Friday, March 4, 2022, 01:00 in the early morning. Xiang Tran is a happy man, looking back on the first three days after the opening of his restaurant 55DEGREES on Arnhem's Jansplein with satisfaction. After another busy day, the guests have gone home and Xiang is chatting with his staff. Then the mood turns.
Washer dryer
"I was called to the kitchen because someone smelled a smell of fire. Nothing could be seen in the kitchen, but as I walked down the stairs I saw smoke coming from the basement. There had been a short circuit in the clothes dryer. I yelled for the fire department to be called and for everyone to leave the building. I myself tried to put out the smoldering clothes dryer, but in vain. When flames came I quickly hermetically sealed the basement and ran outside."
Xiang was barely on the street when he heard a huge bang. "I was very lucky," he said. While the fire department arrived at lightning speed to put out the fire, Xiang felt helplessness, panic and stress. "The adrenaline was coursing through my body. I was worried about the health of my employees and the future of my business. How long would we be closed? I was also quickly thinking about my insurance policies. I wanted to know if the fire damage was covered and called Guido."
Missed calls
"Early in the morning I saw all kinds of missed calls from Xiang and thought: something has gone wrong here," says Guido Robertz, adviser to KHN Insurance. He went to see him the same day. "I did that with peace of mind, because in my profession you take this kind of incident into account. I knew Xiang was well insured; after all, we had taken care of that properly a few days earlier."
Xiang had initially taken out his insurance policies himself, through Centraal Beheer's website and a telephone consultation with one of their employees. When the premiums were increased just before the opening of his restaurant, a representative of Koninklijke Horeca Nederland pointed him to that association's member benefits. He was also given Guido's contact information. On Feb. 26, four days before 55DEGREES opened, the two men met. "It was a friendly and personal conversation. At Centraal Beheer I hardly got any explanations, it gave confidence that Guido could answer all my questions. And I saw that the premium saved quite a lot," says Xiang.
Second opinion
That the total annual insurance premium he has to pay to KHN Insurances ends up being higher, Guido can easily explain. "We always do a premium comparison as well as a second opinion. The insurances that Xiang already had for business liability, inventory, tenant's interest and glass we could offer almost 20% cheaper. At the same time, we found that the insured amounts for inventory and tenant's interest were far too low. Also missing were a number of essential insurances, such as those for business damage, inventory, electronics, money and a legally required health and safety service."
On March 1, Xiang received confirmation that the insurances he needed had been provisionally covered. An inspector from Nationale-Nederlanden found that Guido's assessment of the risks and preventive measures were correct. "A second inspection by the insurer is one of the components in our approach by which we build in certainty," Guido says. "In the event of a fire, two things are important: do you as a hospitality entrepreneur meet the prevention requirements, such as a NEN inspection Scope 10, and are the insured amounts correct. A hospitality entrepreneur wants to relieve his customers by giving them a pleasant afternoon or evening. We specialize in taking their worries away with a good insurance package and the right help when damage occurs."
Quick processing
Xiang was pleased with the quick handling of the damage. "Guido got to work energetically; he immediately made it clear what steps we were going to take. A week after the fire, my restaurant was able to reopen. The fact that I switched to KHN Verzekeringen on time saved me a lot of headaches. Because after one of my employees dropped out within a few weeks with a burnout, I also needed the co-insured health and safety service very quickly. It is quite a reassurance that I am now well insured."
