Hosting as an event rental

[Ashley176]

I'm considering listing our 1875 victorian as a "0 bed" rental for local people to rent out for small events like baby showers, birthday parties, ect. Does anyone else do this? The reason I'm considering going through AirBnB is because I cannot, for the life of me, find an insurance company that is willing to figure out what coverage I'd need as a residence.

Everyone wants us to convert the space to a commercial building which would in turn mean we have to put lots of $$$$ into making sure it's compliant ( widen doors, add wheelchair ramps, exit lighting -all that). We aren't interested in doing that because we are still keeping the house on the market, for sale by owner as a residence. Any way, I spoke with an AirBnB rep who wouldn't actually say "YES, YOU MAY DO THIS", but was vague and pretty much said there was coverage up to 100K for our home and I could do whatever I wanted with it as a rental, all they ask is that we provide seating and lighting, and assured me that I would have liability coverage for people.

I'm not really concerned with vandalism, as I only really see this being rented by local people -and even though the home is gorgeous, it isn't worth that much money because we live in a small town. My main concern, is that I have liability coverage for PEOPLE who are in my home during the rental period by AirBnB. Of course in addition to all of this I'd still be carrying Homeowners insurance. 

So my question is: are there any of you out there that are renting out a home with zero beds to people, specifically for the purpose of hosting events? If so, have you been able to verify with AirBnB that you have complete coverage for people -even if there are 50 at a time on your property and something happens? Have you been able to specify in your house rules and description "Check in" and "Check out" times that are short term? Say, 4-5 hours?

Thanks for any advice!

[Jann3]

Several questions: 

1. Is the only reason you are doing it through AirBnB is to handle the financial end (payment) of this - and to provide a booking method? Otherwise, you are asking for trouble. AirBnB then become the middle-men and can refund guests w/o your approval, etc.
2. AirBnB is setup for overnight so IF you do this, you need to set check-in at 7am or so, w/check-out at 12:01am so AirBnB cannot come back at you with "These were NOT overnight guests."
3. AirBnB's coverage is laughable! $100k? Are you sure? They don't advertise that amount. (PS: The liability is $1M - not $100k - through Lloyd's of London) That is $2,000 ea person for a 50 person function if so! You need to just ask your homeowner's co. how much it is to increase your liability insurance portion to $500,000 - without telling them why. They don't usually ask. For mine (Liberty Mutual) it costs me an additional $50.00/yr to go from $100,000 up to $500,000 and THEY handl my claims, etc. Insurance companies in the US have no say in how many people you can have for events in your home, so they can't limit payouts except for the total dollar amount per "person" and per "occurance."

So, sorry to rain on your parade if I did so...But I would get my own extended umbrella policy (if that's what they're called) and handle the event booking yourself. You say you live in a small town. I'd get "square" (squareup dot com) and handle credit card payments myself, scheduling the events on something like iOS' calendar or OS X's calendar (if you do Mac) I am sure PC's have something like this.

[Ashley176]

I did see that their coverage was 1M, but when I spoke to the woman on the phone this morning she said 100K. 

I was thinking of the ABB rout primarily for coverage because I can't seem to find an insurance company who will cover me for  short-short term rentals. Only for like weekly rentals. Anyway, thanks for your input!

Pretty much decided to just suck it up at this point. In other news, if you're intersted in a home in the midwest, mine's for sale 😉 ha!

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/407-4th-Ave-Sterling-IL-61081/84839250_zpid/?view=public

[Kelly149 · Accepted solution]

@Ashley176 Ashley, I don't think abb will work like what you want. 

1. All reservations are considered to go overnight. The system will not accept a 4 hr reservation. 

2. ABB coverage is SECONDARY to your home owners policy. If you're thinking of going thru abb for the sake of getting insurance your own insurance company won't cover that seems like a terrible idea. 

3. If you're up for it, read the abb Terms of Service documents. I believe my reading was that abb only covers guests and damage of guests listed in the reservation. So if that is so you would be listing 50 persons within your reservation. 

4.  I have had my space listed for approx 10 months. We would allow parties with or without an overnight stay component. HOWEVER, I've had very few inquiries for any parties (it isn't really what people use abb for) and the few inquiries I have received have not wanted to pay what I felt was a reasonable fee tor have a large group of people over for several hours. Most people have thought 20 people should come hangout for the same rate that I would have 2 people stay for. 

Too much utilities, garbage, parking, cleanup & damage potential in my mind. 

[Christine1229]

Hi Ashley,

I'm really curious what you ended up doing here?   Would you mind emailing me? christine.andrews316@gmail.com

Thanks!!

[Jan316]

I’d be very careful if I were you. We had people staying at the air bnb next door to us, who said they were having an afternoon tea for some girlfriends to hold a baby shower. It turned into a two-day, non-stop party with more than 30 drunk adults, men urinating in the garden, broken bottles, the lot. Be careful what you wish for.

[Sarah977]

@Ashley176, you need to do a search on this hosts forum re Host Guarantee. Hosts have been totally shafted by airbnb for documented, outrageous damages. After they have spent countless hours collecting and sending in all the "required" documentation. The "Host Guarantee" is a very misleading piece of BS according to those who have attempted to be covered for damages. Don't do it.

[Rene-and-Zac0]

@Ashley176  I looked at your for sale listing and please trust me on this tip. 

DO NOT turn that place into a “party house”. 

You will despise the day this little thought popped into your head when after your first event, you see those wood floors are ruined to the tune of $ thousands.

I’ve read stories here where Host are paid pennies compared to what the damage cost were.

Recently I read a story where the guest ruined a butcher block counter top with water and the Host got the middle finger, basically. 

Do yourself a huge favor and let this idea go. 

‘You know it’s hard out here for a Host ‘

[William344]

We have a dormant restaurant next to our accommodation, which is available for events such as weddings etc. and was hoping I could use AirBnb to manage bookings and payments obviously no accommodation, which we do as a seperate listing. These Eevents would be hosted by us to manage any chaotic behaviour, which we are familiar with here in Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique.