AirCover is what Airbnb bought for itself. A host policy is what you buy for you.Founded by a former Airbnb host.
Airbnb gives every host up to $3 million of damage protection that it says is not insurance, and $1 million of liability cover on a program it arranges with its insurers. Both apply only to stays booked through Airbnb, Airbnb itself calls them no substitute for your own insurance, and neither covers the house, your income or your own stays. A host policy does, and we write it for hosts on Airbnb, Vrbo and direct bookings alike.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
We ran almost fifty short-term rentals before we insured anybody else’s.
Kevin Kelsey
Founder | Principal Agent
Boring’s founder, Kevin Kelsey, owned four short-term rentals and managed almost fifty for other owners at the peak before he worked in insurance, and he founded Airhost Academy, one of the first blogs written for Airbnb hosts, which he later sold. He has handled the turnovers, the pool questions, the guest who breaks the one thing the platform will not pay for, and the letter from an insurer explaining that a homeowners or dwelling fire policy was never written for nightly guests. So your listing is read by someone who has hosted, not by someone working from a rate manual.
We hold an appointment with Proper Insurance, the short-term rental program underwritten by Lloyd’s of London and Concert Insurance Group and written on a commercial form that replaces the homeowners policy rather than sitting on top of it, and we still place occasional letting on a second-home policy with the right endorsement when that is the cheaper honest answer.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What a host policy covers that AirCover does not.
Liability that names you
One million per occurrence, two if you want it, for injury to a guest on the property or off it, with you as the named insured and no medical-payments sublimit to run out first.
Without it — Airbnb’s Host Liability Insurance is Airbnb’s program, covering you only during an Airbnb stay, and from six listings up it may apply only as excess of your own policy. Vrbo’s $1 million is described by Vrbo as coverage additional to your own, and a host with none pays a 25% deductible.
The building and the contents
Special-form replacement cost on the house and on everything you furnished it with.
Without it — AirCover does not insure your house. Nothing on the platform does; that was always your homeowners policy’s job, and your homeowners policy excludes the business.
Guest damage without the chase
Damage and theft by a guest, claimed from your insurer directly, with no requirement to pursue the guest first and no sub-limit.
Without it — Host Damage Protection requires you to request payment from the guest through Airbnb first, within 14 days of their checkout; the guest gets 24 hours to answer before Airbnb steps in.
Every booking channel
Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, a direct-booking site, a repeat guest who texts you. One policy, all of them.
Without it — Airbnb’s protection covers Airbnb stays. Vrbo’s covers Vrbo stays paid through Vrbo checkout. A direct booking has nothing behind it.
Lost income
The bookings you cannot honor while the property is being repaired after a covered loss, paid as actual loss sustained.
Without it — No platform pays you for the nights you did not host.
Your own use
If it is your home, or you block it for family, your personal liability and loss of use ride on the same policy.
Without it — Between guests, with nobody booked, the platform protection is not in force at all.
The odd ones
Bed bugs, a squatter, liquor you provide, a dog bite from your own pet, a claim over a camera or a recording.
Without it — Excluded from a homeowners form and outside what either platform describes.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
A guest fell on the outside steps at night. The letter asked for $400,000.
Covered by Host liability, with you named
Hosts expect Airbnb’s $1 million liability to answer. It applies to Airbnb bookings only, Airbnb’s own help pages call it no substitute for personal insurance, and for a host with six or more listings it may apply only as excess of your own policy.
Common
A guest smoked indoors for four nights. The smell cost me a week of bookings and a cleaning bill Airbnb paid half of.
Covered by Guest damage and lost income
Host Damage Protection pays what Airbnb decides the damage is worth after the guest declines to, and it does not pay for the bookings you lost while the room aired out.
Less common, severe
A repeat guest booked directly to save the fee. She was injured in the hot tub.
Covered by Liability on every booking channel
Outside the platform there is no AirCover and no Vrbo protection at all. The only policy that responds is the one you bought yourself, and if that is a homeowners policy, it excludes the business.
What our Airbnb host clients ask us.
Does Airbnb provide insurance for hosts?
Partly. AirCover for Hosts includes Host Liability Insurance, a $1 million program Airbnb arranges with its insurers that can respond if a guest is hurt during an Airbnb stay, and Host Damage Protection, up to $3 million, which Airbnb itself says is not insurance. Both apply only to stays booked and paid through Airbnb. Neither insures your house, your furniture, your lost income, your own stays or a direct booking, and Airbnb’s own help pages say AirCover is not a substitute for personal insurance.
What about Vrbo?
Vrbo provides $1 million of liability protection on stays booked and paid through Vrbo checkout, and nothing on a booking taken outside it. Vrbo describes it as coverage additional to your own policy, a host who has no policy pays a 25% deductible, and the cost of defending a claim comes out of the same $1 million. It covers liability and medical payments only: nobody’s building, nobody’s furniture, nobody’s lost income. Vrbo also names a preferred insurance provider for hosts, and we hold an appointment with that carrier.
What is the best insurance for Airbnb hosts?
The one written on a commercial form that replaces your homeowners policy rather than sitting on top of it, names you as the insured, covers every booking channel and pays business income without a time limit. For a full-time listing that is a short-term rental policy from a program built for hosts, and we place most of them with Proper Insurance, which is underwritten by Lloyd’s of London and Concert Insurance Group and available in all fifty states. For a house you let a few weeks a year, the best policy may be the homeowners policy you already have with the right endorsement, and we say so when that is the answer.
How much does Airbnb host insurance cost?
It is priced on the house, not on the nights. Rebuild cost, state, construction, the pool or hot tub, the distance to a fire station and your claims history set most of it; the number of listings you run and whether you allow events move it further. We do not publish a figure because one would be wrong for you, but the guide lists what moves the price and what does not.
I have an umbrella policy. Doesn’t that cover the listing?
Almost never. A personal umbrella carries its own business exclusion, and the carriers that sell them say so in plain language: losses from a business are not covered even when the business is run from home. A pure excess policy is narrower still, because it inherits the homeowners exclusions underneath it. Some umbrella carriers will add landlord liability for a long-term rental; that is a tenant with a lease, not a listing. Ask yours in writing, and keep the answer.
Do I need to tell my current insurer I am hosting?
Yes, and before the first guest rather than after the first claim. An undisclosed business use is grounds to void a homeowners policy back to the day it started, which is worse than a denied claim. Some carriers will endorse it, some will decline to renew, and some will cancel. Any of those is better than finding out at a claim, and each of them is a normal conversation we have with your carrier on your behalf.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.