How to Get the Best Airbnb Insurance in Canada (2024)
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Airbnb and other short-term rental services like Homeaway, Hometogo and VRBO have revolutionized both tourism and the housing market in the 21st century. By providing affordable accommodation to travellers and a flexible source of income for homeowners, it's a winning formula.
But if you are looking to start renting your house or condo to guests, it's important to make sure you have the correct insurance to protect yourself. Home insurance doesn't cover short-term rentals.
In this guide we'll explore what Airbnb insurance is, how it works, who needs it and how to get the best insurance quotes.
What is Airbnb insurance?
Airbnb insurance is a form of business insurance that insures your property for use in commercial short-term rentals. It makes sure you are protected from the specific set of risks associated with welcoming paying guests. This can include damage to your property, your guests’ belonging and injuries sustained while staying at your property.
Airbnb insurance is available from a range of different agencies. Some specialize in business insurance and others in normal home insurance.
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Why do I need Airbnb insurance?
Most homeowners already have a home insurance policy, but that form of coverage usually doesn’t extend to liabilities and damages incurred in a commercial context. Airbnb insurance and other forms of short-term rental insurance ensure you are protected.
Airbnb offers its own Aircover insurance with up to $3 million USD in coverage for damage protection and $1 million USD in host liability protection, however, there are lots of other packages out there that are even more comprehensive. In the event of a disaster and any kind of legal proceedings, fees can easily spiral out of control – well beyond Aircover’s $1 million USD policy ceiling. Insurance companies have created tailor-made products to protect their customers against this kind of risk.
What does Airbnb insurance cover?
Different forms of Airbnb insurance offer varying types of coverage, but by using the Airbnb platform, hosts are automatically subscribed to the Aircover insurance policy. This covers Host Guarantee Protection and Host Protection Liability and an array of other services detailed below:
Airbnb AirCover
- Host Guarantee Protection protects the contents of your home and/or property from damages or theft by a guest for claims up to 3 million USD with notable exceptions such as jewellery, art and collectables
- Host Liability Protection protects hosts from liability in the event that a guest is injured or has property damaged or stolen up to 1 million USD. This is referred to in the wider insurance market as Commercial General Liability Insurance (CGL insurance), or what many refer to as ‘Slip and Fall insurance’.
- Aircover also includes more limited coverage relating to pet damage, loss of income and deep cleaning costs that might be incurred while hosting.
Aircover insurance has gaps in its coverage and does not include losses due to acts of nature including hurricanes and earthquakes. Those searching for more protection should explore the more expansive offers on the market.
A separate, comprehensive Airbnb insurance policy can include additional coverage. For example, Zensurance, a leading business insurance provider in Canada includes the following:
| Coverage type | About |
|---|---|
| Commercial Liability Insurance | Protects your business against third-party property damage and lawsuits for bodily injury claims. Get coverage up to 2 million USD. |
| Commercial Property Insurance | Provides a range of different coverages tailored to your needs that protects against physical damages or losses to your property due to a disaster such as a fire, vandalism or theft. This coverage usually extends to your belongings such as electronics and furniture. |
| Rental Income Insurance | Covers losses of income sustained as a result of floods, fires and a range of other disasters included in the policy. |
| Loss Assessment Coverage | Covers damage to property with shared ownership and/or responsibility like shared areas of condominiums. These can include anything from communal swimming pools to lobby areas. Usually, these sorts of organizations will have their own insurance policies, but in the event that damages exceed their policy limit, Loss Assessment Coverage is there to pick up the slack and protect individual property owners from liability. |
| Contingent Unit Coverage | Protect your specific unit within a setup such as a condominium corporation in case they have not insured your property. This can also help to supplement other insurance packages that don’t include a high enough policy limit or a wide enough range of disasters such as earthquakes or floods. |
| Cyber Liability Insurance | protects you against any damages or costs associated with cybercrime. If your system suffers some sort of breach and your customer’s data is compromised, Cyber Liability insurance will cover legal fees, notification costs as well as different forms of risk management up to an agreed-upon policy limit. |
How much does Airbnb insurance cost?
Insurance for Airbnb can cost as little as $12-40 dollars per month but rates can and do go much higher depending on your requirements and the size of your property.
Airbnb insurance from outside providers encompasses a range of products and can vary enormously depending on the size of your property, the type of coverage you want, and the number of days you rent it per year. Prices will also vary depending on whether you own your property or are renting it.
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Expert advice
Insuring multiple properties? Ask your provider if they offer discounts for caring multiple policies with them.
What risks do Airbnb hosts face?
Airbnb and short-term rental visits usually go without incident, but every once in a while, hosts find themselves facing different forms of liability. Here are ten different forms of risk to look out for:
- Damage, loss, or theft of a guest’s property while staying at an Airbnb rental.
- Bodily injury to guests or their pets.
- Damage or theft of property belonging to the Airbnb host while guests are occupying Airbnb rental.
- Damage or theft of property belonging to a condominium complex in which the Airbnb rental is located.
- Damage of property due to an outside disaster, which could mean either burglaries or natural disasters such as flooding, earthquakes and hurricanes.
- Deep cleaning after guests vacated an Airbnb property.
- The loss of rental income following the damage incurred on a rental property while hosting guests or due to outside disasters.
- Cyber attacks result in the theft of customer data.
- Cancelled bookings, resulting in a loss of rental income for hosts.
- Squatters compromise hosts’ ability to rent their properties to new guests.
Where can I get Airbnb insurance?
Today, a very select group of insurance companies in Canada offer Airbnb insurance. You can usually get a quote via a company's website or over the phone. We make it easy to compare business insurance quotes for your Airbnb.
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The best insurance plan depends on your needs as an Airbnb host. Many plans set prices based on how many days you rent out your property per year, the type of coverage you want, as well as the size of your property. Generally speaking, the best insurance plan will provide hosts with the maximum extent of protection for the most competitive price.
Here are some of Canada’s most popular Airbnb insurance providers:
- Zensurance Airbnb insurance
- Aviva IAirbnb insurance
- Mcdougall Airbnb insurance
- SummitCover Airbnb insurance
- Square One Airbnb insurance
- Duuo Airbnb insurance
- April Airbnb insurance
Airbnb insurance vs. normal home insurance
Wondering how Airbnb insurance and home insurance are different? We got you covered.
Home insurance may cover damage or injuries sustained by guests, but it won’t cover guests who are also customers. While there isn’t a legal requirement to have both forms of insurance, it is highly recommended given the kind of liabilities Airbnb hosts open themselves up to by renting out their properties on a short-term basis.
Airbnb insurance
- Covers you for generality liability for commercial guests.
- Covers many types of damage to property by guests, or related legal fees in case of injury.
- Covers loss of rental income due to damage.
Home insurance
- Inexpensive for lots of coverage.
- May refuse you coverage if you rent on Airbnb.
- Doesn’t cover paid guests.
- Will not compensate you for loss of rental income due to damage.
Ready to purchase insurance for your Airbnb business? Get free, instant quotes now:
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