Valet Liability

Valet liability protects a business — such as a restaurant, hotel, nightclub, or event venue — against claims for damage to a customer's vehicle while that vehicle is being parked, moved, or stored by the business's valet. Standard general liability and even a customer's own auto policy leave a serious gap here because damage to property in your care, custody, and control is generally excluded. Valet exposure is almost always insured under a garagekeepers form, which responds to collision, comprehensive (fire, theft, vandalism), and sometimes theft of the keys or the entire vehicle.

Why it matters: a single valet fender-bender or a stolen luxury car can generate a claim far larger than a small operator expects, and the customer will look to your business first. Coverage can be written on one of three bases — legal liability (pays only when you're legally at fault), direct primary, or direct excess — and the basis dramatically changes when the policy pays. A legal-liability form forces the customer to prove your negligence, while a direct-primary form pays for damage regardless of fault, which is what most high-end venues want. Buyers should also watch the per-occurrence limit and any per-vehicle sublimit, since parking several expensive vehicles at once can exceed a low limit.

A practical nuance: garagekeepers limits are usually stated per location and per occurrence, and the deductible often applies per vehicle. If a hailstorm or a garage fire damages a dozen cars at once, a per-vehicle deductible can quietly erode a large share of the recovery. Operators who run valet as a subcontracted service should confirm whether the parking vendor carries its own garagekeepers coverage and whether the venue is named as an additional insured, because otherwise the venue's own policy — and its limits — will absorb the loss.