4 ms·

1) Insurance companies mitigate a lot of risks that are a lot rarer. It's pretty common to do a short-term rental, rent out a room to a roommate. Doing the occa

1) Insurance companies mitigate a lot of risks that are a lot rarer. It's pretty common to do a short-term rental, rent out a room to a roommate. Doing the occasional Airbnb rental is essentially the same thing. 2) Insurance companies should have a straightforward answer to a reasonable question. Not covered, covered if rental income < $15,000 , needs a rider, etc. Of course, at some point you're operating a B&B and you need to get commercial insurance, and they should be able to tell you at what point it would be considered a business. 3) If Airbnb's secondary coverage is predicated on a primary coverage that is not standard or impossible to get, then yeah, it's denial. If it's predicated on a normal homeowner's liability policy with a standard rider, seems pretty reasonable. Maybe I'm missing something. 4) If the liability is hard to predict now that Airbnb is as big as it is, there probably haven't been that many claims.

anigbrowl 12y ago
The commonality of a short-term rental isn't the issue. What matters is that the liability changes massively as soon as you charge someone money to come into your home, rather than inviting them as your guest.
- RockyMcNuts 12y ago
  My takeaway from the article is - State Farm is a mass-market company - no Airbnb - Chubb is an upmarket company - $15k revenue limit - Liberty Mutual is a mass-market company - 'occasional' rental, cannot be 'engaged in business' - rather vague Problem is the vagueness, and the Chubb and Liberty Mutual agents contradict the firm's spokespeople, which is kind of their fault. They should get it together when it comes to Airbnb. Pretty common, easily insurable use case with a known claim history. Of course, if you want to run a hotel business, you need a commercial policy, and many if not the vast majority of Airbnb-ers skirt the rules. So yeah, when you do that, there is a massive change in liability, and yeah, if you don't get the right insurance there's denial. If somebody trips and falls and sues you, or burns down your place, and the insurance company says you were running a hotel business and denies your homeowner's claim, you're screwed. I don't know what Airbnb's umbrella does for you then.

anigbrowl 12y ago

The commonality of a short-term rental isn't the issue. What matters is that the liability changes massively as soon as you charge someone money to come into your home, rather than inviting them as your guest.

RockyMcNuts 12y ago
My takeaway from the article is - State Farm is a mass-market company - no Airbnb - Chubb is an upmarket company - $15k revenue limit - Liberty Mutual is a mass-market company - 'occasional' rental, cannot be 'engaged in business' - rather vague Problem is the vagueness, and the Chubb and Liberty Mutual agents contradict the firm's spokespeople, which is kind of their fault. They should get it together when it comes to Airbnb. Pretty common, easily insurable use case with a known claim history. Of course, if you want to run a hotel business, you need a commercial policy, and many if not the vast majority of Airbnb-ers skirt the rules. So yeah, when you do that, there is a massive change in liability, and yeah, if you don't get the right insurance there's denial. If somebody trips and falls and sues you, or burns down your place, and the insurance company says you were running a hotel business and denies your homeowner's claim, you're screwed. I don't know what Airbnb's umbrella does for you then.