Protect Your People, Property, and Revenue with Coverage Designed for Hospitality Businesses
Last updated: October 19, 2026
Restaurants, cafés, wineries, and event venues can protect their businesses with commercial insurance tailored to their specific operations. Biltmore Insurance Services, LLC can help business owners evaluate coverage for general liability, workers’ compensation, property, equipment, business income, cyber risks, and other exposures unique to hospitality businesses.
What Insurance Do Restaurants, Cafés, Wineries, and Event Venues Need?
Hospitality businesses typically need several types of coverage because their risks extend across employees, customers, physical property, equipment, and revenue.
A good place to start is by evaluating three areas:
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People: Consider risks involving customers, employees, and third parties.
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Property: Review the value of your building, equipment, furniture, technology, and inventory.
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Revenue: Consider how a covered loss or temporary closure could affect your income and ongoing expenses.
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Additional Risks: Depending on your operations, you may also need coverage for cyber risks, liquor liability, equipment breakdown, delivery, catering, or special events.
Why Does Hospitality Insurance Matter?
Unexpected losses can be costly for any small business. An analysis by The Hartford found that 4 out of 10 small businesses are likely to experience a property or general liability claim within a 10-year period. The analysis also found that customer slip-and-fall claims averaged $20,000, while fire claims averaged $35,000.¹
Source: ¹ The Hartford small-business claims analysis, Insurance Journal
Those figures are not specific to restaurants or hospitality businesses, but they illustrate why protecting property and liability exposures is an important part of a small business insurance plan.
The Three Pillars of Hospitality Coverage
1. People
General Liability: Helps protect against covered third-party bodily injury and property damage claims, such as a customer slip-and-fall.
Workers’ Compensation: Provides benefits for covered employee work-related injuries and illnesses, subject to state requirements and policy terms.
2. Property
Building & Equipment: Commercial property coverage can help protect covered buildings, furniture, kitchen or production equipment, point-of-sale systems, and inventory from covered causes of loss.
Restaurants, wineries, cafés, and venues should periodically review their property limits as equipment, inventory, and improvements change.
3. Revenue
Business Income: Can help replace covered lost income and certain continuing expenses when a business must temporarily suspend operations because of covered direct physical damage.
Cyber Protection: Can help businesses respond to covered incidents involving customer information, payment systems, booking platforms, email, and other digital systems.
What Additional Coverage Should a Hospitality Business Consider?
Not every restaurant, café, winery, or event venue has the same risks. Depending on the operation, additional coverage may include:
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Liquor liability
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Equipment breakdown
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Food spoilage or contamination
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Employment practices liability
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Commercial auto
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Hired and non-owned auto
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Crime coverage
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Umbrella or excess liability
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Catering or off-premises exposures
The important part is making sure the insurance program reflects what the business actually does, including alcohol sales, events, catering, delivery, entertainment, equipment, and other operations.
How Can Biltmore Insurance Services, LLC Help?
Biltmore Insurance Services, LLC can help hospitality business owners review their risks and compare commercial insurance options.
Rebecca Seabolt
Commercial Insurance Agent
Biltmore Insurance Services, LLC
Direct: 706-216-1855
Email:
Website: biltmoreins.com
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of businesses can hospitality insurance cover?
Commercial insurance can be structured for businesses such as restaurants, cafés, bakeries, wineries, breweries, food-service businesses, and event venues. The specific coverage needed depends on the individual operation.
What insurance does a restaurant or café need?
Restaurants and cafés commonly evaluate general liability, commercial property, workers’ compensation, business income, equipment breakdown, and cyber coverage. Businesses serving alcohol may also need liquor liability.
Why is business income coverage important?
Property insurance may help repair or replace covered physical property, but that does not necessarily replace revenue lost while the business is closed. Business income coverage may help with covered lost income and certain continuing expenses following a covered loss.
Does a winery need different insurance than a restaurant?
Potentially. A winery may have production, inventory, tasting-room, alcohol-service, property, restaurant, and event exposures. Its insurance program should reflect all parts of its actual operation.
Can Biltmore Insurance Services, LLC provide multiple carrier options?
Biltmore Insurance Services, LLC works with multiple insurance carriers, allowing its commercial insurance team to evaluate coverage options based on a business’s specific needs.
