Good Times Insurance

Planning your next outing in France? Tourism and event businesses across France offer Orakle Weather’s insurance during booking, ensuring you’ll get your money back if rain threatens to ruin your outdoor activity.

The Weather Insurance You Were Looking for Is Finally Here

Planning an outdoor activity weeks or months in advance is like a gamble. You hope for good weather, but dark clouds are always lurking. You pay for a day at the amusement park with your children, a concert with your friends, or a company offsite event with your team, only for it to rain. And then you go anyway because canceling means losing your money. But it’s miserable — you’re wet, uncomfortable, grumpy, not to mention, it can also lead to additional costs, like buying rain gear or paying for an indoor activity to avoid the rain.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could plan these activities with the peace of mind that you could cancel the day before, if rain is expected, and still get a full refund? It sure would! Surprisingly, however, there are very few insurance options for this. Orakle Weather is one of the rare exceptions.

Check the Weather Forecast, Make Your Decision

The idea for Orakle Weather was born when Stella Jovet and Rym Ben Hassine, then insurance experts at AXA and Swiss Re, were planning a trekking expedition in the mountains of Zermatt, Switzerland. They searched for insurance that would refund them in case of bad weather but found none. Inspired by this gap in the market, they decided to create their own solution. In 2023, they launched Orakle Weather.

“Our key differentiator is flexibility. Customers can make decisions based on forecasts, giving them peace of mind. This proactive approach sets us apart from traditional insurance models”, explains Stella.

Orakle Weather collaborates with Solucia SPJ, a French mutual insurance company, to offer a B2B2C solution. Its clients include businesses in tourism and events, such as tourism accommodation, amusement parks, boat rental companies, and travel agencies. These businesses integrate Orakle’s weather insurance as an optional add-on during booking, seamlessly embedding it into their systems to enhance customer experience.

Accurate Weather Data Is Key for Forecast-Based Insurance

When someone purchases weather insurance, Orakle Weather collects information about the activity’s location, time, and date. The day before the activity, the system queries the Meteomatics Weather API for weather forecasts. If the forecast predicts rain exceeding the insured threshold, the customer receives a notification with two options: cancel and get a full refund, or proceed with their activity. If they choose to proceed, the system verifies the actual weather conditions afterward. If it rained as predicted, the customer receives a partial refund to compensate for their additional costs.

In an insurance model that goes beyond claims management, allowing clients the flexibility to cancel and receive a full refund based on a forecast, accurate weather data becomes truly indispensable for both parties.

For the final consumer, canceling an activity they were looking forward to, only to find out it didn’t rain would be frustrating. For insurers, issuing refunds unnecessarily would be a waste of resources. With Meteomatics’ high-quality, precise weather data, Orakle Weather can reliably predict conditions and maintain clients’ trust.

“Meteomatics was an obvious choice for us. It came highly recommended by a trusted contact in the insurance industry. After a two-month trial, we were indeed impressed by how user-friendly and flexible the Weather API is, making integration with our own API very easy, and the data quality is outstanding,” says Rym.

Looking Ahead: More Weather Parameters and New Regions

Orakle Weather plans to expand its coverage to include more weather-related risks like extreme heat, wind, and snow. For example, extreme heat can seriously affect outdoor events, and businesses are showing growing interest in solutions for these challenges.

The company is also preparing to expand internationally, aiming to reach markets beyond metropolitan France in the near future.

We at Meteomatics love collaborating with and supporting startups, especially when their service is as innovative and needed as Orakle Weather’s. When they expand to Switzerland, we’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for their insurance when booking company offsite events! After all, we know they have the best weather data.