Airbnb insurance for hosts

Specialist insurance which provides the additional cover required for hosting on sites such as Airbnb

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What Pikl covers

Choose between a range of different cover options designed around the needs of hosts.

  • Buildings & contents

    Cover for buildings, contents or personal belongings, including fire, storm, flood, subsidence, heave, landslip and escape of water damage.

  • Theft, accidental and malicious damage

    Cover for theft, intentional and accidental damage, including damage or loss caused by paying guests if needed.

  • Liability cover

    Up to £5 million public liability for guest claims, plus personal, owner and domestic employers’ liability if required.

  • Lost hosting income

    Lost income cover for confirmed bookings when the property is empty more than 14 consecutive days due at an insured event

  • Legal expenses

    Expenses cover to pursue or defend a claim in court, including personal use or guest claims depending on how you use the property.

  • Home security

    Cover for guest related loss of keys, replacement locks, and pest infestations that may put your home out of action.

Why choose Pikl for your hosting needs?

  • Specialist home insurance

    We’ve tailored our home insurance around hosts and cover up to 365 days of hosting a year.

  • Cover across multiple platforms

    Our policies cover you independently of any specific booking platform, so you can rent with confidence.

  • Competitive quotes

    Keep your existing policy and get cover just for hosting, or compare insurers on our panel for a combined host and home insurance package.

  • Dedicated support

    Our UK based customer team is on hand to deal with any queries you may have.

  • I had a great experience purchasing insurance for my AirBnB with Pikl

    Olivier Bow-BertrandTrustpilot review

  • Really friendly and helpful organisation

    Beryl ThreadgoldTrustpilot review

  • Excellent service as ever from Pikl Insurance

    HelenTrustpilot review

What does additional Airbnb home insurance cover?

Specialist insurers such as Pikl can provide additional home insurance for Airbnb style hosting. Here are some of the key elements of cover:

  • Airbnb buildings insurance

    This covers the physical structure of the property such as the walls, fixtures and fittings. Like standard home insurance, this covers damage up to the specified rebuild cost of the house and clearing the site. You may be able to claim for some smaller issues that affect the building through platforms like Airbnb, although they may limit what you can claim for. Specialist buildings insurance can provide dedicated insurance for hosting as well as cover for standard claims such as storm and fire damage.

  • Airbnb contents insurance

    Contents insurance covers the items inside of a property that aren’t fixed to the building itself, such as a sofa or a television. These are also the types of claims more easily claimed for through Airbnb’s resolution centre when it comes to property damage. However, a dedicated Airbnb insurance policy can also cover you for the entire sum of contents inside the property, which typically runs into £10,000s.

  • Theft insurance

    Household insurance policies typically cover theft with forced entry. This may not be the case in scenarios where you’ve let an Airbnb guest into your property, so may not be covered. Trying to resolve this kind of dispute with a guest through booking platforms like Airbnb may also be stressful, especially if you’re involving the Police. Consider a specialist provider such as Pikl that covers theft by a guest.

  • Loss of income

    You’ll likely miss out on potential income if your property isn’t repaired in time for the next booked guest. If guest revenue is your main source of income, this could become a serious issue. Consider an insurer such as Pikl if this is important to you. This can ensure that you’re not out of pocket for any confirmed bookings you had in place after the initial 14 day period following a covered claim under host insurance.

  • Malicious and accidental damage

    Malicious or accidental damage where it relates to hosting is another key area that may be restricted by household insurers and could be very stressful if trying to resolve a problem with a guest directly through Airbnb. Some insurers may choose to cover accidents but not deliberate damage. If guest damages are a major point of concern, speak to a dedicated insurer.

  • Public liability insurance for Airbnb

    Public liability insurance for Airbnb hosting covers claims brought against you such as a guest injury claim or damage to third party property. Examples of this include:

    • A guest trips over an object and falls down the stairs, requiring hospitalisation.
    • Faulty wiring catches fire, giving a guest significant burns.
    • A guest invites friends over for a party at your house, causing damage to your neighbour’s property.

    Hosts are legally liable to pay compensation in cases where they are at fault. Public liability insurance covers you against the stress and financial loss that may occur as a result of this.

    Specialist insurance can cover you for larger claims exceeding Airbnb’s $1 million limit, or any liability claim on alternative platforms that don’t provide protection at all. Liability claims can be significant in terms of the sums involved, and this type of cover is a key insurance feature for many hosts.

    Examples of where a claim could exceed $1 million in compensation include:

    • A young person with a lucrative career that incurs serious injuries that require lifetime care.
    • Guests from overseas that face repatriation and significant healthcare costs due to injuries (e.g. guests from the United States).
    • Significant fire damage to several neighbouring properties.

    Public liability insurance is now also a legal requirement when hosting in Scotland. Several regions of Scotland now require more than the $1 million provided by Airbnb. Pikl covers hosts for up to £5 million per guest-related liability claim.

    Liability insurance purchased specifically for hosting may not cover non- guest -related events. For example, a non-guest visiting your property and being injured would not be covered under this type of insurance. For that you would need property owner and occupier’s liability, which is often covered under standard home insurance policies.

  • Pest infestation

    Having your property infested with bugs is likely to cause significant disruption and potentially cause you to lose booking income due to the time likely to be taken in completely resolving the issue. Pest infestation may be excluded by standard home insurers.

Does Airbnb cover their own insurance for hosts?

Airbnb doesn’t provide insurance for property damage. Instead, its Host Damage Protection programme is a guarantee that provides some limited protection in event you need to make a claim. The below wording is confirmed on their website:

“Host Damage Protection is not an insurance policy.”

Not having insurance cover for property damage means that you won’t be able to complain to a third party regulator such as the Financial Ombudsman if you aren’t happy with the outcome of a claim. Unlike Airbnb, an insurance policy regulated by the FCA (such as through Pikl Insurance) will give you more consumer protection for any damage claims.

Airbnb does provide insurance for liability. However, they only cover you up to $1 million. This is sufficient for many scenarios, but is unlikely to cover larger injury claims where the cost of lifetime care could exceed this. Not having enough liability cover could result in you being liable for a significant sum of money.

For hosts listing their properties on multiple websites, Airbnb’s cover doesn’t protect you on alternative platforms. What’s more, many alternative platforms may offer little to no protection at all if something goes wrong.

Airbnb insurance FAQs

  • Airbnb insurance is a category of cover provided by specialist providers and is separate to anything Airbnb themselves provide. It covers hosts and holiday let owners renting their homes out to paying guests or on platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com. Unlike a typical household insurance policy, it’s specifically designed to provide protection for guest-related claims. Airbnb insurance can be bought as standalone cover just for guest-related issues or part of an overall home insurance package. Some hosts take out this cover as it can provide additional protection over Aircover, standard home insurance or when hosting on multiple platforms.

  • In the UK, typical household insurance may not fully cover Airbnb style hosting as standard. Hosts who rely on a provider that doesn’t fully cover this type of activity may include issues such as:

    1. Policy cancellation: Your home insurer may refuse to continue offering cover and state that you need to seek insurance elsewhere.
    2. Cover restrictions: Restricted cover for guest-related claims or a complete cover exclusion. This could mean that you have no cover for guest claims such as theft and malicious damage.
    3. Hosting restrictions: Your home insurer may place other limits on your policy, such as how many times you can have paying guests stay at your property.

    Platforms such as Airbnb may provide some cover, although this doesn’t provide the same certainty of protection as dedicated insurance.

  • Speak to your home insurer first. Insurer cover varies quite a lot, so the answer you get depends. Your insurer may:

    1. Keep your policy live but place an ‘endorsement’ on it that specifies what you can claim for.
    2. Tell you to look for insurance elsewhere but give you a grace period (such as 7 days) to sort an alternative insurance policy.
    3. Say they can cover you. They should also point you to their policy booklet outlining cover limits and exclusions.

    If you plan to stay with your insurer but get additional cover for hosting elsewhere, you may need to inform your existing provider of your intention to do so.

  • Holiday home insurance can also cover guest-related claims, so there is some overlap. However, each provider is different and some insurers may restrict cover for certain types of Airbnb- related claims. Not all Airbnb listings are in holiday homes either. Some Airbnb hosts rent out their main residence and this type of property wouldn’t be suitable for a holiday home insurance policy as the risks are not the same.

  • Like typical home insurance, the cover you’ll get for guest-related claims through landlord insurance varies a lot with each insurer, with some restricting what you can claim for. Speak to your landlord insurer in the first instance and see if they are willing to cover you. A host insurer such as Pikl may be the best option if you require specialist cover. If you are a full time host, standard landlord insurance may not be appropriate if you have no tenants. Landlord insurers may be more likely to cover you if you’re only listing on Airbnb or other platforms in between tenancies.

  • Your insurer may ask you questions about whether you host on Airbnb. However, even in cases where this isn’t asked or your circumstances change, it’s essential that you speak to your existing home insurer about any hosting activity. This applies even if you believe they’ll cover you as hosting on Airbnb is likely to be considered a material change in circumstances that is likely to also change the risk the insurer is covering. Not telling your insurer could result in the following issues:

    Your insurer not paying a claim. They may only partially pay out. In some cases, they may pay nothing at all. The insurer can do this where you have deliberately withheld important information.

    Voiding of your policy. In cases where your insurer suspects that withholding information was deliberate, they may void your policy. This is similar to cancelling a policy but is much worse as the policy is cancelled as though it never existed. Doing this is usually reserved for more extreme cases such as fraud, but is likely to result in making it difficult for you to find insurance again.

    Missed mortgage payments. If your property is mortgaged and a large claim isn’t covered, you may have to weigh up the cost of fixing your property against keeping up with mortgage repayments.

    Speaking to your insurer is always the best option, even if you think they’re not likely to cover you. Most insurers will give you time to source insurance alternatives elsewhere if that happens.

  • There’s no current minimum requirement for how much liability cover you need written in law. However, certain regions of Scotland do require a minimum amount of cover, which you will need to check when applying for your hosting licence. For more information, please check out the Scottish government’s website. However, for specific information about public liability cover in your region, you will need to contact your local authority.

  • The premium for a host insurance policy depends on what you require, your individual circumstances, and how long you need cover for. Click on the ‘Get a quote’ button to get an insurance quotation.

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Clear answers to common hosting questions, written to help you host with confidence.

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