Your policy probably excludes the exact thing earning the money.

Building, on the right form

Property cover written knowing the use is short-term letting.

Without it — A homeowners or DP-3 form commonly voids for business use of the premises.

Guest liability

Injury to a paying guest — the pool, the stairs, the hot tub, the balcony.

Without it — Homeowners liability contemplates a visitor, not a paying occupant.

Contents and furnishings

The furniture, appliances and fittings you supply, on a commercial basis.

Without it — A furnished let is an inventory of your property in a stranger’s hands.

Loss of income

Booking revenue lost while the property is unlettable after a covered loss.

Without it — Peak-season closure is the loss, and it is not the repair bill.

Guest-caused damage and theft

Damage beyond what a platform’s guarantee will actually pay for.

Without it — Platform cover is a limited guarantee with conditions, not a policy you can rely on.

Bed bugs, mould and habitability

The claims specific to letting a furnished property nightly.

Without it — Routinely excluded, and routinely the claim that arrives.

Is my homeowners or DP-3 policy enough?

Almost certainly not, and this is the defect we see most often. Homeowners assumes you live there and excludes business use of the premises. A dwelling fire form — DP-1, DP-2 or DP-3 — is written for a conventional tenancy of months, and most exclude short-term letting outright or treat it as a change in occupancy that voids cover. Either way an owner letting nightly on a standard form can be uninsured for the very activity producing the income, and typically discovers it when a guest claim is denied.

What a DP-3 actually covers

Doesn’t the platform cover me?

Not in the way most hosts believe. Platform protection is a limited guarantee with its own conditions, exclusions, claim windows and evidence requirements, it generally sits excess of your own insurance, and it can decline. It also does nothing for the periods that matter most: the property between bookings, your own use, direct bookings taken off-platform, and anything the platform’s terms exclude. Treat it as a useful backstop on top of a policy, never as the policy.

I only rent it a few weekends a year. Does that matter?

It changes the price, not the principle. Occasional letting is cheaper and often endorsable onto a secondary-home policy rather than needing a full commercial form — but it still has to be disclosed, because the exclusion does not care about frequency. An owner letting six weekends a year on an undisclosed policy has the same coverage problem as one letting fifty, for a fraction of the premium saving.

Cover for a second or seasonal home

What do underwriters actually ask about?

The attractive nuisances and the turnover. Pools and hot tubs — fenced, covered, alarmed — trampolines, balconies and railings, wood stoves and fire pits, and whether there is a lockbox or keyless entry. Then the operating pattern: nightly or weekly minimum, maximum occupancy, whether events and parties are permitted, whether a manager or cleaner attends between stays, and how many properties you run. A three-night minimum with no events is a materially better risk than a one-night let with a large occupancy cap, and it prices that way.

I run several units, some of them not mine. What then?

Then you are operating a business rather than owning a rental, and the policy should say so. Co-hosting and rental-arbitrage models — where you manage or sublet property somebody else owns — add professional liability for the management service and a contractual exposure to the owner, and neither belongs on a homeowners form. Managers also need to be named correctly on the owner’s policy, which is regularly missed. Tell us the structure honestly; it is a normal risk and an awkward one to fix after a claim.