New couch and love seat

Research
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We purchased a new couch and love seat the other day for our AirBnB suite. The salesman offerred me a 3 year extended warranty that would cover accidental staining and rips , I said I’d think about it . As I thought about it that afternoon I began to think that it was a good idea considering the furniture was going into an AirBnB suite. When I mentioned it to my husband he thought it was an uneccessary $150 expense as if they were damaged by a guest we could make a claim with AirBnB . I suppose it boils down to , who would be easier to deal with, AirBnB or the warranty company. What do you think ?
Nikki

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Sounds like a toss up. I would buy leather or a material that can be cleaned and not worry about insuring it, likely the insurance does not cover commercial use anyway.

I would not depend on AirBnb for insurance or host guarantee or the like. I have a commercial insurance policy with a high deductible, if the couch was ruined I would buy another one and move on.

RR

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This. If your insurance finds out it is used in a short term rental, it will likely be void. Check the terms before buying the insurance.

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I wouldn’t put any upholstered furniture in an Airbnb without removable, washable covers.

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I’m pretty sure that the extended warranty would have exclusions or the company would find something in order to deny the claim. It’s just like pet insurance.

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As others have said, it’s extremely unlikely that the warranty would cover commercial use. And getting money from Airbnb would be a very time-consuming business and you could easily end up getting nothing. At best, you wouldn’t get much.

I hope that your husband hasn’t advised that you skimp on STR insurance and local licenses too? His theory that damages would be covered by Airbnb strongly suggests that he doesn’t know very much about the hosting malarkey.

As @RiverRock says, you need to make sure that your soft furnishings are entirely washable. We have leather.

Imagine that you go into the rental after a guest has checked out and there’s a stain on the sofa that needs professional attention or covers that need dry cleaning or laundering. If you’ve only got a 4 or 5 turnover window, you’re in trouble.

There will be stains and spills on your furniture.

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the furniture is leatherette .

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  1. @jaquo & others are probably correct the insurance will not honor in a rental.

  2. If the furniture was really expensive it may be worth trying to insure.

Btw- I’ve had a pretty bonded leather couch in my rental for 4 years. Best thing ever—easy to clean. However my faux leather CHEAP recliner after 2 years the leatherette started peeling. Based upon the peel pattern, looks like people sat in the chair while wearing suntan lotion (or maybe just lotion). The chair was cheap so replaced & moved on.

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This reminds me of a story my coworker told me. She and her friend were invited to a guy’s apartment. It was going to be a double date and the young guys were cooking for them. He had a beautiful white sofa. The girls sat admiring the beautiful appartment when suddenly one of them said “we got to get out of here quickly, I just got my period.” Girls ran out leaving behind a blood stain on the guy’s new white sofa! Accidents will happen, best to have slipcovers for the sofas.

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at Host meetings we’ve been to, the moderater spoke of the AirBnB claim-for-damage process and indicated they were fair and reasonable to deal with.
Not so much ?

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You got to jump through a lot of hoops and procedure to the letter.

You have to firstly try to claim directly from the guest. If that doesn’t work, you need to get photographs of the damage and, I think, upload them to Airbnb. You then have to send them estimates from contractors for the repairs plus you need to send them receipts for the damaged item to demonstrate that it does belong to you.

You then have to spend a long time arguing with them.

With a lot of items, they might deem the damage as ‘wear and tear’.

Now, the disclaimer. I have never claimed anything from Airbnb because we have our own insurance and in many years, we’ve never had any serious damage.

It’s a lot easier to deal with your own insurance company. It’s not one of the items that you should try to save money on, unless you’re very brave.