Airbnb insurance for hosts: AirCover against a real STR policy

AirCover is not a property insurance policy. Airbnb describes it as host damage protection up to $3 million plus $1 million of liability insurance, provided by the platform on bookings made through the platform. Your homeowners policy, meanwhile, almost certainly excludes short-term rental activity. That gap is where uninsured hosts live without knowing it.

This page covers what AirCover does, what it does not, what a real short-term rental policy adds, and the five-step check that tells you whether you are covered today.

What AirCover for Hosts actually covers

Airbnb publishes the headline numbers on its AirCover for Hosts page. Up to $3 million in host damage protection, $1 million in liability insurance, plus guest identity verification, reservation screening and a 24-hour safety line.

Read the two halves separately, because they are different things.

The liability half is described as insurance. It responds when a guest gets hurt or their belongings are damaged during a stay.

The damage protection half is a program, not a policy. Airbnb reviews a claim, applies its own conditions, and pays or does not. There is no policy document you hold, no premium you pay, and no state insurance regulator standing behind the decision.

And all of it applies to bookings made through Airbnb. A direct booking, a Vrbo booking, or a long-term tenant is outside it entirely.

What it does not cover

The exclusions matter more than the limits, because the limits are generous and the exclusions are where claims die.

Wear and tear, which is how a great deal of real damage gets classified. Loss of income when the property is unusable, beyond the specific cases Airbnb names. Anything that happens between bookings, a burst pipe in February included. Damage during a booking made somewhere else entirely.

Then the structural gap. AirCover protects the property against guests. It does not protect you against fire, storm, theft while empty, or a liability claim from a neighbor. Those are the jobs of an actual property policy, and AirCover was never written to do them.

Your homeowners policy probably excludes this

Standard homeowners and landlord policies are written for personal use or long-term tenancy. Nightly rental is commercial activity, and most policies exclude it outright or void coverage once the insurer learns of it.

The failure mode is quiet. Nothing happens for two years, then a kitchen fire during a guest stay, and the adjuster asks what the property was being used for.

Call your insurer and ask one question: does my current policy cover short-term rental use, and what documentation do you need. Get the answer in writing. If the answer is no, you have three options, and doing nothing is not one of them.

The three ways to get properly covered

A short-term rental policy. Purpose-built cover from an insurer that writes this risk knowingly: the building, contents, liability, and usually loss of rental income. Proper, Steadily and Safely are the names that come up most often in US markets, and it is worth quoting more than one because appetite varies by state and by property type.

A commercial policy. Once you run several units, or an LLC holds them, a commercial package is often the cleaner structure. It also handles the case where the property is not a converted residence.

An endorsement on an existing policy. Some carriers will add short-term rental use to a landlord policy for a premium. It is the cheapest route where it exists, and it exists less often than hosts hope.

Whatever you buy, tell the insurer the truth about occupancy, average stay length and whether you use a management company. A policy issued on a wrong description is a policy that does not pay.

What a real policy adds over AirCover

Four things, and each of them is a claim AirCover would decline.

Cover between bookings. Empty is when pipes burst and roofs leak.

Cover for non-Airbnb bookings. If you list on Vrbo or take direct reservations, AirCover does not follow you there.

Loss of rental income after a covered loss, so a three-month repair does not also mean three months of zero revenue.

Named perils on the building itself. Fire, wind, water, theft. AirCover is about what a guest does, not about what the weather does.

The practical setup for most serious US hosts is both: a real policy underneath, and AirCover on top for guest-caused damage on Airbnb bookings. They are complements, not alternatives.

The five-step check

Do this today rather than at the next renewal.

1. 1

   Open your current policy and search it for short-term rental, transient occupancy, or business use.

2. 2

   Call the carrier and ask directly whether nightly rental is covered.

   Ask for the answer by email.

3. 3

   If the answer is no, get two quotes from insurers that write short-term rental risk.

4. 4

   Check what your HOA or condo association requires, because some mandate a minimum liability limit and a certificate.

5. 5

   If a management company runs the property, confirm whose policy responds first and get their certificate.

That last step catches more hosts than any other. A co-host or management company carrying its own liability cover does not automatically cover you, and their certificate is the only way to know. Settle it in the management agreement rather than after an incident.

Two habits reduce claims before insurance ever matters. Disclose your exterior cameras and set enforceable house rules in the listing, and photograph the property at every turnover so a damage claim has a documented before.

Frequently asked questions