@Barry4 @Clare0......Hi Barry, Forget all about the HPI....it is a cleverly crafted marketing tool which you, in practice, would find of no use to you in event of a damage claim.
Here is Australia we are fortunate to have a number of good insurance options available and, I would urge every host to take note of these options and use one or the other. This being a possibly less litigious society than the US, companies are more inclined to insure the hosting risk here!
If you simply have a household general policy there is every possibility the company you have that with will cancel your policy if they find out you are in a short term rental agreement with a hosting platform.
If you are listing a shared property (that is, on the same residential allotment) I suggest that you use Sharecover.com if you are hosting a few guests per month! This is the insurer I use, and is a part of the largest insurance group in Australia. Sharecover insures specifically for the Airbnb and the Stayz platforms. You only pay for cover for the nights that guests are on your property, and the cost of cover is from $3.50au per night. It does not take the place of general insurance....it's an addition to it. AAMI have just recently (In February) introduce an insurance package that works with the Airbnb operation and is additional to their general insurance policy. This is also a good option because it keeps all general insurance under the one umberella!
There is also another company who provide similar cover to the hosting community for an annual modest premium which is more for hosts with a full booking calendar. I believe this company is called LTM and is based in Victoria. All these companies provide either $10m or $20m public liability insurance but be aware that there are some traps where liability insurance is concerned!
Liability insurance will only cover guests and hosts on the insured property, and does not cover guests from their own negligence. If you allow guests to use bicycles that you may provide for them to cycle the local area there is no liability cover beyond the perimeter of the insured property! If they injure themselves diving from the top of the robe cupboard to the bed....they will not be covered!
Barry, I suggest you get onto all of these companies individually and compare what each has to offer and make a decision based on what comes from 'the horses mouth', rather than use your local insurance representative. I have found from years of experience reps tend to promote that which is in their best interests rather than what is in the clients!!
But Barry, forget about the Airbnb's host protection scheme.....it is nothing more than a marketing tool and in reality provides no coverage for protection the average host would ever be likely to need!....cheers......Rob
PS: I am really sorry to have to disagree with @Clare0, she has an absolute wealth of knowledge in all aspects of hosting with Airbnb and has given countless good quality helpful posts but, in this instance CBIZ are an American company who, whilst offering a type of hosting insurance, are not active in the Australian market.....at least not that I am aware of
Perhaps Clare, or another of the great United States contibutors could compile a short list of insures who operate in this field in the US......cheers.....Rob
