What Hotelsca US is
Hotelsca US is an independent editorial guide to travel insurance for people traveling to, from and within the United States. We publish plain-English explanations of what policies cover, how the main benefits work, where the exclusions tend to hide, and what to check in the policy wording before you buy.
We are a publisher. We do not sell insurance, we do not broker it, and we are not licensed to advise you on your own situation. Everything on this site is general information, written so that you can read your own certificate of insurance with more confidence.
What we cover
Our guides focus on the questions travelers tend to get stuck on:
- Whether the coverage that comes with a credit card is enough for a given trip, and where it usually falls short.
- What counts as a covered reason for trip cancellation or interruption, and what does not.
- How pre-existing medical conditions are defined, and how look-back periods and waivers work.
- Emergency medical and medical evacuation benefits, and why the two are not the same thing.
- How coverage changes for older travelers, cruises, long stays, adventure activities, and destinations with entry requirements of their own.
- How to file a claim, what documentation insurers ask for, and what to do when a claim is denied.
Who publishes this site
Hotelsca US is the English-language arm of Hotelsca, which publishes travel content in Hebrew at hotelsca.net for the Israeli travel market. This site applies the same editorial approach to travel insurance for US trips and US travelers.
Guides are written and maintained by the site’s editorial desk and published under the byline Hotelsca US Editorial Team. We do not attribute articles to named specialists, because we do not employ any. Earlier articles carried the byline David Sterling; that was a house pen name used by the same desk, not a person with insurance credentials, and we have retired it in favor of a label that says what it is. No one on the desk holds an insurance license, and we say so rather than imply otherwise.
How guides are built
Every guide starts with documents rather than with other websites. Depending on the topic, that means:
- The insurer’s own plan documents: the certificate of insurance, the schedule of benefits, and the definitions and exclusions sections, which is where most disputes are decided.
- US State Department travel advisories and country information pages.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance on health risks and vaccination requirements by destination.
- Medicare rules on coverage outside the United States, as published by CMS and Medicare.gov.
- Official EU and Schengen-area rules on entry requirements and on the insurance some visas require.
- State insurance regulators and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), for consumer protections, complaint procedures, and how insurance is regulated in each state.
- Airlines’ and cruise lines’ own contracts of carriage and terms, where a guide touches on refunds and delays.
Where a detail varies by insurer or by state, and in travel insurance it very often does, we say so rather than presenting one insurer’s terms as universal. Where we cannot verify something against a primary source, we leave it out. Our Editorial Policy describes the process in more detail, and a short “How this guide was researched” box appears on every article.
How the site is funded
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and buy a policy, we may earn a commission from the insurer or comparison platform. The price you pay is the same as going direct. Commercial relationships do not decide which topics we cover, what we say about a product’s weaknesses, or the order in which options appear, and no insurer reviews our content before publication. Our Affiliate Disclosure explains this in full.
What this site is not
- It is not an insurance broker, agent or advisor, and it is not licensed to sell insurance in any state.
- It cannot quote you a price, look up your coverage, or handle a claim.
- It is not a recommendation to buy any particular policy.
Insurance terms differ by insurer, state and traveler. The certificate of insurance you are issued is the only document that governs what you are covered for, and it overrides anything you read here. If you need advice about your own circumstances, speak to an agent licensed in your state.
Corrections and how to reach us
If you find something on this site that is wrong or out of date, email the contact page with the article and what you found. Corrections are the messages we act on first. When a correction changes the substance of a guide, we note the change in the article itself rather than quietly editing it. We do not have a phone line, and we cannot answer questions about a specific policy or claim; for those, the number on your certificate of insurance is the right place to start.