The Sunshine Guaranteed

Every year many wait with baited breathe to see what the hurricane season has in store. But for the tourism industry in the Caribbean and southern U.S. states, business must go on, and several companies in the past few years have implemented programs to encourage and protect customers traveling to the regions in the summer months.

Marriott International’s Caribbean Travel Interruption Promise helps their guests to reschedule if their stay is interrupted by a hurricane. Among participating hotel are the Jaragua Hotel & Casino in Dominican Republic, St. Kitts Marriott Resort & The Royal Beach Casino and Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort in St. Thomas. Under this promise, according to a May 2007 press release, if a scheduled meeting at a participating resort is interrupted, or the ability to travel to the resort for the meeting is affected, the meeting planner or group will be offered a replacement meeting at the same resort within one year, or the impacted hotel will make every attempt to relocate the group to another comparable Marriott or Renaissance resort. This is all at the discretion of Marriott and subject to availability and other applicable terms and conditions.

Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic has a policy known as its 105% Hurricane Guarantee by which planners or groups may cancel reservations and receive 105% of their deposits if within 48 hours of their scheduled arrival, either a hurricane watch or hurricane warning is issued for La Romana in the Dominican Republic. Their policy also applies if air travel is interrupted by a hurricane watch or hurricane warning in the group’s origination city or on their travel route, affecting their ability to get to Casa de Campo. The 105% guarantee represents a 100% refund plus 5% resort credit on the refunded amount to be used toward a future stay at the resort within one year of their original travel dates. Naturally, cancellation penalties are waived. In turn, if a hurricane watch or hurricane warning is issued for La Romana during the groups’ stay and it is required that the group departs early, they will receive 100% refund of the unused nights plus 5% resort credit on the refunded amount for future use.

For both Casa de Campo and participating hotels in Marriott’s program, the hurricane watch and hurricane warning must be defined by and issued by the US National Weather Service. A hurricane watch is issued for specific coastal areas that hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours, whereas a hurricane warning issued when hurricane conditions, sustained winds of 74 mph or higher, are expected in a specified coastal area in 24 hours or less.

Hurricane guarantee policies may seem a natural option for the summer months, but SuperClubs in fact takes its guarantee to another level with its Sunshine Guarantee. According to SuperClubs, which includes properties such as Grand Lido Negril, for each and every day the sun does not show during a stay at participating resorts, they will issue a credit voucher equal to that day's Super-Inclusive room value, good for up to one year towards another SuperClubs stay. The determination as to weather or not that is a Sunshine Day is made by each resort’s Water Sports Director.

It is not clear if these guarantees have had any real impact on travel patterns in the Caribbean in the summer, but in a recent survey conducted by TripAdvisor, they found that fifty-five percent of travelers (65 percent of Americans) would travel to a popular hurricane susceptible destination, for a significant savings, compared to 51 percent in 2006.