Peer to Peer Home Rental Insurance Pilot from Allstate

Many home insurance policies in the United States don’t cover peer-to-peer rentals. This means people listing their homes for rent on sites like AirBnb may not have insurance coverage if a renters steals stuff or trashes the house. The insurance industry has been slow to respond to the need for coverage in the now popular sharing economy rental market but this might finally be changing. In August Allstate launched a pilot program in six states which offers HostAdvantage insurance for $50 per year as an add on service to people whose homes are insured by this company. From their press release here’s the basic overview:

• It helps fill some of the personal property protection gaps that may exist in a typical homeowners policy for customers who occasionally rent out their homes to temporary renters. The endorsement will help protect homeowners from unexpected out-of-pocket expenses. For example, if a home-sharing renter destroys some furniture or steals electronics.
• The homeowners deductible still applies, but hosts are covered for their personal property up to $10,000 per rental period, subject to the policy terms, conditions, limitations and exclusions.

The states initially covered are Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee and Utah, and Allstate says they plan to roll this out to other states in 2017.

I’ve written about one other insurance options for peer to peer rentals which is offered by Belong Safe but I haven’t researched the policies of major home insurance companies. I’d encourage everyone to check your policy before renting out your home on a peer-to-peer network. And if you’re wondering about home insurance for house swapping, that’s a completely different story.