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We are new to hosting and unable to find a company that will insure us for short term rentals with a swimming pool.
I communicated with Airbnb and they indicated that AirCover would cover, heaven forbid, a drowning accident but an insurance agent told me it would count for nothing here in Israel, or anywhere abroad, as claimants would sue me in this country and not via Airbnb.
This seems to be a major stumbling block to our rental plans and any input would be appreciated.
âWhen in doubt say No!â These are words to live by. If you canât get short term rental insurance because of a pool, then donât get a pool.
I would not trust anything an Airbnb customer service representative said.
The house I purchased that I rent out on Airbnb came with a hot tub and the first thing I did was drain it and remove the electrical cord because it was a big liability.
I recommend not getting a pool. Not only is it a big liability, itâs also costly to maintain and lots of extra work.
TL; DR â Even if someone properly sues you in Israel and is not required to go through mandatory arbitration, AirCover says it will defend the Host for certain claims arising during an Airbnb stay. But itâs concerning â and it tells you something (Iâm not sure what but it isnât good) â that you cannot get your own insurance. Get a local lawyer to advise you, and get that advice in writing if you go ahead with a pool in an STR. I wouldnât build the pool; if already built, I would want to understand why no insurer would insure it and understand from a lawyer the limits of AirCover. If committed to offering an STR Iâd consider burying the pool if already built.
If the claimant were the guest making the Airbnb reservation then that guest has presumably agreed to Airbnbâs terms of service, which requires mandatory arbitration
It appears to me that the insurance agent is saying that someone who has not agreed to Airbnb terms of service has therefore not agreed to the mandatory arbitration agreed to in Airbnbâs terms of service and could therefore sue the Host in Israel. I agree, but none of this post or anything on this forum is legal advice. The Host not such a guest will bring in Airbnb to defend the Host in a court of law, up to the policy limit of only $1,000,000.
Who is that âsomeoneâ? That could be someone the guest brought with them, as typically happens. [Of course, AirCover would not apply to a claimant where there is no Airbnb stay. So if a contractor fell in the pool or a neighborhood child trespassed and drowned in the pool, cases arising out of such incidents would not be covered by AirCover.]
Host Liability Insurance [HLI] under AirCover does say it âprovides insurance that covers Hosts for their legal liability to a guest or third party for bodily injury or property damage due to an incident that occurs during a guestâs Airbnb Stay at the Hostâs Accommodation.â
So if a Host were sued in Israel by a claimant not enrolled in Airbnb but during an Airbnb stay, and who therefore has not agreed to Airbnbâs terms of service, HLI still applies to protect the host. AirCover says âIf the HLI program applies to the claim, the insurance includes coverage for claim investigation costs and expenses, as well as costs of defending a formal complaint such as a lawsuit.â
Iâll pause here because this reply responds to the specific objection the insurance agent made to you.
Iâd like to know what youâve been told on why you cannot get insurance for a short-term rental where you are in Israel.
Is your location within Israel an issue?
I assume that your location within Israel is a location approved for Airbnb accommodations. Is that right? Is there some controversy about your specific location?
I assume that your pool will follow all local building codes and any applicable local laws. Is that right? Do commercial codes apply?
You need a local lawyer to advise you and ideally commit the essence of that advice in writing. I understand youâre doing âleg workâ before you hire that lawyer, but in the end only a local lawyer, who is your lawyer, can advise you.
I agree with @Ritz3 that you cannot rely on what an Airbnb customer service representative says.
Your information is Airbnbâs summary of Host Liability Insurance. But you do not actually have the words of the policy, just the summary. And you, as well as most of us here, likely do not have the knowledge and skills to interpret that summary to the potential range of situations that could give rise to a liability not covered by AirCover. None of us knows you, your situation or all the questions to ask that would capture your situation and understanding.
For example, if youâre sued for $2,000,000 do you have the resources to hire your own lawyer? Are your assets protected in such an eventuality? Is your income? Can Airbnb settle its share with you for $1,000,000 and leave you to fend for yourself? If youâre sued in a situation that has nothing to do with the rental, do you have the resources to defend the lawsuit and how are your assets and income potentially affected?
We do know, from you, that you cannot get insurance from anyone else. That raises a big red flag.
Bottom Line: I wouldnât rely solely on Airbnb as my source for STRs. I wouldnât build the pool; if already built, I would want to understand why no insurer would insure it and understand from a lawyer the limits of AirCover. If committed to offering an STR Iâd consider burying the pool if already built.
Thank you. We already have the pool, which we love. And wouldnât consider taking out 
Wow, thank you so much TL for putting your head to your reply to such an extent. Ireally appreciate it. We are not in an area in Israel that has security issues and many people rent short term in our town. However, the insurance agents are telling us that there is a recent crackdown generally on short-term rentals here in Israel. I think there has been a lot of pressure exerted by hotels.
Your advice to take legal advice is good. But I sadly think that your comment about the red flag is also on point and maybe we just have to leave the whole idea of renting out alone 
I wouldnât rush off to get legal advice @debsied
Join a local host group for your part of Israel and ask for recommendations from your fellow hosts around who they are using for short term rental home insurance. And/or speak to an insurance broker and ask them to find you STR home insurance that cover swimming pools.
Do not rely on the Airbnb guarantee.
Thanks @Helsi - yes Iâm trying to get some local information too. The advice on not relying on AirCover seems unanimous
Yes, that is my point.
But I was also saying â is this correct? â that if that guest reservation is for say, three guests, but those other two guests are not on the Airbnb platform, I donât know if the arbitration agreement applies to those other two guests. Or at least those two other guests have a reasonable argument that it does not apply to them unless (or maybe even if) thereâs something in the listing that says otherwise. What do you think?
Further, if the listing does not prohibit visitors, the visitors will not have agreed to Airbnbâs terms of service. So I wouldnât think that the mandatory arbitration agreement pertains to those visitors since they did not agree to it.
Agree?
Our House rules say:
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU RELEASE AND PROMISE NOT TO SUE YOUR HOSTS FOR ANY CLAIMS, DEMANDS, CAUSES OF ACTION, LOSSES (WHETHER ECONOMIC OR NON-ECONOMIC), DAMAGES, EXPENSES, COSTS OR LIABILITY OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER ARISING FROM OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR STAY, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY.
I donât know that it needs to be separate, but a separate SIGNED agreement would be ideal.
As to other guests â that is, guests not making the reservation or whose names are not on the reservation â we say (but I donât know if this is enforceable because these other guests have arguably not agreed to it):
Each person entering this property agrees to all terms of this agreement . . .
However, we also have an indemnification agreement. So that if other guests or visitors sue, the guest making the reservation has agreed to indemnify us.
Oh. Thatâs a very good point. Thank you.
@JJD The addition to your house rules seems like an excellent idea. At what point do you present the house rules and ask them to sign them?
Thank you very much for explaining all of this. Indeed there are grey areas but it seems to be a good idea to try to protect oneself as much as possible.
Great question.
I believe that having a signed agreement â even electronically signed â as channel managers like OwnerRez [OR] provides the capability for, makes the enforceability stronger, maybe much stronger.
When the agreement is âbuilt intoâ a channel manager like OR my impression that such a seamless presentation makes it much more likely that the guest will accept it, but others here on OR can chime in.
If you need to present a physical document that you ask the guest to physically sign, my intuition is that some/many guests will get spooked by that.
Thereâs also the matter of how easy all this is and what your competitors are doing. If none/few of them do it, then it will likely deter bookings.
My personal sense is that I will only ask the guest to sign electronically through OR. For Airbnb and VRBO I do not require a signature and am relying on the House Rules being part of the contractual agreement as represented by our listing, including the rules. While that is not as legally robust (not sure of the correct word here) I feel that requiring more would lose us bookings in the current marketplace.
@HostAirbnbVRBO Thanks Glenn. So on Airbnb you have a disclaimer about claims in your house rules?
Yes, I copied and pasted from my listing. Nit: I would say itâs not a disclaimer but part of our agreement.
According to the airbnb TOS, they see and have to agree to these before the booking can go through. And asking someone to sign additional ârulesâ does not make airbnb beholden to them as âhouse rulesâ - they will arbitrate these differently.
If you do this you must say so in the listing. I donât know how specific youâd need to be. You cannot just âspringâ this on a guest. If you do, the guest need not sign and there might be other serious repercussions. [Not saying anyone is suggesting do so.]
Yes. Again, Iâm hopeful that our agreement in our listing not to sue Host would apply. That the indemnification would deter a lawsuit by guests other than the one making the reservation, though to take a belt-and-suspenders approach, it might be wise to say that if the âdo not sueâ clause is deemed invalid then the fallback is arbitration. But that still doesnât help with the additional guests, who have not agreed to anything sofar as I know.
And so, yes youâre right, that my statement above on whether the additional guests must arbitrate for any claims against Airbnb is irrelevant to the Host.
What matters to the Host is whether those additional guests or visitors can sue the Host and whether there is a better (and convenient) way to deter that other than an indemnification agreement with the reserving guest. [Of course, the additional guests could be asked to sign the same agreement that the reserving guest signs or, if not signed, agrees to. But in practice that would be cumbersome and an âoutlierâ procedure for most/many of us that would deter bookings.]
As always, thank you for your incisive analysis!
No, I didnât.
At some point I will find an attorney experienced in this kind of thing, though I do think that there will always be caveats. I think (without knowing) that the attorney is going to say that without a signed agreement thereâs a â?â on enforceability. I at least expect that it will be a bone of contention in any lawsuit.
I think there will be other issues in a contract written entirely by one party. So, eventually I need to find a good lawyer who knows this kind of stuff and can charge me reasonably because Iâm not its first Airbnb Host client.
Well, I donât know about that. I have a no trespassing sign at the bottom of my driveway, [Plus I park in my garage.]
Actually I copied that language from Airbnbâs contract language on âexperiencesâ about a year or so ago.
So maybe I canât just say âyou canât sue meâ but apparently Airbnb can!
Now this idea of a fine for not complimenting the Host for her shoes â Iâll keep that under wraps. 
Actually, I donât know that. Why would/might it work for a multinational corporation based in CA but not for a proprietor in MA. Thatâs discrimination!
Seriously, though, I donât know the principle by which it would be applicable to them and not you or me. Praytell, what is that principle?
EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it [I think I was just wowâed when I read this provision of âyou agree not to sueâ and I thought:âWhat a great idea!â ] But that might work for Airbnb not because theyâre a big, multinational firm HQâed in CA but because their argument is that they are not providing the experience. SO, much better would be a small edit to say that the guest agrees not to sue for more than the dollar amount of the reservation. END OF EDIT
In case youâre right (which of course, you usually are), another fallback from a firm I used to work at (though they were a big company too) is that the damages were always limited by the contract amount. So if a client paid us $10,000 in fees the most they could recover, per the agreement, was $10,000. By the way, I donât recall that ever being tested in litigation.
Iâd easily be OK with that kind of agreement, unless you tell me that that only works for big companies, in which case Iâm writing Bernie immediately.