THE SHORT-TERM RENTAL POLICY STANDARD
Five things a policy must do to be short-term rental insurance.
There is no industry form for short-term rental insurance. There’s a Homeowners form and a Landlord form, and both of them assume somebody lives there. Nobody ever wrote down what the short-term rental version is supposed to do—so four different products get sold under one label, and the only thing left to compare is price.
This is the written-down version. It’s five structural things, and you can check every one of them on your own declarations page in about a minute.
The Standard for Short-Term Rental Insurance
Short-term rental insurance means a short-term rental policy: the primary insurance contract on a home rented to guests for short stays. This applies no matter what the product is called: short-term rental insurance, vacation rental insurance, or Airbnb insurance. A short-term rental policy must do five things. If it doesn’t do all five, it isn’t one.
Is it a policy at all?
It stands alone.
It replaces whatever policy is on the property now. It doesn’t sit on top of one. If canceling another policy would leave you uncovered, what you have is an add-on.
It covers the property no matter how it’s being used.
Booked, empty, or between guests. No occupancy restrictions. No vacancy clause. No limits on who you hand the keys to.
Is it the right policy?
Its liability is commercial, and it follows your guest.
Guests don’t stay on the property. They ride the bikes, take out the kayak, walk next door. Commercial general liability responds on and off the property. Premises liability stops at the property line.
It covers the building and everything in it.
It pays to repair or replace the structure after a fire or a water loss—and it covers the furnishings you put in it, including when a guest damages or takes something.
It insures your business income.
Not “loss of rents.” Loss of rents pays roughly what a long-term tenant down the street would pay. Business income is written around what your property actually earns.
How to Check the Policy You Have on Your Short-Term Rental
Pull the declarations page from the policy on your short-term rental and ask these five questions. Each question checks one of the five criteria of what makes short-term rental insurance.
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1 · Stands alone
Is your name on it as the named insured, and is this the only policy on the property?
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2 · Any use
Does it restrict occupancy (a vacancy clause, a day limit, a primary-residence requirement)?
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3 · Follows the guest
Does it say premises liability, or commercial general liability?
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4 · Building + contents
Is there a limit for contents or personal property at all?
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5 · Business income
Does it say loss of rents, or business income?
Frequently Asked Questions About Short-Term Rental Insurance
What is short-term rental insurance?
Short-term rental insurance means a short-term rental policy—the primary insurance contract on a home rented to guests for short stays. To qualify, a policy has to do all five things the standard for a short-term rental policy describes: it stands alone; it covers the property no matter how it’s being used; its liability is commercial, and it follows your guest; it covers the building and everything in it; and it insures your business income. A product that does four of them is something else, whatever the label says.
Is a Landlord policy short-term rental insurance?
No—a Landlord policy is long-term rental insurance. The form underneath it (commonly a DP-3 dwelling form) is built around a tenant who lives there, so it typically carries premises liability and loss of rents rather than Commercial General Liability and Business Income. The standard for a short-term rental policy calls for Commercial General Liability and Business Income, so a Landlord policy used on a short-term rental doesn’t meet it. That’s long-term rental insurance doing its job correctly—for a long-term rental.
Is a home-sharing endorsement short-term rental insurance?
No. A home-sharing endorsement sits on top of another policy rather than replacing it, so it doesn’t meet the first requirement of the Short-Term Rental Policy Standard: that a policy stands alone. The same is true of per-booking protection and platform protection programs. They can work as supplements, but not as a substitute for a standalone policy.
Does a policy have to be expensive to be short-term rental insurance?
No. Whether a policy is short-term rental insurance doesn’t depend on price, carrier, or quality. All five criteria are structural, and all five are printed on a declarations page. Cost isn’t one of them.
Who decides whether my policy is short-term rental insurance?
You can check it yourself. Pull your declarations page and compare it to the five things the standard for short-term rental insurance describes. Checking your own policy’s declaration page takes about a minute. If your policy does all five, it’s short-term rental insurance. If it falls short on any one, it’s a different kind of policy. If it falls short on any one, it’s a different kind of policy, one that wasn’t designed for the risks of short-term renting. In that case, you’ll want to review your coverage with a licensed insurance professional who understands those risks in depth.
Version history: v1.0, published November 6, 2026. Changes to this standard are published here with the date and the reason.