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Hospitality consultants
Yes. Owners, investors and lenders commit large sums on the strength of your feasibility studies, kitchen layouts and pre-opening plans. If a forecast proves unfounded, a kitchen fails its first inspection or an opening slips because a licence or registration was missed, they can claim the loss from you, and professional indemnity insurance is designed to cover that liability. Check one point early: many PI wordings restrict fire safety advice, so if you advise on fire strategy you need a policy that says it is covered.
Part of: Professional indemnity for consultants
In short
Hotel and catering consultants sell advice that other people spend money on: market and feasibility studies, kitchen and front-of-house design, operating models and pre-opening programmes. A claim usually alleges that the advice was negligent and cost the client, or a lender relying on your report, money. In England, restaurants and cafés fall in Class E of the Use Classes Order, while pubs, bars and hot food takeaways sit outside any use class. Food premises must be laid out to permit good hygiene practice, and food businesses must register at least 28 days before trading. No law requires you to hold PI; clients and lenders set the limit.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
Hotel and catering consultants rarely injure anyone. Your exposure is the money other people spend because of what you said: the price paid for a site, the size of a loan, a kitchen fitted to your drawings, a team hired to your staffing model, an opening date announced to guests. When the advice is wrong the loss is financial, and it can surface long after your fee was paid.
Professional indemnity (PI) insurance usually covers your legal liability for that loss when it flows from negligence in your professional work, and pays the cost of defending the claim. Public liability does a different job: accidental injury or damage, such as a guest who trips over a sample board you left in a corridor. Most hospitality consultants need both, but PI is usually the policy that answers an allegation that your advice was wrong.
The people who can claim are not only your client. Lenders, investors, hotel brands and buyers of a business often read and act on your reports, and that wider reliance is what sets this trade’s PI apart. It has its own section below.
The examples below are illustrative, not real claims. They show the allegations owners and lenders make when hospitality advice goes wrong.
Each turns on whether you gave the advice a competent hospitality consultant would have given.
Hospitality advice is rarely judged against a single code. These rules most often decide whether a scheme you advised on works as planned. The planning rules shown apply in England.
| Rule | What it says | Where consultants get caught |
|---|---|---|
| Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 | Since 1 September 2020, restaurants and cafés selling food mostly eaten on the premises fall in Class E, while pubs, wine bars, drinking establishments and hot food takeaways are outside any use class. Changing to another use within the same class is not development. | Site advice that assumes a bar or takeaway can open in any Class E unit. |
| Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter I | The layout, design, construction, siting and size of food premises must allow adequate cleaning, provide enough working space, protect against contamination and permit good hygiene practice, with temperature-controlled storage of sufficient capacity where necessary. | Kitchen and back-of-house layouts. |
| Food business registration | Food businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are required to register with their local authority at least 28 days before trading. | Pre-opening timetables. |
| Licensing Act 2003, section 1 | Selling alcohol by retail, providing regulated entertainment and providing late night refreshment are licensable activities in England and Wales. | Opening plans that assume the bar can trade from day one. |
| Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 9 | The responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to relevant persons, to identify the fire precautions needed. England and Wales. | Layout changes that affect escape routes, and advice your PI may restrict. |
| Equality Act 2010, sections 20 and 29 | Service providers must take reasonable steps to avoid a substantial disadvantage to disabled people, including where a physical feature causes it. | Bedroom, bathroom and entrance design. |
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Negligent feasibility studies, market assessments and forecasts | Fire safety and fire strategy advice, unless the wording expressly covers it | Accidental injury or damage during site visits (public liability) |
| Kitchen, bar and front-of-house design errors | Occupancy, revenue or profit figures you guaranteed | Injury to your own staff (employers’ liability) |
| Pre-opening and project planning mistakes that delay trading | Liability you take on in reliance letters or warranties beyond reasonable skill and care | Acting as a director of the client’s company (directors’ and officers’ insurance) |
| Operational advice on staffing, procedures and systems | Disputes about equipment you supplied, rather than advice you gave | Equipment or goods you sell (product liability) |
| Defence costs, including expert hospitality evidence | Fee disputes and the return of fees | Your own office, laptop and samples (property cover) |
Cover is subject to the wording and the insurer’s agreement. Fire safety is the restriction most likely to bite: many PI policies now exclude fire safety advice or cap it with an aggregate sub-limit. If your work touches escape routes, fire strategy or compartmentation, get written confirmation of what your policy covers. Our guide to fire safety and cladding exclusions explains the wordings.
A hotel feasibility study is rarely read only by the person who paid for it. Banks use it to size debt, equity investors to decide whether to commit, and a brand to approve a franchise. Each may later say it relied on your figures.
How far that reliance reaches depends partly on your contract. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 lets someone who is not a party to a contract enforce a term of it if the contract expressly says so, or if the term purports to benefit them and the parties did not intend otherwise. The third party must be identified by name, as a member of a class or by description, so a clause giving “any funder of the project” the benefit of your report can open the door to a claim from a bank you have never met.
Lenders also ask consultants to sign reliance letters, giving the lender a direct right to rely on your report. Before you sign one:
A feasibility study is not a valuation. If a lender wants a valuation, that is work for a valuer, and neither your report nor your PI description should suggest you have provided one. See also collateral warranties and PI.
Hotel and restaurant projects pull consultants towards subjects that other specialists are usually appointed for. Three come up most often.
If a claim arises from advice outside the services described on your policy, the insurer may argue it is not covered. Describe what you actually do on your proposal, and update it when your services change.
Limits are usually set by whoever relies on you. Hotel owners and developers put a minimum PI figure into appointments, lenders may make cover a condition of accepting your report, and hotel brands may specify a figure for consultants on their projects. Size the limit on the decision your advice supports, such as the purchase price or the loan, rather than on your fee.
Ask whether the requirement is for each and every claim or in the aggregate, and how long you must keep cover after the job. A feasibility study can be blamed for a loan that fails several years after opening.
Because PI is claims-made, the policy that answers is the one in force when the claim arrives. Keep cover continuous, and arrange run-off if you retire, sell the practice or move in-house. If a client wants a higher figure than you hold, see when a contract requires a higher PI limit.
A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:
Speak to a broker
PI for hotel and catering consultants, placed by a named broker
Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.
Yes. Owners, lenders and investors rely on your feasibility studies, designs and pre-opening plans to make large financial decisions. If the advice is wrong and they lose money, they can claim against you. PI covers your liability for negligent advice and the cost of defending the claim, subject to the policy terms.
No law or regulator requires hospitality consultants to hold PI. In practice owners, developers, lenders and hotel brands usually require it in the appointment, often with a minimum limit and a period after the work ends during which you must keep cover in force.
It can if it has a direct right to rely on your report, for example through a reliance letter, or through a contract term that benefits funders and is enforceable under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. Agree caps and the scope of reliance before you sign, and tell your insurer about every reliance letter.
Often only in part. Many PI wordings exclude fire safety advice or limit it to an aggregate sub-limit. If you advise on escape routes, fire strategy or compartmentation, ask for written confirmation of cover before you take the work, or recommend that the client appoints a fire safety specialist.
It can, if negligent advice caused the delay, such as a pre-opening plan that left a licence or registration too late, or a design that failed an inspection. It does not cover delays caused by contractors, suppliers or the client’s own decisions, and a contractual promise to hit an opening date may go beyond what PI covers.
Not necessarily. Interim management means making decisions, not only advising, and serving as a director or officer of the client company raises different risks. Tell your insurer exactly what the role involves. You may need the PI wording adjusted, and to be covered by the client’s directors’ and officers’ policy.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for hotel and catering consultants across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your PI proposal Call 0117 325 0027Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
