Additional Damage Insurance for STR / MTR

[Tina Tsysh]

Hey BP Community. For those who operate STR / MTR, do you have any additional damage insurance outside of what's offered through Airbnb? If yes, what provider do you use? Any insights are appreciated (:

[Jon A.]

We had our insurance rep add coverage for the furniture inside our MTR. It really wasn't very much more. It is the upstairs of a duplex and the downstairs is straight LTR, so the insurance company was able to separate the two from what I understand. 

[John Underwood]

Think about buying the additional insurance on a rental. How did that make you feel about taking care of the car?

Just stick with deposits.

[Michael Baum]

Hey @Tina Tsysh, just to be clear, do you mean coverage for damage caused by guests that doesn't really require an insurance claim?

If you are talking about STR insurance, then yes you need specialized STR insurance and I would also add an umbrella to cover both damage and liability.

If you are talking about the former, then I do collect a $500 deposit to cover incidental damages. If they are an AirBNB guest, then I always try the Air Cover insurance first. If that gets denied, then I hit the deposit.

If they are VRBO guests, nearly all of our guests select the $39 incidental insurance that covers up to $3000 in damages. I have used that once and Air Cover once. Both paid out no problems. I have also billed the guests for things but they were pretty minor under $50, but only if they didn't tell me.

For example, someone broke all these blue mugs we had, didn't tell me and I billed them $50. They were annoyed but acquiesced after they told me they kept dropping them. A guest dropped the carafe for the main coffee maker and told me right away and said they would pay for it, I said no problem and I would take care of it.

I buy new in the box small appliances off Craigslist pretty regularly for $5 or $10 each. I got 2 brand new coffer makers for $15. 

[Leslie Anne Morris]

You could look at Waivo. I’ve spoken with them but not implemented anything yet. They seem to have a competitive product and it appears to be an easy process if you ever need to file a claim.