A newly-launched weather app is so confident in its ability to predict the forecast that it is willing to pay travelers up to $10,000 if it rains during their trips.
WeatherPromise operates similarly to travel insurance, with users paying between $5 to $500 to get a refund if mother nature spoils their vacation.
The New York-based company uses AI technology to generate weather data for 2.3 million locations around the world every hour, according to its website.
Travelers would be eligible for a refund ranging from $100 to $10,000 if it rains for a certain number of days during their trips.
Scroll down to see how it works
A newly launched weather app promises to pay travelers up to $10,000 if it rains during their trips
WeatherPromise operates similarly to travel insurance, with users paying between $5 to $500 to get a refund if mother nature spoils their vacation
It’s incredibly simple how it works: you book a trip and buy a WeatherPromise based on your destination and length.
You will automatically receive a refund if the website’s prediction doesn’t match reality.
For example, if you booked a one-week trip to Cancun, Mexico, in mid-April and spent $7,000 on a fancy all-inclusive resort, you might be quoted $350 for the insurance, but you’d get the total $7,000 refunded if it rained on at least three days of your seven-day trip.
‘We customize every WeatherPromise for the specific trip and traveler to design an offer that will fit your destination, type of trip, and dates,’ co-founder Dan Price told Forbes.
‘For some trips, we automatically refund the entire trip cost if you see even a single day of bad weather. Other WeatherPromises might trigger after one or two days of bad weather.
Almost all WeatherPromises will refund your entire trip cost if the weather is worse than we promise. No matter what, we believe in transparency, so we always show your exact WeatherPromise including triggers and refund amount before you buy.’
A day of rain is counted if it rains at least three hours between 8 am and 8 pm and if the rainfall exceeds 0.06 inches per hour, as noted on the website.
Price said he came up with the idea after experiencing his best trips during the off-season to destinations prone to unpredictable weather.
Vacations to Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand in the middle of winter, and to Cambodia and India during the rainy season were some of the best times he had.
‘WeatherPromises make perfect sense for trips like these, giving travelers the confidence to explore with the confidence that they will get a refund if the weather is bad,’ he said.
‘We know that what you would consider bad weather in Miami is completely different from what ‘bad weather’ means in Scotland, so our system automatically customizes every WeatherPromise and suggests a WeatherPromise that allows you to maximize your trip.’
‘We always show you exactly what ‘bad weather’ means before you buy a WeatherPromise. We watch the actual weather as it happens at your destination and then automatically reach out to you with a refund as soon as we see bad weather.’
Price said he came up with the idea after experiencing his best trips during the off-season to destinations prone to unpredictable weather. Pictured: the Miami skyline before heavy rainfall in December
Months after it launched, WeatherPromises received a 4.2 rating on travel website Trustpilot
One traveler said they would use the service again even though the weather was perfect during their trip to Atlanta
Months after it launched, WeatherPromises received a 4.2 rating on travel website Trustpilot.
One traveler said they would use the service again even though the weather was perfect during their trip to Atlanta.
‘The area is known for fast changes in weather, and this guarantee is like a safety net. Better safe than sorry, right? Their service was top-notch, quick turnaround, transparent!’
But meteorologist Michael A. Favetta is not optimistic about the website, saying the weather changes are hard to predict.
‘Based on my experience, weather changes too quickly … and is difficult to predict more than a few days ahead,’ he told the New York Post.