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Post by metavirus on Feb 23, 2016 22:40:40 GMT
I've been going back and forth for a while now on whether I should feel comfortable renting through Airbnb, keeping my homeowner's policy as-is (without short-term rental coverage) and just relying on the Airbnb Guarantee for property damage and the Airbnb Liability Coverage for a guest's personal injury. I've looked through the Airbnb guarantee and liability coverage and they seem pretty good. Sure, there are caveats and concerns, like you have to file a police report in connection with property damage. And for personal liability, there seems to be an open question as to whether you will have to exhaustively harass the insurance company for your normal homeowner's policy until Airbnb will finally step in and cover the liability.
Aside from relying on Airbnb, there's always the option of spending extra money to get a special business liability policy that specifically allows short-term rental. That's the safest way to go, but there's the added expense.
With all that said, how have you thought this through when you've been considering potential liability associated with short-term rentals? What have you ultimately decided to do? Rely on Airbnb? Buy new short-term rental insurance?
I would love to hear what you think. Thanks!!
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Post by nancesf on Feb 24, 2016 0:43:56 GMT
Hi from San Francisco. I've been a host for 4+ years. I'm pretty conservative and did not begin to host until I changed my HO policy when I learned that Farmers would not cover STR. This was before Airbnb's insurance and guarantee. AND, nothing I've heard or read in these 4 years made me regret my decision. Everything I understand reveals that Airbnb would be 2ndary coverage. So you must file with your HO policy first. And, you thus run the risk of being canceled for failure to disclose your STR activity which is USUALLY excluded from regular HO policies. I moved to State Farm where hosted rentals is allowed. Plus, one unhosted rental of up to 6 months (for just one set of guests). This works well for me since I am reluctant to book my place when I am not home (I cherish my stuff). I think you are very wise to question Airbnb's coverage, not just will they pay but the risk to your existing HO policy. There are numerous policies for STR (some of which only cover unhosted, not hosted). Keith and Peter of SF Homesharers are experts on this. I am very happy with my arrangement. I am totally honest and clear about what I am doing and that I am covered, in particular for liability. Good luck.
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Post by metavirus on Feb 24, 2016 0:48:27 GMT
That's a very helpful perspective. I'm not familiar with the people you mentioned. Do they make themselves available to have people pick their brains about this stuff?
Thanks!
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Post by nancesf on Feb 24, 2016 0:54:55 GMT
I believe Keith is on this Forum. Deborah, what is the best way to cc Peter and Keith on this?
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 24, 2016 2:56:56 GMT
Hi Nance --- Keith and Peter are both registered on this forum at keith and peterkwan , but forum members will only get notifications if they are "tagged" , if they have set up their account to receive such notifications. You can "tag" someone or call out to them by putting the "@" sign in front of their username, or clicking on the icon in the menu above with the @ sign and then the little image of a person, and entering their username there. I am not sure if Peter intends to be as active on this forum as he has been on the HomeSharers of SF group. My impression is that he mostly wants to post his news posts as blogs on his own website, www.home-sharers.org, and mostly use that. I don't know if Keith will participate on this forum as much as he has on the Homesharers of SF AIrbnb group. Generally when people ask about insurers that cover STR, the companies mentioned are CBIZ and www.peers.org -- so I would look into those. Not many of the standard home insurance companies will cover short term rentals. I purchased commerical property insurance, which costs over twice as much as standard homeowner insurance, in order to be adequately covered...and yet I still dont' know if I am adequately covered. In the past (prior to being a host), I thought I was covered, but found that one insurer wouldn't cover a claim I submitted, and another dropped me after I submitted a claim which they coverd. It seems to me that insurers like to take your money but don't actually want to have to provide any benefits to you. But it is hard even to find commerical property insurance that will cover situations when you rent out to renters in your own home where you live -- most will cover your property only if you yourself don't live there, which seems very odd to me. I mean it just seems completely arbitrary, as well as backwards -- wouldn't one think that there are likely to be fewer mishaps or "issues" with the property if the owner lives there themselves? From what I understand of the Airbnb insurance, it only covers liability in the case of "accidents", which means a great deal of potential situations would not be covered. FOr instance, if a guest were to sue you for negligence or any number of other issues, none of that comes under "accident." So except for something like a trip and fall accident, if you were only covered for accidents then in the case of any renter who sued you, you would not be covered. That said, I know of a few people who had to deal with serious Airbnb guest situations (squatting in a couple cases, and a lawsuit in the other) and Airbnb stepped in and paid for what was needed. (They did -- but they don't HAVE to -- so keep that in mind....) |
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Post by High Priestess on Feb 24, 2016 3:02:45 GMT
Something I would recommend, is that instead of calling up different insurers and asking them questions, just find an insurance broker, who hopefully will know about this issue, and ask what they recommend. Particularly in the larger cities like LA and SF and NYC, I would think that there are insurance brokers now who know about short term rental coverage.
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