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“This is one of those cases where you simply must inquire of the guest
before opening a case with Air. A simple message through the site’s
messenger, or a text message will do. “Hey, do you know what happened
to the microwave?” Chances are much greater that they are going to
respond with useful information to this than if the question is coming
from one of the trip managers.”
We did exactly that but they denied it there too. Said they didn’t know anything about it.
No, we reported it to them right after they left - in less than an hour! The thing that surprised me was, they didn’t even ask for any evidence. I had photographs of the damage. But it was like they wouldn’t even talk to us about it! When the guest denied it, and when they read our messages back and forth where the guest also denied it - they immediately closed the case and told us there was nothing we could do - and that they weren’t even going to talk to us about it anymore. I thought what kind of insurance is that - where if the person who caused the damage refuses to pay then the insurance won’t pay. But that’s apparently the kind of insurance they have.
This reminds me of the insurance they sell on HA, where the guest has to initiate a claim. It’s bizarre because they market it as an alternative to a security deposit.
Airbnb Liability insurance? I have a house that I rent to groups and in 7 years I have not had any accidents. A month ago an older gentleman fell off the bottom step on my porch and scraped up his arms and side on gravel. His family took him to the emergency room. I immediately contacted Airbnb and sent them pictures. I am a super host and they were initially responsive and said that trust and safety would be contacting me. I have sent 5 emails, talked to 4 different associates and no response from Trust and Safety. The gentleman is escalating and I’m afraid he will sue me. Anyone had a similar experience or a successful experience that might help me figure out what to do next? Thank you.
How odd. I told my homeowner’s insurance that I had an Airbnb and they cancelled my policy. Does that mean you have not told your homeowner’s insurance that you are running one? If they find out you have been then any claims you try to make on it will not be honored, anyway, so why bother paying for it? I use CBIZ , which yes is 3 times more expensive but also offers personal liability insurance. Just make sure your guests understanding they are essentially signing an “online rental agreement” when they book (stick it in house rules, no one ever reads those anyway!). And make sure you get the real identity of guests who book with their full names. Ideally get a copy of their ID too. If not, you’re like anyone just going along and hoping nothing bad happens.
Thanks, I like the idea that guests understand they are signing an “online rental agreement”. I tweeted my concern last night on twitter airbnb help and they finally responded after a month and sent me the the insurance forms, so if this happens to any of you, I recommend twitter.
I’m sorry this happened. I do have a b&b insurance policy which also includes a medical payments coverage; this provides a few thousand to pay someone’s medical bills without it escalating to a legal matter.
Do keep us posted. If you don’t have your own policy you may want to look into it. God forbid something serious were to happen! I take a sense of security that my guests are usually from outside the country and I feel like they aren’t going to hassle with the US courts to sue me for anything, but I don’t know if that’s a legit thing or not.
Not yet a host but this insurance issue has me worried. Cases where insurance companies cancel policies at the mere mention of Airbnb does not sound good. I almost lost coverage on my new place due to a simple missing railing around a raised deck.
Can we get specific, here. What are you folks doing, who are you using. Is there specific BnB coverage, who offers it, what can it cost and for how much coverage.
This is important to us all. Once you get blackballed by one, they will all know.
I had USAA a my HO and they were quite lenient with me - they continued coverage until our expiration, which was 2 months or more away from the time of our initial discussion with them. They even bumped it up to underwriting who asked me a lot of questions, and then deliberated before telling me we’d have to stop, or, find alternate coverage at our expiration.
I then had to find coverage in the specialty market. My HO was about $1,000 and my BNB coverage is about $1,800, so not so terrible. I did a lot of searching and from what I was told it makes a significant difference if the people are in your home or in a separate dwelling. Interestingly, the liability exposure is considered much higher if you are sharing the home as the guest can readily claim that you were at fault if they are hurt (IE: Left butter on the floor and they slipped).
Relax - it will work out. Step-by-step. Yes - I worried, too - had visions of our house burning down and USAA denying our claim (at that point we hadn’t discussed it with them).
I contacted:
Cami Dennis
ISU –TRC Insurance
(425) 366-8244 direct phone & fax
I use a local independent agent. He found me a policy right away. They supposedly ‘shop’ it every year before renewal. I told them I do short term vacation rentals. Don’t mention Airbnb. It’s a trigger word, like ‘discount’ or ‘duvet’.
Yikes! $1800 just for B&B coverage?
My thinking on getting into this was if I could make a few hundred $$ each month to take care of some of my house bills I’d be happy. Can I assume some (most?) of the folks on this site are doing many times that amount and can afford this coverage?
I read the million dollar policy on their web site. At least the small portion posted there. I take it most of you, at least those who are doing this full time, do not rely on that coverage at all and you are getting your own from somewhere else.
I have HO coverage and I also have a separate comprehensive business policy for the work in the office and elsewhere. These are from different companies listed with different agents.
My business policy overs the usual “slip and fall” claim for someone coming to my office, completed operations, fire and theft, damage to others property, etc… Very good liability policy with a two million dollar limit, per occurrence. I pay around $200 for this portion plus an additional amount for my business property. I also have workers comp even though I no longer have any full time help. Still need it to cover my butt for the occasional day hires. As you can see I’m up to my ears in coverage… and let’s not even talk about the cars and motorcycles : (
However, in any case, I doubt what I have now for my business will cover someone staying here. Not to say that cannot be added. Will have to casually broach that subject with my agent.
Interestingly, when I got my (nationwide) HO policy last year for my new/old home the agent asked me if I planned to rent a bedroom out since the place was a bit large. I said “I thought I might rent a room at some point, yes”. He said, and I remember this very clearly, “well, you can rent one room but no more than that”.
We did not talk about length of stay. At the time I was thinking more along the lines of a roommate situation. AirBnB was not on my radar, then.
It could be some may already have that coverage and not even know it. Someone up above posted USAA told them the same thing.
I had two big damage happened in the last 2 years of my 1000 hosted group. Airbnb covered my damage . But they both less than $2000 so I don’t know if anyone had any worse experience need claim more money? could share with us.
You’d be better starting a new threat @Crystalscholar.
This thread is about a different topic and your question won’t be visible
I live in Florida. USAA will only cover one property and I understand are not taking new homeowner policies now. I can’t afford to switch companies due to hurricane deductibles and lack of competitive choices. Insurance may be the deal killer for me.
Oh,that’s a shame. Yes, Florida is rough insurance-wise. I worked for the insurance industry and completed statistical reports to send to the state - Florida was one of my states and I had to report my companies data to determine how much they had to pay into the state wind pool.
I know we have lots of hosts from Florida on this forum - maybe you could start an insurance in Florida thread and see if they have any helpful info.
USAA practically hung up on me when I mentioned the A word.
Would like to revisit this posting if possible.
I have read a few other insurance postings that are more recent but I’m hoping to get more concrete information on actual insurance companies that have stepped up to offer short term rental liability (slip and fall) coverage for hosts that live in the home they are renting.
So, to be clear, looking only for those that cover short term rentals of a room, located in the US, inside the house you, as host, are living in at the same time you are renting. Some are now calling this generic BnB coverage rather than AirBnB, which seems to be a trigger for cancellation.
This Slice website, where you pay by the night, seems promising but they are not insuring in Connecticut, my state. Too bad.
Please reply with names and rates for one year of coverage with at least one million dollars. Also, is the coverage in addition to your home owners policy or does it cover both the home and your room rental business.
A lack of replies leads me to wonder how many hosts are even worried about this issue. My getting involved with home sharing has now been put on hold until I can get this resolved. Getting full B&B coverage for some $1800 as at least one poster has done will make it impossible for me to make any money with just one room given my out of the way rural location.
I do not trust Air to be there if and when I need them and that means I could lose my home and my business should someone “slip and fall” and sue me.
This doesn’t scare anyone else here?
It looks more to me that you need to do your own research than asking for others experience or information. Perhaps ask a group that is based in your own state via Facebook rather than an international forum.
Concur, it is a super frustrating process. Our aunt (retired) was in the insurance biz and we actually talked about starting a company to address this gap. I had the worst case scenario – STR invalidated my HO insurance AND my HO insurer started processing a non-renewal the nanosecond I asked them about STR coverage. If my house had burned down, unrelated to STR and no guests present, i would have had no coverage. I think some people take the risk and hope their HO insurer never finds out they’re doing STR, but I like to sleep at night so got a commercial policy from Proper.