Any suggestions for guest damage insurance for booking.com?

[JD Martin]

Thought some of my experienced posters here might have some suggestions. 

I'm getting a lot of traction lately through booking.com. Unfortunately, they don't have the same kind of built-in damage purchase policy that VRBO has - you have some options for collecting a deposit, but I have found virtually all VRBO guests prefer to buy the damage policy instead of paying us a deposit for damages.

I'm not particularly happy accepting reservations without a deposit, even if most people won't damage anything. The booking.com damages claim seems to be limited to just a couple hundred dollars. What I'd like to do is just add a mandatory fee on my site and buy the insurance on behalf of the guest, unless someone has another suggestion of how damage waiver policies can be offered (and by whom). I of course have my own insurance with which I could make a claim but I have a deductible and it wouldn't make me whole. 

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Hey @JD Martin, so VRBO offers insurance to guests to cover basic damage during their stay. They use Generali and it appears you don't need book through VRBO to buy it. Check out

https://www.generalitravelinsu...

Give them a call and see what they could offer you. Make it mandatory and offer several levels of coverage like VRBO does.

I have never gotten a booking from Booking.com. But with the sheer number of ads featuring Idris Elba and STR stays, I am betting people will be getting more bookings from them.

Thanks for that information - I gave them a call and that is in fact correct - if you have a VRBO listing you can invite anyone, on any platform, to sign up for the insurance, and if you don't have a VRBO listing there's still another way to do it that's a little more involved. Also they have a partnership program where you can offer the insurance yourself outside of any of the listing sites - you have to have at least 10 properties in order to participate.

Big thumbs up for hooking me up here. This has bothered me for a while. Never even occurred to me to call the people that I was already making sign up for it on VRBO.