Airbnb/STR guest liability waiver?

[Christopher Oliva]

Hi everyone, I'll be getting my first STR on the market soon and I've started to wonder about liability if a guest gets hurt or something happens to them during their stay.

Does airbnb have a built in liability waiver that guests agree to when renting STRs on their platform? Do you all know if other STR platforms like VRBO have built in liability waivers?

For whats it's worth, I do plan to get an umbrella policy and the correct type of insurance before I begin listing my property on airbnb. 

[Luke Carl]

We usually call it a rental agreement. Very similar to a lease. Consult an attorney 

[John Underwood]

Your insurance and umbrella should allow you to sleep well at night.

[Leslie Anne Morris]

Happy to share insurance contact that has provided all of my short term rentals with coverage that includes commercial liability. Airbnb has some coverage you can google and ready about what they offer. 

[Carolyn Fuller]

We've recently had firsthand experience with a guest having an accident in our rental. They actually have not filed a claim but their health insurance company might eventually file a claim since it did involve a visit to the emergency room. 

I actually feel pretty confident that the Airbnb coverage for 1 million dollars will kick in with no issues. At least, Airbnb has said nothing that leads me to believe otherwise. BUT our umbrella insurance turned out to be utterly bogus! the underwriters won't tell us definitively that they won't cover this episode but they have told our agent that they won't renew our policies. I'm pretty sure we could take our agent to court over it and win because we were very explicit about the short term rental activity when we first got the insurance. 

Make sure that your umbrella insurance specifically has a short term rental rider. If it doesn't, the underwriter can decide not to cover you.

 By the way, waivers are not worth anything if you are sued. Insurance companies want those signed waivers *not* because they can be used in court cases but because a person who signs a waiver will often not bother to submit a claim. The problem is that often claims are submitted by the injured individual's insurance company not by the individual. 

[Collin Hays]

Insurance is necessary, but it will not necessarily indemnify you if you have been negligent in providing a safe place for your guests.  Best practice is to have a risk management consultant do a survey of your property that you can keep on file.  This demonstrates that you have exercised due diligence to protect your guests in a professional manner.  You want to do this once per year to demonstrate your continued concern of the safety of the guests while your property.  It is likely that your insurance company can provide someone to do this for free, or for a nominal charge.

Waivers are mostly useless.  A waiver will not hold up in an injury or death claim.  The court will look at the guest's actions - or lack thereof - to mitigate damage, versus the homeowner's actions to provide a safe place to stay.  If the court determines "gross negligence" on the part of the homeowner, the insurance company usually has the right to waive responsibility for the claim.  And if they have that window, you can bet they'll take it.  That means actual damages, as well as punitive or exemplary damages, would fall directly on the homeowner.

TCB.  Take care of your business.  Your property, your liability.  Your FIRST line of defense is yourself.  

[Guy Gimenez]

Keep in mind a personal umbrella policy will not cover any business activities.

[Christopher Oliva]

Thank you everyone for your input, it's much appreciated!

@Leslie Anne Morris that would be great if you could sure the insurance contact that you use for your STRs - thank you!

[Leslie Anne Morris]

Quote from @Christopher Oliva:

Thank you everyone for your input, it's much appreciated!

@Leslie Anne Morris that would be great if you could sure the insurance contact that you use for your STRs - thank you!

It’s Proper Insurance. If you google them they have an online quoter on their website.