Rainproof your UK staycation with insurance that pays out for bad weather

Holidaymakers in the UK can now safeguard holiday plans by insuring themselves against drizzle, with quick payouts for gloomy forecasts

England’s rainy weather may have dampened many a staycation, but now holidaymakers could get compensation for it.

Now, holidaymakers staying in Britain can be protected against drizzle for the first time with bespoke travel insurance that pays out in the event of a bleak forecast.

Sensible Weather, a US firm established in 2019, has created a product for trips in Britain that pays out if the forecast is grey and predicts rain. It already offers rain protection for people travelling abroad with TUI and now has a staycation option.

It will be open to all Britons, as well as Americans travelling to the UK, helping them navigate the stormy trans-Atlantic cultural differences, which include the weather, roundabouts, and hot tea.

Customers staying at the high-end caravan sites of Lovat Parks in the south of England can add a “Weather Guarantee”, run by Sensible Weather, for around ten per cent of the cost of the booking.

The system has been live for three weeks. Due to a sodden summer in the UK so far, almost every customer who has added the rain cover, believed to be around 55 people, has received some compensation.

Sensible Weather checks the forecast every day the policy runs from and will pay out money in advance for every hour—between 8 am and 8 pm—that more than 1.5 mm of rain is expected to fall.

The amount of money paid out and criteria for compensation change depending on the individual policy, which takes into account location, length of holiday, and time of year.

Sensible Weather is also working on creating a bespoke weather package for extreme heat, with payouts above 40°C expected, for example.

“I set up Lovat in 2018 and I wanted to build a caravan business at the affluent end of the market as, for whatever reason, some people might not consider caravans for holidays,” Raoul Fraser, Director of Lovat Parks, told The Telegraph.

“Some people do not want big commercial parks with pools, arcades, and shops; they just want a base from which to explore.

“But people go to Europe on holiday for guaranteed sunshine as, after growing up in the Scottish Highlands, many holidays here can be ruined by weather.

“We partnered with Sensible Weather because I felt if you could be paid if your days were rained off, then a lot more people would potentially stay in the UK or they’d enjoy the holidays a lot more.”

Sensible Weather pays out to customers automatically and in advance of their planned day at 8am, based solely on forecasts in an attempt to give customers their money as soon as possible to be used for indoor activities such as aquariums, the theatre, or other non-weather-dependent activities.

“Customers don’t have to reach out and make a claim or do anything; it should happen without them really needing to do anything and then it’s paid out to them via PayPal,” added Torie Wilkinson, Chief Marketing Officer at Lovat.

One holidaymaker in Cornwall had the entire cost of the holiday refunded, the park owner said, due to rain on every day of the week-long break.

Sensible Weather has its own custom forecasting methods, which it uses to forecast as accurately as possible ahead of time. However, if the forecast is wrong and a customer is forecasting rain and sunny skies, any erroneous payment made will still be paid out.

“If it doesn’t thunderstorm as we have forecast, for example, and they have a beautiful day as well as a reimbursement from us, then that is okay,” Mark Bruno, Vice President of product at Sensible Weather, told The Telegraph.

“They were looking at the forecast and they planned their day around that forecast, and that’s the moment we care about right there.”

If the company does not forecast rain but there is an unexpected downpour, the customer can contact the company directly to make a claim, he added.

“We have humans who pick up the phone and solve that problem if we do end up being wrong,” he said.

The company currently serves any UK resident travelling globally, as well as any foreigners travelling to the UK, and offers rain cover as well as extreme heat, poor visibility while skiing in France, and poor air quality due to wildfires in the US.