Hi, just wanted to let you know that USAA is now offering homeowners’ policies for people like us who rent an apartment within our home. We’ve used USAA for many years for car and homeowners insurance, but it wasn’t until recently they’ve offered coverage for STRs.
best wishes
cliff
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Good to know. It’s always difficult here in Florida…
At the risk of sounding ignorant, why would someone need the homeowners’ policy when Airbnb has general liability insurance for up to $1 million?
Because it can be damn near impossible to get them to honour it!
Please search the threads on the Guarantee …you will get VERY nervous!
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Airbnb doesn’t offer ‘liability insurance’ . It has a 1 million guarantee’ which is limited in scope for example it doesn’t cover pet damage.
You need your own home insurance for STRs.
If you go on the Airbnb Help site and search for Airbnb Guarantee yiu will be able to see what the guarantee does and doesn’t cover @RayJones
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It doesn’t. It has Host Protection Insurance (HPI) and not only is it’s scope is very limited, the ability to make a claim is at the discretion of Airbnb customer services. The crucial wording is:
In the rare event someone gets hurt or their property is damaged during a covered stay at your place, you may be protected with up to $1,000,000 USD primary liability insurance.
No thank you, I don’t want “may be”, I want to know we are protected.
Anyway, if a host takes a booking from any other platform, or direct, the Airbnb HPI then becomes irrelevant. Having a proper STR policy in place then becomes essential.
JF
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I got a good laugh out of this.
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There is an interesting case in Atlanta now that we will be following closely. The “All Star” week end in Atlanta ended up with a major party 50+ guests. Lots of damage- 8K plus and I am certain still counting. Do not know how Airbnb will cover it but I believe they are secondary to your homeowners insurance and deductible. I’m certain other on this forum know and will respond but in short you need your own STR insurance. Mine is through Proper Insurance Company and I sleep at night.
Because their host guarantees are a smoke and mirrors joke that no host should take seriously.
And just so @Ray_Jones knows, IF you have extensive damages, AirBnB WILL insist that you first file a claim with your insurance. Many homeowners insurance policies do NOT cover damages or personal injuries from short term rentals, and may even cancel your insurance if they find out you are using AirBnB.
So you DO need to find a company that will do STR specific insurance.
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Yes, yes, yes to everything said here.
The Airbnb liability coverage (“Host Protection”) is a bit better than the property damage coverage ("Host Guarantee). For the liability coverage, Airbnb is the primary insured, the host is an additional insured party. So it’s actual insurance.
Airbnb says its liability insurance is generally (weasel word alert!) primary, in other words it pays first before your other insurance, and covers actions against you.
Here is article by Proper Insurance on the shortcomings of both types of Airbnb coverage (of course coming from the perspective that they want to sell you insurance!)
So I have private STR insurance AND a liability umbrella.
We just used them for our vacation rental in New Mexico. But, just be aware that they don’t cover vacation rental in every state. We also own in Hawaii and they can’t do it there yet. The agent was careful to let us know she had to check each state first.
When you say you used “them”, is that USAA or … ?
We used Proper insurance for 2 years. Their rates kept going up with no explanation, so we looked around again. USAA was approx half the price for the same policy. We’ve used USAA for years for our other policies and like them.
This is my 2nd. yr. with them and yes the rates went up a couple of hundred dollars. Next yr. I will see if USAA can be competitive. Thanks,
My state requires that I have a certain type and level of insurance. Even before that law I carried insurance. I was sued in regard to a car accident and never want to go through that dragged out (4 years) hell again.
So I in the last few weeks wrote Airbnb’s insurer on their site to ask whether visitors and no-registered guest lawsuits are covered. They did not answer my questions.
Here is what they wrote me:
The program summary states: The Host liability insurance program (“HLI program”) insures Hosts, in certain countries, for their legal liability for bodily injury or property damage to guests or others resulting from an event that happens during a guest’s Airbnb Stay at the Host’s Accommodation, subject to the terms, conditions, and exclusions of the Host liability insurance policy.
The HLI program covers Hosts for incidents that result in the Host’s legal liability resulting from a bodily injury or a property damage claim arising during a guest’s Airbnb Stay at the Host’s Airbnb Accommodation. The incident must also occur during the Airbnb Stay and the Stay arranged using Airbnb’s Platform.
Liability insurance requires a finding of liability. The insurer will not respond to hypothetical claims scenarios.
Now I don’t know if they meant too write that “Liability insurance requires a finding of liability” but if they did, that seems concerning (What do you think, @JJD ?) and also self-defeating because certainly they would want to defend the suit, right?