Just curious if anybody know if Airbnb, through a third party, offers renters travel insurance? I’m not sure it would apply to Covid-19 but it does cover sickness.
1 Like
They have their Extenuating Circumstances policy.
1 Like
No, they don’t. And most of the travel insurance I’ve heard about through this forum doesn’t cover events like a pandemic. Any travel insurance company that did so would likely go broke.
Travel insurance doesn’t cover pandemics. And no they don’t - travel insurance is always taken out by the traveller. @robklingler
1 Like
Yes, but when I rent place in Hilton Head every year, there is a link provided to an insurance company should we choose to take the insurance. Most of the insurance companies are not covering Covid-19 based on fear of travel but will because of sickness. I think most of us (hosts) have had cancellations based on fear…which like an insurance company, shouldn’t have to reimburse the travelers because they chose not to travel.
1 Like
Many of us have long said that Airbnb should offer it, just as Airlines and others do. However that’s unrelated to the current crisis.
What many don’t understand about insurance is that it’s a pool of money that is limited and funded by premiums and investment of the pool. It doesn’t magically increase when there are a flood of claims. In normal circumstances it works. In disasters, it doesn’t. It works to protect an individual here and there from personal disaster. But when it’s a widespread disaster the payouts will deplete the pool.
So insurance wouldn’t have protected us from this problem. This is a global disaster. Just wait until the health care part of this shitstorm hits our economic shores.
Also, lots of people seem to think rich Airbnb should just empty their pockets into the pockets of the hosts. Let’s pretend that happened. The main figure I’ve seen here is 650,000 hosts globally. One poster said there are a million “single moms” hosting but she’s full of crap.
So should Airbnb spend billions and send us each a $5000 check? Does that cover one week, one month or one year of your lost income? Will Airbnb be able to survive? Shall we just take the money and say “so long and thanks for all the fish!?”
Join the next start up to come along?
2 Likes
I’m off topic, of course, but great movie 
1 Like
The book is always better!
Absolutely, loved both! But the movie has Sam Rockwell 
1 Like
" payouts will deplete the pool"…well, that’s what insurance payouts do. Hence, tornado’s and hurricanes. And then premiums are raised to replenish the pool. In this particular scenario, the travelers would not have been reimbursed because of fear of travel and the hosts would have been able to keep whatever their cancellation policy states. So the “pool” would have only paid for those that actually contracted Covid-19, and relative to all the reservations, that number would be very small.
Just saying I think moving forward, Airbnb should offer it on their platform…I’m sure there are insurance companies that would love to have a direct link provided on their site.
1 Like
Any comparison to tornadoes and hurricanes is misplace, imo. Those destroy things, Covid19 destroys people. This isn’t a natural disaster, it’s a war. Travel insurance doesn’t cover war. The fact that people are still thinking that insurance and or Airbnb or someone else, anyone else should make hosts whole in this situation tells me a lot about how bad it’s going to get.
I absolutely agree with you. At this point I’m just hoping Airbnb survives or is bought out. I wouldn’t mind having Amazon be my advertising and payment platform owner.
1 Like
The point is that insurance companies will write policies to cover anything, including cancellations for a variety of reasons. It just has to be written in the policy and it’s not about being made whole, it’s about something like this being able to be prevented when the next pandemic comes around in 10 years.
And, any comparison to this being a war is misplaced. imo. It’s a pandemic, not a war.
1 Like
I don’t know if I’ll be around another 10 years but I hope you are right. I don’t think you are. My prediction: Insurance is going to cover less, not more and the next pandemic will be here sooner than 10 years.
I expect that if Airbnb offers travel insurance, they will make hosts pay for it. They already know that guests won’t pay for it if it’s optional. My best guess is that they would tie the cost to the host’s cancellation policy and bake it into the host fees. E.g. Flexible would remain at 3%, Moderate would increase to 5%, and Strict would increase to 10%. Hosts would get paid regardless of Extenuating Circumstances and Airbnb (or some 3rd party) would be a lot more diligent about verifying EC claims before refunding guests. The problem is would be real insurance and it still couldn’t cover Pandemics. It would also be a target of insurance fraud by hosts conspiring with guests.
1 Like
I’m curious then why the airlines offer it and other rental agencies? Neither entity pays for it, it’s up to the consumer (guests in this case).
Maybe it’s the way Airbnb is structured. I don’t know.
1 Like
The insurance comes from a 3rd party and the Airline or travel agency gets a commission from the sale.
It definitely is. I suspect with the number of hosts and the host churn, there is a trust problem. Existing travel insurance deals with hotels and airlines and rarely contends with host fraud. With Airbnb, their main concern would be host fraud and it’s no secret there is a already a lot of fraudulent host activity on Airbnb.
1 Like