Business Insurance Specialists Pty Ltd has recently received several inquiries from people who are offering their homes for short term rent through Airbnb and seeking insurance.
Following this, it is opportune to provide some guidance on insuring your home, contents, personal effects and also liabilities arising from the offering of Airbnb.
Insurance is available, but as noted in recent financial press articles, it is important to ensure that your insurance protects you.
The first question is, are you offering your whole house, or just one room, or multiple rooms to Airbnb for rent.
If you are offering your house or just one room, then, you can obtain insurance through a Landlords Residential insurance policy.
However, if you are offering multiple rooms, then you need to potentially obtain insurance from a commercial insurer, as this could be termed a ‘guest house’ which is often excluded under standard Landlord Residential policies.
A proper Landlords Residential insurance policy will provide coverage to the Property Owner for normal perils, such as Fire and Storm, but also insure for damage from Airbnb guests that could be termed Malicious, Accidental or even Deliberate damage, Theft by your guest, and Loss of Income following damage. Due to the fluctuating income due to vacancy of an Airbnb premises, loss of income is determined by your average annualised income and how long your home is uninhabitable for.
A Landlord policy will generally cover items like furniture and furnishings, carpets, curtains, domestic appliances but exclude and thus not cover personal effects, watches, computers, cameras, bicycles and other items of the occupier. A major issue is when you take a Landlords Residential Policy, as an Owner Occupier who lives in the property, or is absent , you will also keep your own personal items at home or even away from home. You need to have an occupier Contents insurance policy that insures you for those items.
We recommend our clients take, in addition to a Landlords Residential insurance policy, a separate contents policy, that will include your personal effects and related items, in order to properly protect themselves.
In order to obtain appropriate coverage for your Airbnb property, please contact Business Insurance Specialists on (07) 3139 3900 or complete this Form and we will contact you.
