This is new.
If I want to take direct bookings, currently about 70% - my insurance is going to be over $10k!
This is for one listing only…. I have 4.
Currently looking for another provider.
What was it before?
JF
$4568……
It is the direct booking restriction that is the issue.
Even that’s a lot for a rental in a former British penal colony 
, €3,000 more or less. Every time I see folks posting their insurance rates it makes me grateful for ours, around €600 for the whole building, including €2m public liability (usual PL here is €500k!) and full building and contents cover.
JF
I pay $3000 in the US. If I didn’t have a STR my insurance would be $1000. It’s so frustrating.
That’s a shame because it means that either the insurance companies believe that direct bookings are more likely to result in claims or that the insurance companies are more likely to recover damages from online platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO, BDC, etc. I doubt either is true.
If you can’t find an alternative insurer, then I guess you can look at it in a completely objective way: determine if direct bookings net you at least $5500/year more per year per listing. If so, then direct booking still turns a profit and might be worth continuing. If not, then have all of your direct-book guests book through the platform of your choice. There might also be some real monetary savings from discontinuing direct booking if you currently have subscriptions for payment processing, web hosting, calendar syncing, etc.
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But the fact is that Airbnb (I don’t know anything about other platforms) does have some coverage. I wonder if Airbnb is more responsive to hosts who have their own insurance companies advocating for them. And as @JJD speculated, maybe there are NDAs when they pay out. As a result we only hear about the claims that aren’t paid.
I recall one host here who claimed to have multiple listings casually dropping the fact that Airbnb had paid over $6k on one damage claim and if I recall correctly, they had had more than one. @Fahed posted about a party at his upscale London listing. Initially they rejected his claims but then he never returned to confirm the outcome.
The insurance industry probably knows more about what is really going on than we do.
I imagine they think that direct bookings are more likely to result in claims. That may or may not be true but insurance companies depend on statistics for their underwriting so it may be (statistically) true.
I doubt that insurance companies recover damage from online platforms. I’m not sure how that would work?
That would only help insurance companies if the Airbnb coverage was primary while the host’s STR coverage was secondary. There may be someone selling STR coverage that’s secondary to Airbnb’s but that would be extra crazy for a host to pay for that.
We only hear about damage claims that aren’t paid. I was referring specifically to liability claims when I mentioned the idea of an NDA. I have continued to search and still can’t find anyone discussing a liablilty claim that Airbnb didn’t pay (or did pay, either way). I did find two instances of Airbnb paying a settlement to a guest, I think one was injured and the other was assaulted, both were dramatic instances. It may be that they just pay people off, but I can’t imagine they’re doing that for smaller claims. It’s a mystery.
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