Guest insurance requested by host

[Philip2069]

Hi,

I have taken an AirBnB rental for 2 week in Brittany, France. The property is a house.

The host has sent me a contact and it seems to ask us to ensure that our dometic home insurance will cover the rental property. In the UK this is very unusual, as it is assumed hosts carry insurance not guests.

Does anyone know if this is normal practice? Between the language barrier (my French is school level) and business culture difference I don't want to cause offence by challenging this.

Many Thanks P

[Anonymous]

@Philip2069   I've never heard of this before. Was this condition disclosed in the listing - for example, under the "Policies" tab?

[Helen3]

Never heard of that. If that wasn't stated in the house rules for the listing, then if the host insists you can ask Airbnb to cancel @Philip2069 

[Philip2069]

Thanks for both your replies. It wasn't stated in the house listing.

[Anonymous]

I'd report this host to Airbnb. This is not a reasonable requirement to spring on a guest.

Are there previous reviews on the listing mentioning this? 

[Philip2069]

No this property is unreviewed.

[Kelly149]

@Philip2069 You are indeed responsible for the house while you’re in it. Certainly in as much as you could possibly damage the place. How would you expect to cover damages if the worst should happen?

[Philip2069]

I guess that as a business a host takes out insurance on their property. The customer is of course responsible for deliberate or negligent damage.

If the guest is required to take out specific insurance to cover the hosts property, what level should the insurance be set at? 

Most hosts take a deposit to cover damage or breakages.

[Anonymous]

@Philip2069 The host was unreviewed? Well, I applaud you for your courage in taking a big risk on an untested host, whose listing may well be one of the thousands of scams operating on the site. This could be a fraud attempt, or it could be a newbie who's still figuring things out. Either way, if you have the booking canceled I recommend finding a more experienced and we'll reviewed host for your replacement booking.