What’s on the COI?
THE "WHAT" AND "WHEN" OF COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR VENDORSWhen Do We Get Them?
What You’ll Get
Free Account Set Up
We'll get your venue and user accounts set up at no charge
Personalized Dashboard
Check the status of COIs by date, client, or vendor in your personalized dashboard
Done-For-You Automation
We'll take care of contacting your event vendors to collect their COIs on your behalf
Online Support
Our online customer support can answer questions about your account or service plan
The Details
What will the COIs include or have covered?
We review every COI to identify and verify the following details:
Venue name and address noted as the Certificate Holder
Venue designated as Additionally Insured
General Liability coverage in the amounts of at least $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 general aggregate
COI is active and expiration date is not before your event
Exclusionary language such as “when required by contract” is not included
Liquor liability coverage included (for catering vendor COIs)
Can I customize any of those details or ask for something specific to be included?
TBD…
When will you contact my vendors for COIs?
COIs are due 60 days before your event, so we send out our first communication to vendors 2 weeks before the due date. This allows a vendor time to gather a COI (or correct and resubmit) if they don’t have it available immediately. It also allows us time to follow up as needed before the due date arrives.
Why is the due date 60 days before an event? Can I change it to be 30 days instead?
We set COI due dates to be 60 days out from the event date. This allows a "buffer time" on your end if all of our efforts are unsuccessful. Meaning if a vendor doesn't respond or submit their COI by 60 days, then you still have time to get something from them and are not scrambling in the last weeks or days before an event when things can naturally be more hectic with other responsibilities. At this time, due dates cannot be changed.
What kind of communications do you have with vendors?
We send a series of emails to vendors who need to submit COIs as follows:
An introductory email that lets them know we are collecting COIs for XYZ Event at your venue. We provide information about:
COI requirements
Due date
A link to submit the COI online
Reminder Email #1
Reminder Email #2
Past Due Email *
Once a vendor submits a valid and correct COI, we stop follow up messages. Their COI remains on file and can be applied to other future events as well.
If a vendor already have a valid COI on file in our system for your venue from a previous event, we do not contact them until the COI is expired and needs updating.
* see more in the next question and answer
What happens if a vendor doesn’t submit a COI by the due date?
If the due date passes without receive a vendor’s COI, they will then receive an email stating that they are in non-compliance with your venue’s policies. Sometimes this alone spurs a previously unresponsive vendor into action and all is taken care of!
An email is also sent to you as the venue letting you know that the vendor has been uncooperative with our multiple attempts to reach them. It will then be up to you to decide how to proceed with enforcing your COI policies with that vendor.
Only a small percentage of vendors miss the due date given the ample time and multiple communications. Fortunately, we have found most vendors to be very quick to respond to our COI requests!
What happens when a COI that I have expires or needs to be renewed?
We’ve got that covered too! When we see a vendor’s COI is going to expire, we follow up with them so they can submit an updated version. We reach out 10 days before the expiration date. This gives them time to gather and submit the new COI. If they fail to submit a new COI, we’ll them them know the are in non-compliance with your venue’s policies. We’ll also let you know so you can decide how to proceed with enforcing your COI policies with that vendor.
What happens if I add a vendor later in planning and the due date has passed?
TBD…