4 minute read
Climate Technology to Improve Guest Experience and Decrease Cancellations
Sensible Weather is a climate technology and insurance company that partners with outdoor hospitality businesses to reimburse guests when bad weather impacts their stays. We talked with Sensible’s Founder & CEO, Nick Cavanaugh, PhD, to learn more about how their innovative Weather Guarantee is helping glamping businesses generate incremental revenue and increase guest satisfaction.
Nick Cavanaugh
Where did you get the idea for Sensible Weather?
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, near Seattle, and have always loved to ski. While working as a hedge fund quant in New York City, I was further from the mountains—but was using cutting-edge climate analytics to make bets on how the weather would impact energy, agriculture, and weather derivatives markets. During ski season, I would use our platform to determine which resorts were likely to have the best snow, and book travel accordingly. This helped me maximize my limited time off, and this personal use case sparked the idea for Sensible: How can we leverage sophisticated climate analytics to de-risk the weather’s impact on investments in vacations, ski trips, or any other outdoor experience?
So, I founded Sensible Weather in 2019 and we launched in 2020 with our first product, the Weather Guarantee.
How does a Weather Guarantee work?
Weather Guarantees give guests more confidence to book outdoor hospitality reservations knowing they’ll be reimbursed 100% for experiences that don’t meet expectations due to rain or other adverse weather.
If bad weather is forecasted to occur during an outdoor experience, Sensible automatically texts the customer a link to easily collect their reimbursement the morning of that experience. Guarantee payments are processed immediately via electronic payment services like PayPal or Venmo, with payouts based on the number of hours the experience is negatively impacted by weather.
For example, three hours of rain during a camping trip would result in an automatic 100% payout of the cost of the reservation—and the guest is still able to visit the campsite so long as it hasn’t closed due to severe weather! The merchant partners with whom we integrate get the benefits of increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as a share of revenue on the Weather Guarantees sold through their channels.
Why is glamping a good fit for Weather Guarantees?
The outdoor hospitality industry has been a natural fit for us and a first-mover to embrace our climate tech. We’ve found that Weather Guarantees increase online conversion by eliminating booking hesitation in the shoulder seasons, and decrease cancellations when rain is in the forecast. Our revshare commission is built into the Weather Guarantee’s price and helps operators generate ancillary revenue.
We’re lucky to work with a number of great partners in the business, including Campspot, AutoCamp, Collective Retreats, Campsited, Yonder Escalante, Tentrr, and Reserve America.
What kind of attach rates are your partners seeing for Weather Guarantees?
For Tentrr, our first partner in the US, around 30% of guests added a Weather Guarantee to their reservation when presented with the option in 2022.
What are common misconceptions about Weather Guarantees?
That guests need to cancel their reservation in order to get reimbursed for their trip. Weather Guarantees are not a cancellation policy. We want you to go and enjoy your trip, and we’ll reimburse you for the days when it rains.
What are your partner marketing and growth plans?
100% of our sales happen through partner channel integrations. Our continued growth is a function of new partners we onboard as well as the growth of existing channels. Because of this, we are dedicated to supporting our partners and creating better experiences for their customers, first and foremost. Our 2023 partnership roadmap is heavily focused on European partners and we’re excited to announce new integrations with our first UK and EU-based camping and glamping partners in Q1 2023.
