Whether you’re renting out your home on Airbnb or doing a home exchange, many people worry damage and theft. Some standard home insurance policies cover some home guests. But even with home exchanges, where no money changes hands, your home owners policy may not provide coverage.
Airbnb provides some pretty good liability insurance to their hosts. They also offer a “host guarantee” policy that covers property damage from guests. And a few home exchange networks also provide insurance. But not all insurance is created equal. So for those who use networks without built in insurance, and for people who just want the peace of mind of extra coverage, Guardhog is an interesting option.
Currently available in the UK, Ireland and France, Guardhog is targeting peer to peer home rentals, house sitting and home exchange. They’ve built an interface with Airbnb so that hosts can automatically sign up for insurance only when they have guests.
Since I can’t sign up for services myself (they don’t cover the United States yet), I reached out to Guardhog for more information on pricing. Here’s what they said:
Our Host Cover insurance would cover Home Exchange as well as for rentals on Airbnb and house sitting. The cost varies on the size and value of the house, so I can will give you an example guideline cost.
For a 2-bedroom house in Wiltshire, UK, that is charging £100 per night on Airbnb, the cost of Host Cover insurance would be £2.17 per night for a four night stay.
We also offer other insurance cover aimed at the sharing market.
Our Deposit Cover replaces the need for hosts to take a deposit from guests. For £2.20 per night, (based on the same property above), this would insure the host / guest for £1000 and replace the need for a deposit. (Normal Host Cover doesn’t pay out for losses under £1000).
We are just about to launch a new product called Guest Cover. This is an insurance for guests to take out to cover them for situations like:
- The property they have booked does not exist (there have been several examples of this recently)
- The property is not as described in the property details
- Guardhog would pay for and arrange like for like alternative accommodation
I don’t know enough about insurance to say which companies cover sharing economy home services. But if you’re worried, start by calling your agent. If you learn that you don’t have sufficient coverage, check out what is offered by the network you’re using. And if you still aren’t feeling good about the coverage, Guardhog might be a good option. And from two years ago, here’s a list of other sharing economy insurance options.