Does Swiss household insurance cover hotel stays?

Hello,

I travel a lot and stay in hotels often, so I have asked myself more than once what would happen if someone broke into my hotel room.

Would my household insurance cover the loss if stuff was stolen from my hotel room? Would that be considered regular theft, or would it be considered theft away from home? My insurance for theft away from home is less than my insurance for normal theft.

Thanks in advance for clarifying this.

Hi there,

Coverage for simple theft from hotel rooms differs between household insurance policies. In most cases, your personal property is only covered against theft in hotels if it includes coverage for "simple theft away from home". This coverage is usually optional and does not come standard with household insurance in Switzerland.

It is worth noting that in Switzerland, hotel owners are liable to cover the cost of guests' personal property stolen from the hotel up to a maximum of 1000 Swiss francs per guest. High-value items must be handed over to the hotel reception for safekeeping in order to qualify for this coverage - but laptops do not normally fall into this category.

Note that hotel liability is based on the actual cash value of stolen items, and not their replacement value. The actual cash value of a used laptop - meaning the money which you could get for reselling the laptop - may be very low. If you have household insurance with additional coverage for simple theft away from home, you will usually be compensated up to the replacement value of your property (the cost of replacing the stolen item).

Best regards from Moneyguru

More on this topic:
Household insurance explained
Guide to insuring simple theft away from home
Burglary defined
Robbery defined