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How interesting I didn’t know pit bulls could be trained as a service animal @SleepingCoyote
If @Tranquility_Base didnt take out home insurance for short term lets then yes his domestic home insurance wouldn’t be valid as it’s being used for commercial let’s.
you should not. Filing a homeowners insurance claim is not a wise thing to do, except for very large out of pocket situations…but not a broken a/c. I dont like that she ran it at 65 degrees. I also dont believe in relying on aircover. But this one falls squarely on you to maintain your own a/c system.
@Helsi @SleepingCoyote @Terryathome
A bit of clarification: we have homeowners insurance for our House, where we live full-time and do not home-share. We have STR insurance for our cabin, 20 minutes away in the same city, which we list on Airbnb and never stay in ourselves–except for quality control and testing, of course, and when we called SF to inquire, they were happy to offer their new product, knowing full-well what we are doing… So there’s no shenanigans with commercial vs residential.
All in all we have 10 different policies with State Farm: Homeowner, STR, 3 cars, 4 motorcycles and a Travel Trailer. They’ve always treated us right. I have not been paid for this review. 
@CJM1976 When you say the thermostat is locked at 72 degrees, does that mean that a guest couldn’t turn it up if they wanted to, as opposed to colder? It’s 80 degrees right now where I live and I am perfectly comfortable. I would be uncomfortably chilly in a place where I couldn’t make it warmer than 72 or turn the AC off completely.
I realize that most people find my ideal temp too warm for them, but I think guests need a reasonable range of temperature they can adjust. Not 65 and not 85, but a range of 68-75 seems reasonable.
@CJM1976 @muddy
The Nest app, which CJM has, will let you lock a range in (like 70F - 84F) and set the mode to Cool/Heat and the guest could adjust it anywhere in that range as they see fit to make themselves comfortable, but not make any other adjustments.
Yes, sorry for the confusion. As Tranquility Base says, it’s locked in a range. In my case the guest can set the cooling range anywhere between 72F and 81F. 72F is just low end of the range that I selected…and it’s been perfectly fine for every other guest that has stayed since.
Thx for the explanations.
No way would I pay this as a guest, and I am not surprised Aircover will not either. If you do not want the thermostat set below a certain temperature than you need to set it up not to do that. A nest thermostat is capable of locking the temps not to go above or below whatever you set it for.
RR
In which case I would claim on your home insurance for STR
Insurance - I specifically told Travelers that I’m using my duplex as an AirBnB on both floors, and they said they treat SRT insurance the same as LTR insurance.
I had my AC go out last year, and while it absolutely sucks to have that happen, some HVAX places do no interest plans if you finance with them. I got my 22 y/o furnace & AC unit replaced with a ‘three years, no interest’ offer.
Sorry don’t know what Travellers is but if you have relevant insurance then make a claim @shinylizard
Helsi: How interesting I didn’t know pit bulls could be trained as a service animal?? i there a law against this>
Why would a pit bull be less or not useful as a service animal?
It seems to me, any dog that is properly trained and socialized could be a great service animal. Pit bulls I believe have a bad rap; I have not chosen to rescue one due to bad rap, but I support others who choose them. 120 years ago in Europe they were considered trustworthy and great baby sitters.
There are most definitely some breeds which are more easily trainable as service dogs than others, and dominate the service dog industry. Golden and Labrador Retreivers, German Shepherds, Berenese mountain dogs, are some of the most common service dogs. Pretty much any breed can be trained to be a service dog, but some are more suited to certain needed service tasks than others. And of course the individual dog has to be intelligent and non-aggressive.
It’s like trying to train a breed that doesn’t have an instinct to be territorial as a guard dog or watchdog. For instance Malamutes, as I once had, were 5th from the bottom of the list of breeds that don’t make good watch dogs. Mine would just lay there and let any stranger walk into my yard. Why would anyone try to train a dog like that to be a watchdog, when so many other breeds are more suitable? My Jindo, on the other hand, needed no training at all to be an excellent watchdog as far as barking to warn of strangers, but luckily had no attack instinct. It’s always easier to start with a breed that has a natural propensity for what you are attempting to train them for.
As far as pitbulls having a bad rap, it is based on reality. Of course this may have something to do with the type of people who tend to want a pitbull- there’s a lot of macho-ness around it and those owners may not want to train the dog to be sweet and gentle. There is also the fact of their DNA- they were originally bred for bull-baiting, ratting, and dog fights, so aggressiveness was a positive trait. Not the dog’s fault, but reality, nonetheless. They also have powerful jaws that lock on, so whereas another breed may just bite when it feels threatened, a pitbull can do more damage more quickly.
Pitbull defenders can protest all they want, and certainly some are not a danger, but there are factual statistics that can’t be argued with.
Yes, I had an unexpected surprise when I honestly disclosed that I was doing STR’s with my home to my insurance agent. Turns out that in Maine, if you rent more than 2 weeks out of the year, you must get a rental policy- hello another $1k in expenses.
Yes- air cover is bs. I did get reimbursed 3 years ago for the damage some nightmare guests did in 14 hrs of a 48 hr stay. Had to relinquish the entire payout to get the reprobates out of my house ASAP.
Did I get paid to clean up the blood, drug paraphernalia, general trashing of my house- no. Did I sleep at all for many weeks, knowing that these violent people knew where I lived and were required to pay damages- NO!
Our pit bull Musk, a purebred American Staffordshire Terrier, was an extraordinarily talented Registered Therapy Dog. She mostly worked in hospitals and nursing homes. When she retired for health issues, the nursing home staff threw her a party complete with a bone-shaped cake.
Thank you for asking, it gives me a chance to remember her.
One of the worst dogs I ever met belonged to a friend. Something was wrong with him and he was also a pitbull. He bit me and another friend of hers. After he died during routine surgery she got another pibble. She wanted him to be able to come over and be a different situation than the other one. I said he would have to be neutered at whatever age the vet said was appropriate and he’d have to come regularly starting at 16 weeks of age.
Baxter was the best dog I ever knew outside of my own. He taught me not to be a breed bigot. He met hundreds of dogs here and there was never an issue. The littles loved him.
Besides, I can’t imagine the homeowners policy will pay for the failure of an appliance, purportedly caused by a commercial renter.
