, outsourced shuttle operations, and hotel-operated or outsourced valet.

These are four different questions on the commercial auto page, not one. Driver-identifying records, motor vehicle reports and guest incident detail move only through a route approved for that information.

8. Cyber and crime profile

At a high level, map the systems and vendors handling reservations, payments, door locks, point-of-sale, Wi-Fi, payroll and guest information. Underwriters ask about multifactor authentication, backups, endpoint protection, payment practices, training, incident response and prior events. The cyber liability page covers what the coverage responds to.

Do not put passwords, network diagrams, vulnerability reports, payment data, guest records or security credentials in the packet index. Note that the material exists and ask for the approved route.

9. Current coverage and loss history

Current declarations, schedules, and the forms or endorsements you want compared, plus carrier-generated loss runs for the period the insurers request. For each material loss, a short factual narrative: what happened, date and location, current status, what changed operationally or physically afterwards, and which supporting documents exist.

Disclose known losses and material changes accurately. An incomplete application produces a fast indication that changes or disappears once underwriting sees the missing facts — which costs more time than the disclosure would have.

A one-page packet index

Section	Current as of	Included	Still needed	Approved transfer required
Entities and agreements
Property statement of values
Operations and amenities
Business-income worksheet
Liability information
Payroll and contractors
Vehicles, shuttle and valet
Cyber and crime profile
Current policies and loss runs

The “still needed” column is the useful one. It lets the agent tell underwriters what is pending rather than leaving each insurer to decide privately whether the packet is finished.

Compare proposals on the same assumptions

Normalize before you compare totals:

1. Named insureds and locations. Same entities, buildings and operations on both?
2. Values and valuation. Same building and contents figures? Comparable replacement cost, actual cash value, coinsurance, agreed value and valuation conditions?
3. Causes of loss. How does each treat wind, named storm, hail, water, flood, equipment breakdown and ordinance or law?
4. Deductibles. Flat, percentage, per building, per location, separate named-storm? And a percentage of what?
5. Income. Comparable limit, waiting period, restoration period, extended period, utility, dependent-property, extra-expense and ordinance-delay terms?
6. Liability. Same amenities and operations covered? Are exclusions, sublimits, retentions and defense provisions visible?
7. Auto, cyber, liquor, employment and crime. Included, excluded, or quoted separately?
8. Umbrella or excess. Which policies sit beneath it, and what does the excess form not follow? The umbrella page covers that boundary.
9. Contract terms. Do the required endorsements and insurer qualifications match the agreements?
10. Total cost. Are taxes, fees, assessments, financing charges and policy minimums in the displayed figure?

TDI advises commercial property buyers to compare like with like. A hotel proposal spreadsheet should therefore carry the major coverage differences next to the premium — not on a second tab nobody opens.

What lowers a price without improving the risk

Some savings only move risk somewhere less visible:

• lowering a building value;
• shortening the business-income period;
• accepting a larger or percentage deductible;
• excluding wind, flood, assault, liquor, shuttle, valet or another operation;
• removing an entity or a location;
• changing replacement cost to actual cash value;
• buying a lower limit than a contract expects.

Any of those can be a deliberate business decision. None should be presented as a saving until the owner has been told what changed.

Accurate values, documented updates, a clean submission, followed-up losses and earlier market engagement can genuinely improve how an underwriter reads an account. None of them guarantees a quote, a credit or a particular carrier’s answer.

Start before a deadline forces the shortcuts

Complex, coastal, newly acquired, loss-active or renovating hotels take longer to underwrite. Begin while there is still time to pull loss runs, clarify contracts, correct entity names, update values, answer inspection findings and compare forms.

There is no universal number of days that guarantees completion — it depends on the property, the market, the agreement deadlines and whether your current information is ready. What is reliably true is that the packet takes longer to assemble than anyone expects, and that the last week before a franchise or lender deadline is a poor time to discover a value is five years stale.

Bring the high-level facts to the desk in Houston and the packet can be built section by section from there.

Common questions

What is the average cost of hotel insurance in Texas?

There is no reliable statewide average that can price an individual hotel. A useful comparison would have to control for location, construction, values, room count, revenue, amenities, income coverage, deductibles, limits, forms, losses, vehicles, staffing and agreements. This article publishes no premium range on purpose.

Can I estimate motel insurance by cost per room?

Cost per room can normalize a set of already-comparable quotes, but it is not a pricing model. Two 70-room motels can differ in construction, corridor configuration, roof age, pool, coastal exposure, revenue, deductibles and claim record — and every one of those moves the number more than the key count does.

What information is needed for a Texas hotel insurance quote?

Start with exact entity names, a property statement of values, building and protection details, the operations and amenity schedule, revenue and income information, payroll by duty, vehicles, vendor contracts, current policies and carrier-generated loss runs. Individual carriers ask for more on top of that.

Why did my hotel premium change at renewal when nothing changed?

Something usually did, even if not at the property: updated values, carrier rate changes, catastrophe modeling, loss experience, payroll or receipts, a new amenity, changed deductibles or forms, lender or franchise requirements, and which insurers were available for the account. Compare the exposure data and the policy terms before attributing the change to one cause.

Does a higher deductible always lower hotel insurance cost?

It may affect price, but the form and the amount matter more than the direction. A percentage wind or named-storm deductible can transfer far more risk than a flat one, because the percentage applies to a value rather than to the loss. Work out the actual out-of-pocket figure before choosing it.

Should I send loss runs and financial statements through the contact form?

No. Use the contact form to begin with high-level facts. Ask for the approved transfer route before moving policies, loss runs, financials, contracts, driver data, guest information or security records — the form is ordinary web mail, not a document portal.

Sources: TDI — commercial property insurance guide; TDI — workers' compensation rate guide; TDI — certificates of insurance FAQ; TDI — commercial insurance for businesses. Verified 11 August 2026.

General information about Texas filing rules, not legal advice and not a quote. Requirements change; confirm your own through the Texas DPS License Eligibility system before acting. Published 11 August 2026.