Priceline is offering a new “sunshine guarantee” over the summer that refunds 100% of airfare, hotel and car rental charges booked through them if your vacation gets rained on. It only applies to certain destinations, and it has to rain .5 inches per day for at least half the trip, but there is no additional fee for the insurance.
My guess is a few people may actually try to book a trip hoping it rains so that they’ll get the refund. It’ll be hard to guess, though, since tickets have to be purchased at least twelve days in advance. If anyone manages to do it, let us know and we’ll send you a TechCrunch tshirt (pictures of you standing in the rain are required, preferably with you holding open a laptop or phone with the TechCrunch site displayed and some sort of thumbs up signal 
).
The insurance is being provided through Weatherbill, a weather-related insurance startup founded by ex-Googler David Friedberg in early 2007.
I guess psychics would make a good target audience here!
Try Seattle
Hmm, looks like theres going to be lots of trips booked out here for Australia.
Sighs @ drought.
a silicon valley startup that is actually monetizing?!?!? No way!
This seems like a pretty smart way to apply Weatherbill’s product. instead of just protecting against a catastrophe like a hurricane like typical insurance, they are actually using the product to protect the VALUE and the enjoyment the customer expects when they are booking a vacation. it seems to me they can apply this in a lot of other industries where weather (ahem) “dampens” the value of an experience.
Who in their right mind would HOPE that their vacation gets rained on so that they get it free? That would completely ruin almost any vacation and hence what the hell wouuld be the point of spending countless hours in airports, airplanes, cars, taxis, etc - just because it’s free? People are insane.
Seattle. Anytime. Done.
@Sean-
I agree. I think Arrington got it wrong here though. the point isn’t to go book a vacation in hopes that it rains just so you can get your money back (that would be insane). The point here with the sunshine guarantee is that if you spend all that time in airports, airplanes, cars, etc. and shell out $5k for your family to take a trip and then it rains the whole time, you will get your money back. it’s all about being assured, if you book through priceline, that you get the value you expect when you shell out the money for a trip.
This is kind of dumb… why should anyone expect to be compensated for weather which is out of the control of the airline/hotel/etc.’s hands in every sense.
“StartupGuy” - the value you expect when you book is not sunny days - you expect that you have a seat on the plane. You expect that you have a room at the hotel. You expect that your car is at the rental office for you to pick. You *don’t* expect a perfect getaway courtesy of Priceline.
I kinda like the math behind this and I think this is for the “science” minded people who want to beat the game. They said booked 12 days in advance. Weather forecast is accurate to about 2 or 3 days in advance minus any direct human intervention. There are only a few vacation spots people want to go that meet the refund criteria of 0.50 inch for 50% of the time. That’s quite a lot of rain considering this message is written from bay area.
I would be interested in the outcome. How many people actually get refunded.
Here in Canada, we had a similar promotion by iTravel2000 called “Let it Snow”. If it snowed more than 5 inches on January 1st at the local airport, travelers would get their trip for free.
iTravel2000 took a $100-million insurance coverage with WeatherBill Inc. to cover the cost.
Montreal was the only one to get more than 5 inches of snow so travelers from Quebec got the free ride.
“The biggest payouts will go to those who booked entire wedding party vacations of 30 to 40 passengers.”
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story.....ntest.html
This is so cool.
Hehe, perhaps I could try using Monte-Carlo algorithm, which is heavily used in weather forecasting to predict rainy days. Anyway as Math said that weather forecast is accurate to about 2 or 3 days, therefore Monte-Carlo prediction in advance for 12 days ahead would almost useless, ie, no difference with tossing a coin.
Perhaps Weatherbill insurance could start trading in weather-derivatives-market and see if they can beat that market regularly.
I believe the appropriate way to “Play this game” is to book overlapping, refundable, insured short vacations to several cities simultaneously, twelve days out.
Wait until the last day or two, and cancel all but the one that looks the most promising (or ominous).
Of course, I have no idea “weather” this will work!
@14 Eve ..You evil You LOL ! What are you an Actuary ?
Well I can guarantee you that there will be no rain on your next trip to the deserts of somalia …
Also I dont think people will buy more vacations just because there is a guarantee that it wont rain . People will buy more vacations if the vacations are cheaper ..
@What: The value that Priceline I’m sure wants to deliver is the experience of the vacation. From a branding perspective, there is much more value in providing the consumer with an experience than with a simple product (tickets, rental car, etc.).
Which consumer is more likely to try Priceline again, the one who thinks “I got a great vacation from Priceline” or the one who thinks “I got cheap tickets from Priceline”? Plus, it is much harder for competitors to copy and compete on experiential benefits than it is on price/product related ones.
Try Bergen, Norway, the rainiest place on earth.
I’m sure priceline is hoping people try & “beat” this system. I’d bet that they’ve got weather derivatives backing this… & if they don’t weatherbill certainly does. This is pure upside for them.
I’ve had three vacations get rained on heavily: Hawaii in March, Mexico in September, and DC in April. At least two of those would have been free under this policy.
If you want a free trip right now, book to DC today, they’re getting insane weather.
While not the wettest (though close), the place with “the most rainy days” is Mount Waialeale on Kauai.
Wait, you guys want us to stand in the rain with our laptop open and turned on?
What could go wrong, right?
@ Foo and Hater
Have you ever spent a summer in Seattle? The rainy season may be long but the summer is beautiful.
What? You are encouraging people to shoot themselves with an open laptop under the rain? Do you offer insurance for drown laptops?
Anyone seeking for a winner in this case should try Costa Rica -never better a time as it is the “green season” (as in it rains so much everything is lush) during the next months.
@Max:
I hear it’s green season all the time at Twitter.
What Weatherbill are doing is very shrewd. They’re getting their products publicised to raise awareness to corporates who think the only way to protect against the weather is a standard insurance policy (getting increasingly expensive).
Products like this have existed for a while for rain, temperature, snow, hail etc but being able to price and transact online is bringing them to the mainstream.