Has anyone considered requiring proof of travel insurance as a condition?

[Bridget228]

I have a vacation rental in California's Wine Country.  In my peak harvest season, I've experienced disastrous cancellations in all three of the last three years.  First it was wildfires in October, the next  year it was power outages (even though the fires were more than a half-hour from my property) and now it's Coronavirus.  I even invested in a generator so that my property would still have power in the event that PG&E turned off power, and Airbnb allowed one guest to cancel just because there were wineries around us without power!  Now I have to guarantee the performance of all the businesses around my property, too?!!  I cannot continue to be every traveler's travel insurance program.  I have yet to have a single traveler purchase travel insurance (even though I strongly recommend it and provide a link to it on my Rental Agreement), so when disaster falls, I'm the one holding the bag every time.  It has been a huge financial hardship.  I'm thinking of requiring proof of travel insurance as a condition to finalizing a reservation.  Has anyone else considered this type of thing?  And if so, have you had any success?  My biggest worry is that even with Travel Insurance, a guest could still get a refund from Airbnb, or their insurance provider would make them get the refund from Airbnb first, and I'd still be left holding the bag.  

I need to figure out a way to get my guests insured, and I'd be willing to offer a big discount if that would provide incentive to guests to do it.  I just need to figure out a way to keep Airbnb from cutting me off at the knees in the process.  Otherwise, I will have to block off my calendar on Airbnb during harvest season and only rent through other sources.  Suggestions anyone?  

[Anonymous]

@Bridget228  It's a lost cause. The only thing you'd accomplish is drastically reducing the odds that a guest would book in the first place. And if a guest with insurance is able to get a full refund directly from Airbnb, why would they bother filing an insurance claim and paying an excess? As you suspected, insurance firms have caught on to the Extenuating Circumstances clause, and as long as that's in place they can insist that the guest pursue a refund this way before paying out their claim. 

That's crazy, though, that Airbnb overrode your cancellation policy just because the wineries were closed. Nothing in the terms of service makes a host responsible for the conditions at nearby tourist attractions. But if the power outage also shut down restaurants and food shops, the guest might have had a valid case. 

[Lisa723]

@Anonymous these power outages were deliberate, intended to forestall electricity lines sparking wildfires in high wind conditions, as happened in the Camp Fire. I'd guess Airbnb may have based the refund decision on the fire conditions as much as the power outage.

[Yadira22]

@Bridget228 

I am so sorry you are going through this, the wildfires and now COVID-19- I can only imagine how stressful it must be for you. 

Firstly, please diversify- as with any business model, its naive to put all your eggs in one basket but before doing so just make sure you read up on any pitfalls these platforms may have. Speaking frankly, no platform is perfect. 

What Andrew says above makes perfect sense but I would also recommend the following 

-Change your cancellation policy to strict, if it's not this already

-Try to take a more proactive approach for when you see these types of situations arising, for example in the case of power outages, it's great to know your property has a generator so this is not an issue, a simple FYI would have put the guest at ease.

-When approaching their stay maybe send a message to confirm their arrival times plus any other logistics and ask if they have any concerns or specific information they may want to ask- this is another opportunity to reassure them and let them know you are on top of things. 

Hope this helps. 

Yadira 🙂

[Kelly149]

@Bridget228  If cancellation policy is important to you, then I’d suggest Vrbo over abb. 
what you’re proposing wouldn’t solve this problem. 

[Lisa723]

@Bridget228 @Kelly149 @Yadira22 @Anonymous 

FWIW, this morning I made an Airbnb reservation as a guest. When completing the booking I was presented with an invitation to buy travel insurance and links to a few sellers.

(I didn't buy it, as the listing has a flexible cancellation policy.)

[Anonymous]

@Lisa723  Thanks for the tip, that is definitely a new feature. I don't know what good it does for hosts when the Extenuating Circumstances already cover many of the same disruptions that a standard insurance policy would, but perhaps it's some kind of step forward.