The Hotel Insurance Submission Checklist for Underwriters

May 18, 2026 • 19 min read

Hotel Insurance Hospitality Underwriting ACORD Applications

📋

A complete hotel insurance application package is the single biggest predictor of how fast — and how well — your property will be quoted. Specialty underwriters at AmWins, Axon, Normandy, and Chubb see hundreds of hotel submissions a year. The ones that bind quickly, at competitive terms, share one thing in common: they walk in the door fully assembled. This is the operator's guide to what underwriters actually need — and the small mistakes that cost weeks of delay.

Organized hotel general manager desk with ACORD insurance application forms, laptop, and reading glasses prepared for an underwriting submission

What Is a Hotel Insurance Submission Package?

A hotel insurance submission package is the complete set of documents a specialty underwriter needs to evaluate, price, and quote your property. Unlike standard small-business insurance — where a single application and a few schedules will do — a hotel or resort risk requires a coordinated package of ACORD forms, loss runs, narrative descriptions, and amenity-specific supplementals. Together, these documents tell the underwriter the story of your property: who you are, what you do, how you've performed, and what makes you a better risk than the next account in the queue.

Specialty markets like the AmWins Program Underwriters Destination Resorts program, Axon Middle Market, and Chubb Hospitality see hundreds of hotel submissions every year. They have to triage quickly. A complete, professional submission lands at the top of the underwriter's stack; an incomplete one gets emailed back with a list of "stipulations" — and you lose a week.

Why Does the Hotel Insurance Application Package Matter So Much?

Submission quality determines pricing, terms, and whether you get quoted at all. Hospitality underwriters operate in a narrow underwriting window — typically three to six weeks before renewal — and they prioritize the cleanest accounts first. A complete package signals that the operator is well-managed, the broker is competent, and the risk is worth the underwriter's time. An incomplete or sloppy package signals the opposite, and underwriters routinely decline to quote rather than chase missing information.

For boutique hotels and destination resorts, the stakes are even higher. The most attractive markets — the AmWins Destination Resorts program in particular — have minimum premiums of $25,000 and a curated risk appetite. They will not waste underwriting hours on a submission that arrives in pieces. Getting the package right the first time is what separates accounts that bind in two weeks from accounts that miss renewal.

What ACORD Forms Are Required for a Hotel Insurance Submission?

A hotel insurance submission requires, at minimum, four ACORD forms: ACORD 125 (commercial application), ACORD 140 (property), ACORD 131 (commercial general liability), and ACORD 130 (workers' compensation). Each form covers a specific slice of the risk, and underwriters cross-reference them to validate consistency. Mismatches between forms — for example, different building values on the 125 versus the 140 — will get flagged immediately and slow the quote.

ACORD 125 — Commercial Insurance Application (General Information)

ACORD 125 is the master cover sheet for the entire submission. It captures the applicant entity name, FEIN, mailing and location addresses, ownership structure, years in business, prior carriers, lines of coverage requested, and contact information for the operator. Underwriters check this form first to confirm the applicant is eligible for the program and that the named insured matches deed and corporate records.

Key fields to get right on ACORD 125:

Applicant name and DBA — must match the property deed, liquor license, and franchise agreement (if any).
SIC / NAICS code — use 7011 (Hotels & Motels) or 7212 (Hotels) for full-service hotels.
Lines of coverage — check every line being quoted: Property, GL, Liquor, Auto, WC, Cyber, Umbrella, Crime, Inland Marine.
Prior insurance history — three years of carrier, policy number, expiration, premium, and reason for non-renewal (if applicable).

ACORD 140 — Property Section

ACORD 140 captures every building, structure, and high-value piece of business personal property on the schedule. For a hotel with a main building, a poolhouse, a freestanding restaurant, and three cottage units, you'll list four (or more) locations. Each location needs construction type (ISO 1-6), year built, roof age, square footage, number of stories, occupancy, sprinkler and alarm details, and the building/BPP/business income limits requested.

Construction classification is one of the most common areas underwriters question. Frame versus joisted masonry versus non-combustible can move a property premium by 20% or more, and historic hotels often have mixed construction that needs a clear narrative.

ACORD 131 — Commercial General Liability Section

ACORD 131 is where hospitality risk really shows up. Underwriters use this form to capture every revenue-generating classification at the property: hotel/motel operations, restaurant, bar/lounge, banquet, spa, salon, pool, beach, recreation, retail, parking, valet, shuttle, and any contracted services. Each class requires a payroll and a sales/receipts figure — and for hospitality, sales figures broken out by liquor versus food versus room are essential for liquor liability rating.

Underwriters look for completeness here. A hotel with a beach but no beachfront exposure listed, or a spa with no spa class code, will trigger a stipulation. So will an ACORD 131 that omits subcontracted services — the security firm, the landscaping company, the pool maintenance vendor — that the property uses but does not directly employ.

ACORD 130 — Workers' Compensation Application

ACORD 130 covers workers' compensation and is required wherever the hotel has employees. It includes class codes and payrolls by job category, three years of loss history, an experience modification factor (if rated), and details on owner/officer inclusion or exclusion. Hotels typically have multiple class codes: housekeeping, food service, maintenance, clerical, valet/driver, and recreation. Each carries a different rate, and accurate splits matter for both pricing and audit risk.

What Are 5-Year Currently-Valued Loss Runs?

Five-year currently-valued loss runs are loss-history reports from each of your prior carriers, covering the most recent five policy years, with valuations no older than 90 days from your submission date. They are the single most important piece of underwriting data outside the ACORDs. Underwriters use them to spot frequency trends, severity outliers, and any open reserves that could deteriorate. A submission without current loss runs is essentially un-underwritable — most specialty markets will not even open the file.

"Currently valued" is the key phrase. A loss run pulled in February for a March renewal is fine; one pulled six months ago is not. Underwriters need to see the most recent reserve postings, because open claims are often the difference between an accepted and a declined account.

What underwriters check on loss runs:

Frequency — number of claims per year by line of coverage. More than 3-4 property or GL claims a year on a single hotel will get questioned.
Severity — any single claim over $25,000 needs a written narrative explaining cause, corrective action, and current status.
Open reserves — claims still open with material reserves often become "stipulations to bind" — meaning the underwriter wants additional documentation before issuing a binder.
Loss ratio — total incurred losses divided by earned premium. Loss ratios above 60-70% on a single line will move the account to a higher-rated tier or get declined entirely.

What Is the Resort Comprehensive Profile?

The Resort Comprehensive Profile is the AmWins Program Underwriters (APU) destination-resort-specific underwriting questionnaire. It is required for any submission going into the AmWins Destination Resorts program and goes far beyond a standard ACORD. The Profile asks about operations, revenue mix, guest demographics, amenity-by-amenity exposures, employee headcount by department, security and staffing protocols, written policies (sexual harassment, social media, abuse prevention), and crisis management plans.

The Profile is the most thorough underwriting document in the destination resort space, and that's exactly why APU's program is the cleanest place to land a true resort risk. If you've completed a Resort Comprehensive Profile in past years, dig it out — most of the answers won't have changed, and starting from a prior-year version cuts completion time in half.

What Amenity Supplementals Does a Hotel Submission Require?

Amenity supplementals are short, focused forms covering specific exposures that a generic ACORD doesn't capture. Each non-trivial amenity at the property gets its own supplemental, and skipping any of them is a top reason quotes get delayed. Standard amenity supplementals for a full-service hotel include pool, spa/salon, restaurant/liquor, recreation, valet/shuttle, security, and (where applicable) seasonal or special-event operations.

Required Amenity Supplementals — Quick Reference

Pool Supplemental — depth, lifeguard status, signage, fencing, drain compliance (VGB Act), spa/hot tub details.
Spa/Salon Supplemental — services offered, contractor vs. employee status, hiring and background-check policy, professional liability requirements.
Restaurant/Liquor Supplemental — seating, hours, liquor sales percentage, TIPS training, dram shop history.
Recreation Supplemental — beach, watercraft, equestrian, ATV/UTV, ziplines, ropes courses (these often require sublimit or exclusion).
Auto/Shuttle Supplemental — vehicle schedule, driver MVRs, valet operations, shuttle routes, ridesharing partnerships.
Security Supplemental — armed vs. unarmed, in-house vs. contracted, certificates of insurance from vendors, training and use-of-force policies.

What Else Goes Into a Complete Hotel Submission?

Beyond ACORDs, loss runs, the Resort Profile, and amenity supplementals, a strong hotel submission also includes operational narratives, additional-insured schedules, expiring premium documentation, and supporting attachments like photos, COPE data, and inspection reports. These pieces give the underwriter context — they fill in the human story behind the data and almost always move pricing in the operator's favor.

Description of Operations

Description of operations is a 1-2 page narrative written by the operator (or the broker) that walks the underwriter through the property: what the hotel does, who it serves, how it markets itself, what the amenities and revenue mix look like, what the staffing model is, and what makes the operation a better risk than its peers. Underwriters read these carefully — a well-written description of operations can change a borderline quote into a competitive one.

Additional Insureds Schedule

A list of additional insureds covers landlords, lenders, brand owners, management companies, vendors, joint-venture partners, and anyone else contractually entitled to AI status. Each AI needs a name, address, relationship to the insured, and the basis for the AI requirement (lease, franchise agreement, contract). Missing AIs is a frequent renewal headache — get them right at submission and you'll avoid emergency endorsements later.

Expiring and Target Premium

Specialty underwriters appreciate transparency on what the account currently pays and what the operator is hoping to achieve. The expiring premium establishes a baseline; the target premium tells the underwriter what number they need to hit to be competitive. Hiding this information almost never helps — underwriters can usually figure it out from public filings or rate quotes anyway.

How Do You Actually Assemble a Hotel Insurance Submission?

Assembling a hotel insurance submission is a five-step process, and each step has a deliverable. Done right, the whole package can be ready in 7-10 business days. Done wrong, it can drag on for a month or more — and miss the renewal window entirely.

Hotel manager reviewing a stack of ACORD applications and 5-year loss runs at a conference table prior to a specialty insurance submission

Request loss runs from every prior carrier — immediately. Loss runs from major carriers can take 5-10 business days to arrive. Start the request the day you decide to remarket. Ask for "5 years currently valued within 90 days" in writing, and follow up if you don't get a response in 48 hours. Don't wait for ACORDs to be complete to make this request.

Pull last year's submission as a starting point. Most fields don't change year over year. Re-use ownership info, building data, prior policy schedules, and AI lists from the expiring submission. Then update only what's actually changed — payrolls, sales, claim activity, any renovations, any new amenities.

Complete the ACORDs, the Resort Comprehensive Profile, and every amenity supplemental. Block out a 4-6 hour window. Work with your broker — they should know which forms each target market requires. The Profile and the supplementals are the parts most operators rush; resist the urge. Five clean answers beat fifteen vague ones.

Write the description of operations and the loss narratives. A 1-page description of operations and a 2-3 paragraph narrative on any claim over $25,000 is the personal touch that wins competitive accounts. Underwriters remember well-written narratives.

Assemble, label, and submit one clean PDF package. Underwriters hate hunting through 18 separate email attachments. Combine everything into a single, bookmarked PDF: cover sheet, ACORDs, loss runs, Resort Profile, amenity supplementals, operations narrative, AI schedule, photos, expiring declarations. Name the file something the underwriter can find: "[Hotel Name] - Renewal Submission - [Date].pdf".

What Are the Most Common Hotel Submission Mistakes?

The most common hotel submission mistakes are the same year after year, market after market: stale loss runs, missing payroll or sales splits for liquor sublines, no flood elevation certificate for coastal property, and omitted contractors or subcontractors. Any one of these will delay a quote by a week or more. Two or three of them can push a renewal into binding on extension terms — at higher cost and with less leverage.

Mistake	Impact	Fix
Stale loss runs (90+ days old)	Quote refused or delayed	Re-request loss runs within 60 days of submission date
Missing liquor sales split	Liquor liability un-ratable; quote delay	Pull last year's P&L; split by liquor / food / room
No flood elevation cert (coastal)	Property quote declined or excluded	Order Elevation Certificate from licensed surveyor
Omitted contractors/vendors	Coverage gap; AI mismatch at renewal	Pull AP vendor list; identify every entity with property access
Construction type misclassified	Property premium 20%+ off market	Reference COPE data from prior inspection
No description of operations	Underwriter under-priced or declined	Write 1-page narrative; emphasize controls

What's the Hotel Insurance Quote Timeline?

Hotel insurance quote timelines follow a predictable curve: preliminary indications come back in 5-10 business days, bindable quotes in 10-15 business days, and final binder issuance 24-48 hours before effective date. Renewal marketing should start 60-90 days before expiration, not later. Accounts that start at 30 days routinely miss the underwriting window and end up extending the expiring policy at higher cost.

Standard Hotel Insurance Submission Timeline

90 days out — broker requests loss runs, expiring declarations, recent inspection reports.
75 days out — ACORDs, Resort Comprehensive Profile, amenity supplementals drafted and reviewed.
60 days out — clean submission package goes out to target markets.
45-50 days out — preliminary indications received from most markets.
30-35 days out — bindable quotes finalized; comparison and recommendation review.
7-10 days out — broker confirms market, requests binder, issues certificates of insurance.
Effective date — policy bound, premium financed (if applicable), policies delivered within 30 days.

Why Working With a Specialty Hospitality Broker Matters

A specialty hospitality broker does more than fill out forms — they translate your operation into the language underwriters use, position the account into the right market, and negotiate terms based on relationships built over years. Underwriters at AmWins, Axon, Normandy, and Chubb have appetites that shift quarter to quarter; brokers who place hotel risk every week know what's hot, what's cold, and where your account fits. That's the difference between a good quote and a great one.

At Insure Connecticut, we assemble the full submission package on your behalf — ACORDs, Resort Comprehensive Profile, amenity supplementals, loss-run requests, operations narrative, everything. You provide the underlying data; we structure it into the format each market wants to see. That's how renewals bind cleanly and competitively.

Key Takeaways

A complete hotel insurance submission requires ACORD 125, 140, 131, and 130, plus 5-year currently-valued loss runs (within 90 days of submission).
The Resort Comprehensive Profile is required for the AmWins Destination Resorts program and covers operations, amenities, revenue mix, and written policies.
Amenity supplementals (pool, spa, restaurant, recreation, auto, security) are non-negotiable — each material amenity needs its own form.
Top submission mistakes: stale loss runs, missing payroll/sales splits, no flood elevation cert, omitted contractors/subs, misclassified construction.
Quote timelines: preliminary indications in 5-10 business days, bindable quotes in 10-15 business days.
Start renewal marketing 60-90 days before expiration to give underwriters adequate review time.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get currently-valued loss runs from my prior carrier?

Send a written request — either you or your broker — to the prior carrier's customer service or producer-services email, asking for "5 years currently-valued loss runs, all lines of coverage, valued within the last 30 days." Most carriers respond in 3-7 business days. If you're switching brokers, you may need to authorize the new broker via a Broker of Record letter before the carrier will release loss data to them.

Do I need to complete every amenity supplemental, even for amenities I rarely use?

Yes. Any amenity that exists at the property — even seasonally, even rarely — needs its supplemental completed. Underwriters discover undisclosed amenities through Google Maps, property websites, and inspection reports. An undisclosed amenity is grounds for policy rescission or claim denial. Completing the supplemental and accurately disclosing limited use (for example, "pool open Memorial Day to Labor Day only") is always safer than omitting it.

What's the difference between a preliminary indication and a bindable quote?

A preliminary indication is the underwriter's first-pass pricing based on the submission package, but it's subject to stipulations — additional documentation, inspections, or operational changes the underwriter wants before the policy can be issued. A bindable quote is a firm quote that the underwriter is prepared to bind if accepted and signed within the quote validity period (usually 30 days). Always clarify which one you have, especially when comparing multiple markets.

What if my hotel has had a large claim in the last 5 years?

A single large claim is rarely a deal-breaker if you can show what changed afterward. Write a clear, factual 2-3 paragraph narrative: what happened, what the cause was, what the final paid loss was (or current reserve), and what corrective action was taken. Underwriters care about repeatability — if a slip-and-fall in the lobby led to a new floor surface, a new mopping protocol, and zero claims since, that's a story underwriters will reward. Hiding or downplaying the claim is what creates problems.

Can my broker complete the Resort Comprehensive Profile for me?

Your broker can draft it based on prior submissions, an intake call, and operational documents you provide — but you'll need to review and confirm each section. The Profile asks operational questions only you can answer accurately: exact services offered, hiring procedures, written policies, vendor relationships, and so on. Expect to spend 1-2 hours with your broker the first year, and 30-45 minutes in subsequent renewal cycles.

What does "expiring premium" mean and why does the underwriter want to know?

Expiring premium is the total annual premium currently being paid for the policies being remarketed. Underwriters use it to anchor their pricing — if your expiring is $85,000 and the new market quotes $92,000, that's a meaningful conversation point. Some operators worry that disclosing expiring premium will make the new market quote higher, but in practice the opposite is true: competitive specialty markets will price aggressively to win the account if they know what number they need to beat.

Should I get multiple quotes or stick with one market?

For most hotel and resort accounts, your broker should target three to five markets per renewal cycle — enough to drive competition without spreading the submission so thin that no underwriter takes it seriously. Single-market submissions almost always price higher because there's no competitive pressure. Six-plus markets dilute broker attention and signal desperation. Talk through the market strategy with your broker before submissions go out.

Ready to put together a clean, competitive hotel insurance submission? Our specialty hospitality team handles the entire package — ACORDs, Resort Comprehensive Profile, amenity supplementals, loss-run requests, and market negotiation. Learn more about our Hotels & Destination Resorts Insurance program or request a quote today. You can also reach our hospitality desk directly at (860) 970-0977.