Long term guests

[Diana294]

Hi. I'm new to airbnb. Normally, during the fall and winter months, we rent our furnished suite to students. I have just had my first airbnb guests this weekend and have just had an inquiry from somebody who would like to book for a month-and-a-half. Normally, I offer a continental breakfast, but the person who has inquired is coming to our city to take a job, so I thought I might discount the price if he forgoes the breakfast. However. I don't understand the insurance implications for having a long term guest. Normally, with my tenants, I require they have tenant's insurance, but this isn't really a tenant so much as a guest. Any thoughts from anyone? I would like to offer this person the place – his references look really good, but I don't want to cause a bunch of trouble or get myself in trouble. I need to reply to him. 

[Scott80]

I doubt that AirBnB would enforce requiring someone to have tenant's insurance. Also, I don't think an insurance company would write a policy for less than a year. What you could do would be to get landlord's insurance to supplement AirBnB's coverage and include the cost of that insurance in your nightly rate. AirBnB also provides liability insurance for hosts, here is the page about it: https://www.airbnb.com/host-protection-insurance You can also collect a deposit to help cover accidents that occur during a reservation and the host guarantee to protect hosts against damages to their own possessions or unit in the rare instance of property damage by their guests in listings.

[Diana294]

Hi, Scott. 

Thank you so much for your prompt reply. My issue is that I'm in Canada, and my insurance company will not cover damages by tenants at all. The law here requires tenants to have insurance. Given that I mostly deal with students, their parents usually subscribe to a rider on their own insurance policies to cover this. 

It's a puzzle for sure. 

[Scott80]

If is a legal requirement, you can definitely require it. I would spell out the requirement in your listing and when it is applicable. Then put in your house manual all of the information about your property that the tenant is going to need to give the insurance company and the steps that they need to go through to obtain, pay for, and receive proof of insurance. 

This article in interesting because it says that most tenants do not have renter's insurance and near the end of the article says that it is NOT required. (see: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/most-renters-skip-home-insurance-1.911039 )

Personally, I would not stay in an AirBnB that required it. I know that getting insurance will take at least a day, and if most of the other AirBnB listings did not require it, I might take that requirement in a solitary listing as a sign of an overly demanding, legalistic host.

[Diana294]

Thanks, Scott. I am going to contact Landlord BC on Tuesday (long weekend here) and see what they say. The article you cited was from 2010 and no longer applies where I live. Anyway, I have some resources and will contact them. From what I have been able to discover, tenants are responsible for all damages, but my main concern in MY liability in case of a trip and fall or something like that. My insurance company will definitely not cover me for any issues with tenants. 

Thanks again for your replies to me. There's a learning curve for sure.