A Quick Guide to Vrbo’s Protection for Hosts: Property Damage and Liability
If you list your short-term rental property on booking platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo, you should prioritize two things: protecting your property from guest damage and yourself from liability.
However, with platform-specific terms, conditions, and legal jargon, it’s not always that straightforward. Glancing over just a few words of fine print can quickly become financially catastrophic if a guest injures your neighbor, gets injured themselves, or damages your property.
There are several articles already published about the limitations of Airbnb’s AirCover, as well as insurance solutions for Airbnb hosts:
But what about Vrbo insurance for owners?
While Airbnb provides AirCover, which is in part just a platform guarantee, Vrbo takes a different, more traditional approach to protection with Vrbo damage protection.
Vrbo’s Platform Protections for Short-Term Rental Hosts
Airbnb’s AirCover oftentimes overpromises and underdelivers, leaving hosts with a false sense of security until the time of a claim. Vrbo, however, takes a more transparent approach to their host protection, offering a platform-based liability program, two platform-provided options for guests at the time of booking to address guest-caused damage, and most importantly, a clear expectation that hosts maintain their own comprehensive short-term rental insurance, paired with a formal endorsement of the nation’s leading provider that meets those standards.
Vrbo’s Liability Program for Hosts
Vrbo offers a $1 million Liability Insurance program at no additional cost to hosts aimed at incidents that take place during eligible stays processed through the booking platform. The program is intentionally designed to work alongside a host’s existing insurance policy to provide excess protection if a guest is injured at the property or accidentally damages someone else’s property.
While this is a nice added gesture of using the booking platform, it is important to note similar limitations to Aircover: it is not a policy with your name on it, so you have no policy rights, meaning Vrbo is completely in charge of how, and if, a claim is handled. Vrbo also warns that a 25% deductible may apply if your personal insurance does not contribute to a claim.
Vrbo’s insurance coverage focuses solely on liability and does not extend to damage a guest causes to your property, furnishings, or loss of income as a result.
Vrbo’s Platform Approach for Guest Damage
For guest-caused property damage, Vrbo encourages hosts to address this directly with the guest by either requiring a refundable security deposit with their listing or offering Property Damage Protection (PDP) coverage that guests can purchase at the time of booking.
These options are separate from Vrbo’s liability program and are intended to help recover costs for accidental damage to the host’s property. In the Host Terms of Service, Vrbo specifies that hosts are solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining insurance coverage sufficient to protect both their property and their liability.
Vrbo Expects Hosts to Maintain Vacation Rental Insurance: Understanding Vrbo’s Host Terms of Service
Vrbo is forthcoming with the fact that short-term rental risks are vast and ever-present, requiring robust host damage protection and liability insurance policy. Even in Vrbo’s official terms and conditions, it includes a mandate to maintain insurance that properly covers a host’s property and guests. Here are a few snippets from Vrbo’s host terms of service:
Section 9.10: Damage Claims and Vrbo Host Protection
When a damage dispute arises between a host and guest that can’t be resolved directly, either party can escalate a claim to Vrbo. While Vrbo has no obligation to resolve the dispute, if they can determine that a host or guest has caused the damage, Vrbo can recover those costs, which includes any insurance policies. Hosts are expected to cooperate with Vrbo in good faith on any damage claims or complaints.
In other words, if something goes wrong, Vrbo may look directly to your insurance policy to cover it. And if you don’t have a policy that will respond to STR-specific claims, you may be on your own.
Section 10.9: Host Indemnification
As a Vrbo host, you agree to release, defend, and hold Vrbo and its employees harmless from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including legal and accounting fees) that arise from your listing or host activity. Without the right insurance coverage in place, those costs fall entirely to you.
Section 15.1: Vrbo Host Insurance Requirement
Vrbo hosts are responsible for getting insurance coverage that’s enough to protect their property and guests. Vrbo requires that adequate short-term rental insurance be in place before your first guest arrives and is maintained throughout all guests’ stay.
Insurance for short-term rentals isn’t a recommendation; it’s a condition of being a Vrbo host, and a standard Homeowners or Landlord policy almost certainly doesn’t satisfy Vrbo’s host requirements.
Why Vrbo Recommends Proper Insurance for Host Damage Protection and Comprehensive Liability Coverage
For hosts listing their short-term rentals on Vrbo and other booking platforms, a comprehensive vacation rental policy is the clear choice, offering ultimate peace of mind. Why does Vrbo recommend us to their hosts for insurance? Because aligning hosting risks with an insurance policy built for the exposure is the best way to help build short-term rental business resilience:
- Designed to entirely replace the host’s current Homeowners or Landlord policy
- Special form “all-risk” coverage for building(s) and contents
- Replacement cost valuation on both building and contents
- Actual loss sustained business revenue with no time limit
- No limit on coverage for property damage caused by a guest
- Optional coverage for bed bugs, squatters, equipment breakdown, and more
Not sure if you’ve got the right coverage for your short-term rental? Verify your insurance isn’t just for liability, but Vrbo guest damage, too. Call 888-631-6680 to speak with a Proper Insurance expert and get a comprehensive coverage comparison.
