How should we protect ourselves from assistance animal damage?

[Nanxing0]

It's just a question that popped in my mind I guess it might have been discussed in the forum before that sounds like a loophole in the Airbnb policies. I understand that the host guarantee term says damage caused by animals (including pets) is not covered. That sounds like if there's any damage by assistance animal then the host guarantee is not going to cover it? On the other hand the nondiscriminatory policy mandates us to accept assistance animal, so I'm wondering how we should protect ourselves from possible assistance animal damage? Is there any other insurance we can seek for such protection?

A more serious issue is that according to the nondiscriminatory policy guests are not mandated to disclose the presence of an assistance animal. That means the assistance animal damage can happen with the host not aware that the guest is bringing the assistance animal?

Also it doesn't really make logic sense to me that the assistance animals "serve a crucial function for their owner" so they should be considered part of their owner instead of pets, but when it comes to responsibility for damage caused by them, they or their owner are not responsible?

Another irritating fact is that emotional support animals are also considered as assistance animals and covered by the policy, but as far as I know they are not as well trained as those REAL service animals for behavior. Truthfully the behavior of emotional support animals are more like pets rather than service animals (I have personally experienced this before).  

[Anonymous]

@Nanxing0   Airbnb has decided that all emotional-support animals are valid, be they dogs or rattlesnakes or hippopotamuses, and it's not in any way reflective of the ADA or any other country's laws concerning actual, trained service animals (which seldom ever cause damage).

I don't think it's possible to beat this one on Airbnb - especially now that customer support is taking several weeks to process tickets. Your best defense is an absolute refusal to admit animals, with a clear reason that can pass through the "discrimination" filters. You might have to diagnose yourself with a severe pet allergy ASAP.

[Mark116]

@Nanxing0  It's a terribly dumb policy to force hosts to admit 'emotional support animals' on the say so of the guest and then refuse to pay for any pet damage or allow a pet specific security deposit.

If you are lucky, you will be in a position to legitimately refuse, either because someone who lives on the property is allergic, or if there were animals living on the property that could be compromised by guests' animals.  

[Helen3]

In terms of pet damage, if there is damage worth claiming for, you can claim on your home insurance for STR if they cover it.

In terms of assistance animals, you are allowed to ask the guests which activities they support the guest with and confirm in your listing that service animals must be with the guest at all times and cannot be left in the listing unsupervised. You can also confirm that pets are not allowed on furniture/beds etc.