Host Liability Insurance (Australia)

[David14042]

We have 2-bedroom cottage on a rural property in Queensland, Australia listed on AirBnB. We have the cottage insured for building and contents and $20M 'legal liability'. The cottage is insured as a Short-term Holiday Rental so they know AirBnB guest will be staying there.
We have a large dam about 60m from our AirBnB cottage, that can be accessed through a chained gate in a sheep/cattle proof fence. Our family and grand-kids use the dam for swimming, kayaking, fishing and also go forest bushwalking (trekking) on tracks I have made.
Are these activities covered under our AirBnB insurance policy if staying AirBnB guests participate? We currently have these activities listed on our AirBnB under Listing Description and Guest Access and the dam is shown in a number of our rural property photos on AirBnB.
Our listing is (Coolamondah Country Cottage) at Aramara in Queensland, Australia. Currently we do not have any other public liability insurance for our property that covers those specific activities (except in Hip Camp's included public liability insurance for their separate bookings). We just have Legal  Liability insurance associated with our private house residence and the Cottage residence. Getting Farm-Stay type of liability insurance is practically impossible without paying a ridiculously prohibitive amount of annual premium.
I asked some very specific questions about what is and what isn't covered in their insurance to AirBnB online Support and just got the usual links to their generic Insurance Program Summary (which has no real specifics) and other non-specific documents. Why can't they just be upfront with what is covered and what isn't?
Can anyone with some knowledge on this add their advice on what is and is not covered. I have already read AirBnB's Host Liability Insurance Program Summary, and other info though none of them are specific.
Thanks in advance,
David

[Elisa]

Hi @David14042 😊, 

Thank you for asking this here.

Did you find out anything about it?

I’m tagging a few hosts from Australia to see what they can advise you on: @Laurelle3, @Hayley185, @Geoff7 and @Rosanna51.

Thank you in advance, everyone!

[David14042]

Thanks for your assistance @Elisa .
No I haven't heard anything meaningful from AirBnB nor form members in this forum.
I was hoping that AirBnB may have expert Support staff monitoring this forum.
Hopefully some of your Tagged members may have some specific knowledge or experience in this particular situation.
Cheers,
David

[Hayley185]

Hello David, I will answer as best I can with the knowledge I have on this topic. I would suggest your insurance company coul dhelp answer this also possibly? 

With additional things such as kayaks and other activites you offer, from my experience, you just need to put in your house rules, or any other forms you may provide, stating these are for guest use, however are to be operated at the risk of the guest, with no liabilty reserved to the owner. Somethings to this affect? You could also speak with a broker if you are not getting any clear answers with your insurance company? Hope this helps. 

Best of Luck Hayley 

[David14042]

Thanks for that advice @Hayley185 . Yes we will definitely have something in the House Rules stating that those activities are to be carried out at their own risk and have a form to sign stating that. However, I have heard from an insurance broker that people can’t relieve themselves of liability simply by stating that or getting them to sign a form. I don’t know the full facts of it under Australian law. Given my question was specifically about AirBnB’s insurance policy I can’t see regular insurance brokers knowing any specific details about it. I would like to read AirBnB’s full PDS about their insurance policy. 
Thanks again,

David

[Geoff7]

WOW ! this is a complicated area @David14042  So a couple of years ago, I use a local broker here in Victoria to do a presentation to the Central Vic Hosts - he looked at both Aircover and what it actually covered as well as a variety of other STR Policies. On Aircover, while I am not an insurance expert, it does appear that it only applies to depreciated value replacement of items  broken or stolen by Airbnb guests, and / or damage caused - while in actual residence. There is also a small public liability component but nothing near what we normally expect here in Australia. The broke I used for the group described Aircover as a "nice" add on from Airbnb but not one to be fully relied upon within the Australian context. Hope this helps. Happy to put you in contact with the Broker if that would be useful.

[David14042]

Thanks for the advice @Geoff7 . Yes I was most interested with the public liability component of their insurance, especially how far around the walls of the cottage it may extend (if they were wandering around the dam or bushwalking in nearby paddocks etc.). The insurance I have now have a quote on isn't for Farm-Stay insurance 'per-se', though is designed for rural properties where people may have a rented cottage (like AirBnB) and a front gate fruit/vege stall (like we do). It allows you to have (and covers you for) these type activities. So I have separate Home & Contents policies quoted for our primary residence and also for the nearby cottage. The cottage one is listed as 'Short Term Holiday Rental' and the house is called 'Homestead/Shed'. They don't cover me for liability for visitors that do camping, any farming activities or activities on the large dam like swimming/kayaking... though they do cover liability over the whole property (111 acres) for sightseeing etc. My HipCamp included  $10M legal liability does cover those dam activities as well as bushwalking.
So though not ideal, I'm going to go with the combination of our two Residence and Cottage policies that have building/contents/$20M legal liability coverage, in addition have the HipCamp $10M Host Protection policy for those infrequent visitors, and AirBnB's meagre $1M Host Liability insurance (still not sure what detail it does/doesn't cover). Most companies wouldn't insure against Farm-Stay activities and some said if any camping or farm-stay happened on the property at all, the whole insurance policy would be void.
After a month of checking and using a broker that supposedly specialises in farm-stay type insurance around Queensland, this is the best I could come up with (without spending an absolute $$$ fortune on annual premiums). This combo was also much higher that we would like (for a retired couple), though in today's high-priced insurance industry, it was the best we could do and probably considered quite reasonable... given we have two buildings/contents/liability coverage.

Thanks again for your input.

[Geoff7]

your welcome

[Frances3408]

@David14042 . Hi David, I'm a bit late to this discussion but here goes.

Airbnb Aircover and host cover is not a licensed insurance company in OZ and thus does not offer a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) as per our normal insurance laws. There is no "policy" as we would use the term.

From my investigations I believe it can be best described as a self insured, indemnity style arrangement with the equivalent of contracted claims support companies. (similar to LLyods of London type insurances). I cannot however verify this and as you have found out, the details are lacking and the terms and conditions seem to frequently change (so you cannot rely on a dated and issued PDS to lock in your terms for example).

The fact that you mention HipCamp offering some level of public liability cover may offer some hope- perhaps reach out to them to ask who they insure/reinsure through? 

Although it may not be worth the paper its written on I'd personally still want guests to sign a legal liability waiver before staying.