Short-term rental and Airbnb insurance

Properties used for short term rentals like Airbnb and booking.com will need specialist insurance. A regular home insurance policy won’t adequately cover it.

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Cameron Thach's headshot

By

Peta Taylor

&

Cameron Thach

Edited by

Tim Bennett

Updated

Fact checked
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Key takeaways

  • A regular home insurance policy won’t generally provide cover for short-term renters.
  • Short term rentals require specific insurance – different to landlord's insurance – to cover risks associated with short-term tenants.
  • Airbnb offers free insurance for legal liability, but you may want your own policy to cover property damage and other risks.

What is short term rental

Short term rental insurance refers to a type of insurance that covers properties that are rented out on a short term basis. This includes homes that are hosted on platforms like booking.com, Stayz, Airbnb and more.

Who offers short term rental insurance?

  • ShareCover
  • EBM RentCover
  • Fully Insured
  • BJS Insurance Brokers
  • Insure More
  • Terri Scheer
  • Shielded Insurance
  • Maxton Insurance Brokers
  • Homsure
  • Atlantic Insurance
  • Ceneta Insurance Services
  • RAA
  • Breeze Underwriting
  • Duoinsurance

How is short term insurance different from regular home insurance?

Regular home insurance covers homes that have the same occupants in it at all times. Short term rental insurance covers homes that continuously have different occupants, which represents a different risk to the insurer. It’ll include cover for things like accidental damage done by guests and loss of rental income. More about this below.

How is short term rental insurance different from landlord insurance?

There are some similarities between short term rental insurance and landlord insurance. However, landlord insurance will not provide adequate coverage for you if your home is being used by a range of tenants who are staying for just days or weeks at a time. Landlord insurance is designed to cover properties that are used for renters where there is a lease agreement in place and their stays are longer than 3 months long at a time.

Airbnb host liability insurance

If you’re hosting a home on Airbnb then you will automatically have access to Airbnb’s host liability insurance - AirCover. This provides up to $1 million in USD for liability costs if you’re responsible for a guest getting hurt, having their belongings damaged or stolen. AirCover for hosts is free and you’re automatically opted into it when you host your property on Airbnb. Keep in mind, this coverage is limited to legal liability only. It will not cover your home for things like weather events or vandalism. For those sorts of benefits, you’ll need short term rental insurance.

Airbnb damage protection insurance

Damage protection can compensate you for up to $3 million USD if your belongings or home is damaged by a guest or people they invite during their stay.

What's coveredWhat's not covered
  • Damage to your home, belongings, or valuables
  • Damage to parked cars, boats or other vehicles
  • Lost income if you need to cancel a booking due to damage caused
  • Normal wear and tear
  • Loss of currency
  • Loss due to natural disaster
  • Injury or property damage to guests or others
  • Costs related to fire, burglary, or ongoing loss of income caused by an insurable event

What does short term rental insurance cover?

What you get from specific short term rental policies can look a lot like home and contents insurance. What makes things different is the inclusion of incidents involving paying guests.

This can include incidents of damage or loss to the building itself and the contents of your home such as:

  • Injury or death to a guest
  • Legal & personal liability
  • Fire-related damage
  • Accidental damage by guests
  • Purposeful damage by guests
  • Burglary
  • Theft or attempted theft by guests
  • Strata and property damage
  • Coverage for natural disasters
  • Water damage
  • Loss of rent or income
  • Identity Theft

Many of these items are unique to short term rental insurance, as they involve paying guests not tenants. If it involves the loss of rent or income while you're hosting, you're unlikely to find cover outside of specific short term rental policies.

All policies will have exclusions. It's best to read an individual policy's product disclosure statement (PDS) for a full rundown of these.

FAQs

Sources

Tim Bennett's headshot
To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Tim Bennett as part of our fact-checking process.
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Written by

Publisher of Insurance
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Peta Taylor is a publisher at Finder, working across all of insurance. She's been analysing product disclosure statements and publishing articles for over 2 years. Peta is passionate about demystifying complex insurance products to help users make well educated decisions with confidence. Peta is part of Finder's insurance awards team and works alongside editorial and insights experts to bring users the best insurance products every year. See full bio

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Co-written by

Writer

With a background in writing across education, Web3, and finance, Cameron’s mission is to create content that speaks directly to readers in a way that’s easy to understand, helping them navigate complex topics with confidence. Cameron studied a Bachelor of Commerce, Economics and Marketing at Macquarie University, graduating in 2019. See full bio

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22 Responses

    Alistair's avatar
    AlistairDecember 19, 2021

    I am looking to insure the contents like carpet and blinds and tenants goods in an Airbnb one bedroom strata apartment. The building is already insured.
    Many thanks
    Alistair

      James Martin's headshotFinder
      JamesJanuary 13, 2022Finder

      Hi Alistair,

      A few different insurers may be able to help you out with short-term rentals, including QBE and Youi.

      Always read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) of a policy to understand exactly what you’re covered for. And by all means, reach out to an insurer directly if you’re unsure about anything related to your insurance.
      ​
      Regards,
      James

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