Why did my restaurant insurance go up this year?
For most restaurants, it shouldn't have. In 2026 the commercial insurance market went down for the first time in eight years: property, workers' comp and cyber all came in lower for a clean account. If your renewal still came in higher, the increase came from one of five places: sales or payroll grew, a claim moved your workers' comp experience number, your liquor share crossed a line, the liability lines outweighed the property lines, or nobody took the account to market.
What actually moved in 2026
The first quarter of 2026 was the first overall decline in commercial insurance pricing in thirty-three quarters, by the brokers' own survey, and the second quarter kept going. By line, for an account with a clean history: property down 6 to 13 percent, eight straight quarters of decline. Workers' comp down 3 to 10 percent. Cyber down about 3 percent. General liability still up, 5 to 15 percent. Umbrella up 5 to 20 percent, the top of that range for hospitality, and the thirty-fifth straight quarter of increases. Liquor the tightest line there is, with some carriers no longer writing it. A six-store program that split the way most do came out a couple of thousand dollars lower on the same stores and the same sales.
The five reasons a clean account still goes up
Sales or payroll grew. General liability and liquor are rated on sales; workers' comp is rated on payroll. The renewal rolls last year's estimates forward, and the audit bill reconciles them to the real numbers sixty to ninety days after the policy ends. A growing group can pay more at a lower rate. The check is this year's premium against this year's sales, not against last year's premium.
The experience number moved. One number on the workers' comp policy compares your claims to other restaurants in your state. 1.00 is average; 1.15 is fifteen percent more premium than an average operator on the same payroll. It uses a three-year window and skips the most recent year, so a claim reaches the price two or three years after it happens, which is why a quiet year can still renew higher. Ask for the worksheet, company by company, and have it read to you.
Liquor crossed the line. Standard carriers pull back when alcohol passes 25 to 30 percent of sales. Above that share, who is willing to quote the account decides the price, and an agent who knows the market says so before the renewal, not after. The longer, evergreen version of this is in the guide: Liquor liability.
The liability lines outweighed the property lines. Property and workers' comp fell this year; general liability and umbrella did not. A program that is heavy on liability and umbrella, a late-night bar for instance, can net up while the market as a whole nets down. Ask for the renewal by line against last year, with the rate change and the exposure change shown separately. One line usually explains the whole increase.
Nobody took it to market. An account that no other carrier has quoted in two or three years is priced by one carrier's rate change. In a rising market that goes unnoticed. In a falling one it's the year the gap shows. Shopping every year burns the market; every two or three years is the practice, and the conversation about it belongs in every renewal.
What to do before the next renewal
Ask for this year's renewal broken out by line against last year's, and ask when the account was last marketed and to whom. Have the workers' comp experience worksheet read to you. Start the next renewal sixty to ninety days out, which is the only way there is time to take it to market. And run the ten questions on the insurance check: each one a yes or a no you can answer from memory, and the ones that come back no are the ones to raise.