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Airbnb Damage Protection for Hosts
Airbnb damage protection program protects hosts from damages caused by Airbnb guests. Find out how it works and why it's not enough.
Hosting on Airbnb can be rewarding, but it comes with challenges, including the risk of property damage. While most Airbnb guests are a pleasure to host, accidents can happen, and guests may unintentionally or, in rare cases, even deliberately, cause damage to your home and belongings during their stay.
This damage can range from badly stained carpets and broken furniture to more severe incidents, such as broken floor tiles or missing appliances. So what can you do if a guest seriously damages your property during their stay and refuses to take responsibility?
In this blog, we’ll talk about Airbnb damage protection offered to hosts as a part of the AirCover for Hosts program. We’ll discuss how Airbnb Damage Policy works and what steps you can take to prevent damage to your property and protect yourself from financial risk.
Airbnb Host Damage Protection
Hosts Damage Protection, formerly known as the Host Guarantee, is a part of AirCover for Hosts. It’s Airbnb’s built-in protection program that applies to all bookings made on the platform and provides coverage for unexpected situations to help hosts recover their losses.
Airbnb Host Damage Protection offers up to $3 million in coverage if a guest damages your home or belongings during an Airbnb stay and refuses to pay for the necessary repairs. It’s important that Host Damage Protection is automatically included with every booking made through the Airbnb platform. You don’t need to sign up separately or pay an extra fee.
Damage protection offered by Airbnb gives you peace of mind knowing that your rental property is protected against severe property damage or theft, and you won’t have to bear the financial burden if a guest damages your furniture or appliances. This allows you to focus on managing your rental and providing memorable guest experiences. And with a reliable PMS like Hospitable, you’ll be able to automate most of your Airbnb property management tasks and run your business with minimal effort.
Airbnb Damage Protection: What Is Covered and How to Get Reimbursed
Like any protection program, Airbnb Host Damage Protection has certain terms, conditions, and exclusions. Keep in mind that it’s not an insurance policy, and not all damage is included within its terms.
According to the information available on the Airbnb website, Airbnb damage protection covers hosts for:
Damage to their homes, furnishings, valuables, or belongings caused by guests (or their invitees)
Damage guests (or their invitees) cause to parked cars, boats, or other vehicles
The cost of specialized cleaning services required in certain cases, like removing stains left by guests (or their invitees) or pet accidents, or for removing smoke odor
Income lost if a host needs to cancel confirmed Airbnb bookings due to damage caused by a guest (or their invitees)
Airbnb Host Damage Protection doesn’t cover:
Damage from normal wear and tear
Loss of currency
Damage caused by natural disasters, like earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes
Cleaning costs associated with normal checkout tasks like doing laundry, washing dishes, or removing trash
Injury or property damage to guests or other people (they may be covered by Host liability insurance)
Here is what you should do to get reimbursed if a guest caused damage to your property during their stay:
Document the issue—take clear photos or videos of the damage, get repair or cleaning estimates, and/or a receipt.
Report the damage—file a reimbursement request in the Resolution Center within 14 days of the responsible guest’s checkout.
Try resolving with the guest—your guest will have 24 hours to respond to the request. If they don’t respond, pay partially, or decline payment, you can move to the next step.
Submit a reimbursement request under Host damage protection via the Resolution Center—you must do it within 30 days of the responsible guest’s checkout date. Airbnb Support will then step in and review the request.
Can You Charge Airbnb Damage Deposit?
With the introduction of AirCover for Hosts, Airbnb no longer allows hosts to charge security deposits within their system. However, hosts who manage their Airbnb listings through short-term rental property management software like Hospitable may collect a security deposit off the Airbnb platform before a guest’s stay. Hosts are required to disclose charging an Airbnb security deposit in the appropriate fee fields in their listings, so it is disclosed to guests at checkout.
Hospitable has an official integration with Airbnb and includes a built-in security deposit feature, eliminating the need to connect third-party tools to manage security deposits. With Hospitable, you can collect, hold, and release deposits automatically without unnecessary hassle.
You can add an automatic Airbnb damage deposit to any of your properties and enter the amount you want to collect between $100-$5000. Then, Hospitable will automatically charge your guests 2 days before check-in and refund them after checkout.
What Else Can You Do to Protect Your Property?
It’s not smart to rely only on Airbnb’s damage protection. Remember: implementing measures to prevent problem bookings before they happen helps reduce potential risks.
Start my making your place short-term-rental-ready. The idea is to achieve the balance between durability and looking stunning for your target guests. Discover the tips in our free ebook.
In addition to charging security deposits, you can also ask your guests to sign an Airbnb rental agreement outlining the terms and conditions for staying at your place. This way, you’ll get additional legal protection in case of damages and disputes. Creating a legally-binding contract may also help filter out troublesome guests from booking your property and avoid property damage and liability issues.
Airbnb doesn’t provide any functionality to implement rental agreements on the platform. Still, you can avoid the extra administrative work of creating a new contract for each booking and getting your guests to sign it. Hospitable can help you automate the collection and retention of digitally signed agreements from guests.
You can create a rental agreement template, and Hospitable will populate it with guest and booking data to generate an agreement for each new reservation. We’ll add the rental agreement to the Guest Portal as a registration task for your guest so that they can sign it digitally. You can also require your guest to undergo ID verification as part of the rental agreement process.
With Hospitable, you can also request additional verification on any guest who booked your property on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. Then, we’ll send your guests a secure link to complete the steps in their guest portal.
Final Thought
Airbnb damage protection for hosts applies automatically and can be a lifesaver in cases of extensive property damage. However, it has limitations, and the process can take weeks or months. That’s why it makes sense to take additional measures to reduce the risk of damage and minimize the impact when it happens.
