This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Thank you for your response. You provide helpful information when you state that you do require this information, which I think will be helpful to you in the event of a lawsuit. Your relating it suggests that guests don’t object – more useful information. Again, thank you.
However, on your “That is not true. (Well sort of)” comment, my statement that getting your own STR insurance in Massachusetts is not required by law" is true. You might mean to say that it is advisable to get your own STR insurance, to which I would wholeheartedly agree.
But, again, there are many occasional Hosts for whom that is not cost effective. Such Hosts, in my opinion, must either craft their rules and procedures to take advantage of Airbnb liability coverage, or – understanding the inevitable gaps – choose not to become hosts of short-term rentals.
Why would anyone waste their time in such a fruitless pursuit? And why clog their already inadequate Customer Disservice staff with useless argument?
AIRBNB DOES NOT HAVE REAL INSURANCE. You need to have your own Short Term Rental insurance, since Air may, at their whim, pay what your insurance does not.
Whether you need to add each guest separately to the registration is a question for your REAL insurer, and perhaps your lawyer. Why would you rely on an underpaid 3rd world script reader for either legal or insurance advice?
As almost every host here will tell you, AirBnB is a booking and payment service for hosts, and you shouldn’t expect anything more than that.
Again: IT IS NOT INSURANCE. It’s a vaguely worded “guarantee”.
Second: AIR WILL REQUIRE THAT YOUR PRIMARY COVERAGE PAY FIRST.
Third: If you haven’t read your AirBnB Terms Of Service, recently, please do so before spouting off about how things SHOULD work.
I guarantee that Air’s expensive legal team went over all that legal wording that controls your business interactions with AirBnB, and that’s what controls what will or will not happen, not your idea of how it should work OR what anyone tells you on a telephone call.
If there is any dispute, you have to go to arbitration before you can sue them, and few hosts have won. One of the rare examples is documented in the archives here.
Any person in MA who thinks that their property doesn’t need insurance in my opinion is gambling away their asset. If a host has homeowners insurance on their property, there are no riders to add for the STR and it is in the insurance rules that you will be dropped.
I know how expensive it is - Last year when I paused my STR, I was paying $1,200 a year for insurance, Now I’m paying close to $3,000 a year but I am never going to risk my main asset by trusting Airbnb.
You are correct in that if you own your own property outright and are not required by your mortgage company to have insurance then you can roll the dice but…
If you think Airbnb’s host insurance will cover your house burning down because your guests lit a candle and fell asleep, the you are, in my opinion, misguided.
Search this forum for people who have tried to make claims to Airbnb for their host guarantee. Yes, I know Air supposedly upped their insurance protection but nothing Air has promised ever turns out to be a seamless or easy or even true.
“If you think Airbnb’s host insurance will cover your house burning down because your guests lit a candle and fell asleep, the you are, in my opinion, misguided.”
Where did I say that?
Again, I said “However, on your “That is not true. (Well sort of)” comment, my statement that getting your own STR insurance in Massachusetts is not required by law” is true. You might mean to say that it is advisable to get your own STR insurance, to which I would wholeheartedly agree."
How can you possibly say that? Things that should be covered by insurance happen. Damage does not know that you have or do not have insurance. And insurance coverage is never ‘cost effective’ if it does not exist. If your house burns down due to guest negligence you do not get a ‘do over’ if you tell the insurance company that you did not have insurance because it is not ‘cost effective’…
The thing is, in the end its up to AIrBnb to deny or approve a claim, and many on this forum have had experiences with AirBnb CS that make us VERY leary that they would actually come through when we really need them to.
I have never had any damages from a guest that were big enough to ask for money from a guest, and thankfully I have never had someone slip or fall but I worry about it with the ice and snow. I have a stand alone liability policy for that in addition to my fire insurance. I self insure against other stuff, flooding a bathroom would be on me. I know and understand my risks and have insured outside of what I am willing to self insure for.
I used to have a really good STR policy but they dropped me because of fire risk in the mountains so now it’s piecemeal.
You had better believe if I had someone fall and hurt themselves and make a claim against me I would start with AirBnb and hope they covered it, but I am not confident they would.
There is no one size fits all, because one size never fits all.
So if you have an occasional host, renting say 10 days/year, do you think commercial insurance is cost effective when they have coverage from Airbnb?
I understand that many here want to name call such hosts naive and foolhardy and such, but I haven’t read any facts from them that suggest relying on Airbnb’s liability coverage is NEVER prudent.
Oh for crying out loud. People are saying, and rightly so, that relying on Airbnb is naive and foolhardy. It’s good advice based on years of personal experience and hearing stories of people who have not been paid by Airbnb or haven’t been offered nearly enough. No one has made a personal attack on you and insisting that is the case only further undermines your credibility.
My understanding is that if a registered guest were to make a claim against you Airbnb’s liability coverage would protect you. Sofar as I can see, the main risk you face with Airbnb coverage is to nearby property that is not the subject of the rental, or a lawsuit by someone not a registered guest.
I don’t think that is an exhaustive list. – had hoped there was more knowledge on this forum that might expand this list and suggest protective measures to come within Airbnb protection but find more smugness and venom toward Airbnb than facts, Hosts who are not ‘occasional’ Hosts and have no patience for Hosts in a different situation than theirs.
You are giving bad advice that no one should follow. If you want to argue that your risk tolerance is high, that you have enough wealth to self insure or that some people won’t find buying insurance to be cost effective, go ahead. Maybe no insurance is the way to go for you and you only. Maybe you won’t be the host whose guest was killed on the rope swing tied to the front of a house in Austin TX.
It is a fact that many hosts have not been paid or were not paid enough by Airbnb for damages.
@HostAirbnbVRBO You can go over to the Airbnb community forum and spend some time reading through a couple pages of posts on any given day to read True stories!!! by Real Hosts!!! concerning the damages done to their homes by guests, that Airbnb refuses to cover.
But you obviously aren’t interested in facts, just agreement.
