Last year, Airbnb mentioned offering travel insurance. It is now available for USA & Canadian hosts.
I’m wondering if we should mention this in our listing descriptions?
https://www.airbnb.com/d/travel-insurance
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Hmm… not really what I was expecting. In fact, they didn’t really do anything at all except to help make guests aware that they can go to a 3rd party to purchase travel insurance. Does Airbnb show that link to guests during the booking process?
What they need is something directly integrated into the booking process where a guest can just check a box and add insurance. They can always link to their partner outside Airbnb for insuring the rest of the trip (e.g., airfare and non-Airbnb lodging), but if they really want guests to insure Airbnb bookings, then they need to simplify the process.
I wonder if Airbnb doesn’t want to get directly involved in the insurance side because the potential for fraud is so high with so many hosts.
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At laaast! I think they had the insurance site previously, but not with links to actually purchase. Good news.
Although concur with Brian, they could make it easier and I’ve never understood why this wouldn’t be a lucracive opportunity for them.
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I think it would come across as an additional fee to guest so I hope they don’t integrate it. I wonder if there is a conflict of interest that would keep them from offering their own? In some ways, the refundable/non-refundable scheme is kind of like adding insurance, you pay more to have a refundable reservation. It doesn’t work because Airbnb often refunds it anyway, from what I hear. The more I think about it, do we really want Airbnb in charge of travel insurance, bumbling it up too?
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This is brand new. I looked two weeks ago for travel insurance information & this did not appear.
I just started a booking but did not complete it. Travel insurance & the link to the resource was no where in the listing or in the cancellation policy information.
After booking the guest may get information but I don’t know.
I think for now, we as hosts will need to own making guests know this resource exists. At one time Airbnb said they wanted to offer travel insurance as part of the booking process.
This is NEW so I think there is more to come.
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I would think they could have something like. “Would you like to add travel insurance to this reservation for $XXX?” Where $XXX is calculated by the booking system. The guest can then choose to add it or not.
Yes, I think that is likely, but I don’t see why they couldn’t collect fees and submit them to a 3rd party, as well as route all claims to the 3rd party.
Absolutely not.
I suspect another big hinderance for integrating travel insurance into Airbnb’s system is that travel insurers require more information about guests than guests currently provide to Airbnb.
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Yes, more information is required.
I just played around with the travel insurance quote provider:
For Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) insurance $1,500 home rental, 2 adults, 2 teenagers
The first quote screen was recommended packages for a drive to, vacation home rental. Prices ranged from $98-$120.
There was an option to look at all plans which was good in one way but confusing.
Under view all was a Nationwide’s basic policy $77 which covered the home rental with extras like accidental death & illness/injury.
Plus the full list mixed offered Deluxe cruise coverages $240 which was confusing.
The guest will need to invest time becoming familiar with types of rental insurance. It isn’t easy.
At least there is a resource now.