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Insurance against rain on holiday: rain of money for bad weather days

2023-06-06T14:52:54.543Z

Highlights: Wetterheld was founded in 2019 as a rain insurance for traders. The idea was born in 2017 at the Hamburg Cathedral, the Hanseatic city's folk festival. Customers only have to enter the desired date, time and exact address at least 14 days before the appointment. The money flows automatically if the weather station reports a previously clearly defined amount of rain during the insured period. If it rains for more than an hour on all four days, you will receive the full sum – even if the loss of sales was not so life-threatening.



Being on holiday at the Baltic Sea - and then it rains? To counter this anger, there is an insurance start-up from Germany. © Jens Büttner / dpa

The start-up Wetterheld is known for sweetening rainy days for holidaymakers with payments. Actually, however, the company insures ice cream parlors, showmen or beer gardens against bad weather.

Hamburg – Cold, fog, continuous rain, wind and storms: Spring 2023 was not for sun worshippers. While the bad weather hit the Germans on their minds and beer gardens and ice cream parlors ruined business, Nikolaus Haufler was happy. His company, Wetterheld, was haunted by the media because it offers insurance against rainy days for travelers. And there have been plenty of them so far this year.

What was often overlooked, however, was that holidaymakers are only one mainstay of the Hamburg-based start-up. Actually, it was founded in 2019 as a rain insurance for traders. The idea was born in 2017 at the Hamburg Cathedral, the Hanseatic city's folk festival. Haufler, who was still a management consultant at the time, sat there at a regulars' table of showmen. "They complained that they deserved next to nothing because the weather was so bad," says Haufler. "I told them to just insure themselves against it. When I found out that there was no such insurance for small businesses, I couldn't believe it – and then I founded one myself with my brother."

Gastronomy, showmen and even construction sites: weather hero insures against bad weather

Since then, the two brothers have been insuring a wide variety of industries: from gastronomy to showmen, markets and concert organizers to the construction industry, where rain and snow can lead to expensive downtime on the construction site. Farmers are also among the clientele of the Hamburgers. But they usually crave rain and have to protect themselves from crop failures in heat, drought or drought. "We do almost everything that depends on the weather," says Haufler. "With us, even the local snuff club can insure its summer party if it has ordered a band, food and a bouncy castle." It is important that the contract amount remains below 100,000 euros, which excludes large festivals, for example. Only the big reinsurers make such big events, but they don't offer insurance for everyone.

Wetterheld is also involved in business with reinsurers itself. They hedge the company's risks and thus guarantee that due payouts to customers will flow in any case – no matter how large they are. In any case, the business economist emphasizes that everything is serious and objective. Customers only have to enter the desired date, time and exact address at least 14 days before the appointment. The system determines the nearest weather station of the German Weather Service, and an algorithm calculates the insurance premium based on the weather data of the past 20 years. The money flows automatically if the weather station reports a previously clearly defined amount of rain during the insured period. "It's all verifiable," says Haufler. "We haven't had any disputes so far."

Corona hurt start-up - insurers experienced rescue through insurance

To ensure that the cost of insurance does not explode, Haufler gives its customers a tip: insure only the most important days with the highest turnover. "As a rule, these are Saturday and Sunday." But even then, tidy sums can come out, which make it a little more bearable that many fish rolls, pretzels or almonds have ended up in the garbage instead of in the stomachs of customers. For example, if you set up a food stall at a folk festival or a market in the Munich area and insure a turnover of 6000 euros for the last two weekends in June, you currently pay around 450 euros. If it rains for more than an hour on all four days, you will receive the full sum – even if the loss of sales was not so life-threatening and the guests came after the rain ended.

Incidentally, Wetterheld has already suffered sales losses itself: In March 2020, the young company landed its first customer, a beer festival in Munich. Haufler wanted to be personally present at his first assignment and travelled to Bavaria especially for the occasion. "When I was there, I found out that the event was being cancelled – but not because of rain, but because of Corona." Then, in the pandemic that followed, his potential customers had bigger problems than bad weather. "We were saved by the drought insurance for farmers, which we launched shortly before the lockdown." Today, however, the rain insurance for travelers is the most booked. Especially common for Lake Garda, "where we have already paid for some rainy holidays this year".

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If you want to sweeten the second week of August on the north shore in Torbole with cash if it rains there, you currently pay 72.71 euros, for example. The first rainy day is at your own risk, but from the second day onwards there are 100 euros per day, i.e. a maximum of 600 in total. If you want twice as much, you have to double the insurance fee to 145 euros. Nevertheless, Haufler keeps his fingers crossed for every holidaymaker that the sun shines strongly. "Good weather on holiday is simply nicer – and we don't have to transfer anything."

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-06-06

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