Guest suing host

[Sara665]

Has anyone been sued for an illness a guest claims they obtained from a hot tub? Specifically Legionnaires disease?

[Helen3]

Have you passed this to Airbnb’s liability insurance, or your home insurance for STRs. @Sara665 

They will determine if there is a case.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sara665 

Whilst it is possible to catch Legionnaires disease from a hot tub, it is as easily likely to catch it from compost when potting plants.

I would imagine that obtaining evidence of such infection would be difficult to come by and as long as you exercise good hot tub cleanliness you should avoid any sorts of infections at all.

We offer a hot tub here and replace the filter and change the water and set the chemical balances for every change of guests. But I've heard horror stories from friends staying abroad, more specific in ski resorts who report unsavoury conditions of hot tubs and well - you just wouldn't use those would you?

I'm interested in following any comments on this thread.

[Anonymous]

@Sara665  Personal injury lawsuits over bacterial infections are very hard for individuals to win, as they have to prove that they can trace the source of the infection directly to one place. Hotels and cruise operators have been successfully sued over Legionnaire's outbreaks because multiple guests reported infections over the same period. 

Presumably with a hot tub, you already have some supplemental liability coverage, but your first step in addressing the suit should be to contact Airbnb through the Host Protection scheme:  https://www.airbnb.com/d/host-protection-insurance

[Ute42]

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@Sara665 

I do not suggest that You contact airbnb concerning this issue. This may result in airbnb (temporarily) delisting Your property.

I would do absolutely nothing. Let Your guests prove the case, this will be extremely difficult for them as others have mentioned.

The only way to prove it would be, if Your guests had a sample of Your hot tube water taken when they were on site and then have it examined at a laboratory. How likely is it that they did take such a sample, provided that they found out about the Legionnaires disease, most likely one week after check-out? = Zero. You are a „registered nurse“ and You have 963 reviews. I assume noone has ever complained about Your hot tube water. Your guest will be getting nowhere with their accusation.

My experience is, that from 10 people who have threatened to sue me in my life, I've never heard from 9.8 of them ever again.

cc: @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

[Sara665]

@Ute42 Thank you for your advice. Can I ask you a question? When you say "delist" do you mean that they will take my listing down and cancel all our future bookings? Are we allowed to have a listing on VRBO or other sites similar? I read that airbnb don't cover things like bed bugs, mold, pollution, asbestos so I bet they wouldn't cover legionairres either. My home owners insurance is trying to make us file our law suit claim with airbnb. Probably because they (home owners) don't cover "microorganisms" so we have no coverage.   We have no doubt in the safety of our hot tubs. Water is emptied between guests (state law). Filter cleaned each time. Floater filled with bromine tabs. Spa shock left for guests to apply after each use with specific instructions. Spa saftey instructions posted everywhere at the cabin. 15 years experience with renting homes with hot tubs. No one else has ever been sick. We actually used this hot tub many times before these folks and after. Lawyer hasn't released medical records yet and sort of fumbled when asked if Covid 19 had been tested. Which both diseases have very similar symptoms. 

[Ute42]

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@Sara665   

Yes, airbnb sometimes delists properties if a guest comlains about something and sometimes they cancel all future reservations. Do not contact airbnb concerning this issue!

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Suspended-account/m-p/598992#M138621

Yes, You are allowed to have listings on other platforms and You should have listings on other platforms.

I am German and I have no idea about the legislation in the US. But as I said before: There is absolutely no way for Your guest to prove there was a problem with Your water. Forget it, they are just trying to squeeze money out of You.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sara665 @Ute42 

It's highly likely that any guest threatening to sue for any sort of liability would make a host hit the panic button, and Ute would be right in saying that there needs to be evidence in existence that the exact point of infection would be from the hot tub, so rather than jump to offering any insurance solution, reading up about your options and preparing how you might handle the situation would be more prudent.

Maybe a useful point of contact would be your hot tub supplier. They could offer useful advice on disease as well as suggestions how you might want to test and treat your hot tub(s) even as a precautionary measure.