Insurance advice in Nova Scotia

[Brenda264]

Hi, I’m new to Air bnb and am wondering if anyone in Nova Scotia or even just Canada in general can offer advice on homeowner coverage? We will be renting out our family cottage on occasion. We will use it ourselves 90% of the time but wish to rent it out on a few occasions over the spring - fall. I don’t want to pay a ton of extra insurance as it wouldn’t be worth it to rent it out at all. Looking for recommendations of others in this situation. Haven’t contacted my insurance company yet to change the policy to include occasional rentals.

[Jay334]

Hi Brenda.

I see that duuo (duuo.ca) has just launched this week in the Maritimes.  Duuo is short-term rental insurance that you only buy for the days you have guests.  It's part of Co-operators, but available to any hosts, regardless of who carries their home or cottage insurance.  It's the only on-demand insurance in Canada for Airbnb hosts.

Good luck!

[Genevieve93]

Brenda, were you successful in finding an insurer? I'm in the same boat and am panicking!

[Brenda425]

The worry I have with going with Duuo is that most home owner policies will be voided as they will not accept you using another insurer. Have you checked with your home owners insurance company?

[Greg348]

Valid point. We lost our airbnb in a fire but have since rebuilt. The first thing the insurance company wanted to know was if was insured to be running a business in the house. I had a bed and breakfast rider on my insurance policy; else, they were voiding my insurance claim. Secondly, they wanted to know if there was any other insurance on the house as they wanted the other insurance to pay first. We didn't have second insurance but I could see collecting on a claim being a nightmare in this instance.