TL;DR: AirCover for Hosts provides solid protection for Airbnb bookings — up to $3M in damage protection and $1M in liability coverage. But it only covers Airbnb stays. The moment you take a direct booking, list on Vrbo, or expand to Booking.com, you’re operating without a net. Building a real short-term rental business means coverage that follows you across every channel, not just one.
If you’re running a handful of listings and AirCover has handled everything so far, you might wonder why you’d need anything else. Fair question.
The short answer: if you don’t right now, you will soon. AirCover works well for Airbnb-only hosts. But the moment you start thinking about direct bookings, listing on Booking.com, or scaling past your first few properties, the math changes. What protected you at three listings won’t necessarily protect you at ten.
This guide breaks down Airbb AirCover’s actually coverage limits, where the gaps show up as you grow, and how to build protection that scales with your business — not just your Airbnb account.
What AirCover for Hosts actually covers
AirCover for Hosts is Airbnb’s built-in protection program, and for Airbnb-only hosts, it’s genuinely useful.
The package includes:
- Guest identity verification
- Reservation screening
- Up to $3M in host damage protection
- $1M in host liability insurance.
If a guest trashes your place or someone gets hurt during an Airbnb stay, you have a path to reimbursement. Airbnb made baseline protection automatic — no enrollment, no extra fees. For hosts with a single listing on a single platform, AirCover covers the basics.
But here’s what the marketing doesn’t emphasize: AirCover protects Airbnb stays. Not your rental business.
Airbnb AirCover coverage limits and exclusions
Understanding AirCover requirements for hosts means reading the fine print. Several scenarios fall outside Airbnb AirCover insurance:
Airbnb AirCover coverage limits and exclusions
Understanding AirCover requirements for hosts means reading the fine print. Several scenarios fall outside Airbnb AirCover insurance:
Platform restrictions: AirCover only applies to bookings made through Airbnb. Direct bookings, Vrbo reservations, and Booking.com stays aren’t covered — even if it’s the same property with the same guest profile.
Geographic exclusions: Hosts in Japan operate under different programs (Japan Host Insurance). Certain coverage terms vary by country of residence — Australia, the UK, and EEA countries each have separate policy structures and underwriters.
Coverage boundaries: Host damage protection and host liability insurance are separate programs. One doesn’t guarantee the other. Damage protection covers your properties and belongings. Liability covers legal responsibility for guest injuries. Both have claim requirements and documentation thresholds.
The insurance gap: According to Airbnb, AirCover for Hosts is not a substitute for personal insurance.
The channel gap: why multi-channel hosts need more
Say you’ve grown from two listings to six. You expand to Booking.com for European traveler traffic. You launch a direct booking website to cut OTA commissions. A guest from your website breaks a window. A Booking.com guest slips on your stairs.
AirCover doesn’t apply. Those aren’t Airbnb stays.
This isn’t a criticism — Airbnb built AirCover to protect transactions on their platform, which makes sense. But as you diversify channels, the coverage gap widens with every non-Airbnb booking.
The Ohana Group in New Zealand hit this wall. With properties across multiple regions, they wanted to expand beyond Airbnb but couldn’t confidently list elsewhere without insurance that covered all their channels. Their distribution was effectively capped by their coverage.
After implementing Damage Protection through Guesty®, they expanded to Booking.com and direct bookings. Today, 30–40% of their reservations come from outside Airbnb. That’s not just diversification — that’s a fundamentally more resilient business model. Their year-over-year portfolio growth hit 158%.
Short-term rental insurance: coverage types explained
Before comparing Airbnb AirCover vs. short-term rental insurance, it helps to understand what vacation rental insurance actually covers. These are the core coverage types professional hosts carry:
Damage protection covers physical damage to your property caused by guests — broken furniture, stained carpets, damaged appliances. This is what kicks in when a bachelor party gets out of hand.
Liability coverage protects you if a guest is injured on your property and you’re found legally responsible. Slip-and-fall accidents, pool injuries, balcony incidents. This coverage pays legal defense costs and settlements.
Loss of income protection covers revenue lost when your property can’t be rented due to covered damage. If a kitchen fire takes a unit offline for six weeks, this coverage replaces the bookings you couldn’t take.
Umbrella coverage extends your liability limits beyond the base policy. For hosts with multiple properties or high-value units, umbrella policies add a layer of protection against catastrophic claims.
The key question isn’t Airbnb insurance vs. AirCover — it’s whether your coverage applies to all your bookings, regardless of source.
Airbnb AirCover vs. homeowners insurance
Most hosts assume their homeowners insurance covers short-term rental activity. Usually, it doesn’t.
Standard homeowners policies typically exclude or limit coverage for “business use” of your property. The moment you accept payment from guests, you’re operating outside the policy’s intended scope. Some insurers will cancel your coverage entirely if they discover undisclosed rental activity.
AirCover doesn’t solve this. Airbnb’s own documentation states it’s “not a substitute for personal insurance” — including homeowners coverage. You need both: a homeowners policy that permits (or is specifically designed for) short-term rental use, plus coverage for the rental activity itself.
Check your policy language. If it excludes business purposes or paying guests, you’re exposed on both sides.
How to get insurance that covers all booking channels
If you’re scaling beyond Airbnb-only, your coverage needs to work everywhere you take bookings. Here’s what to look for:
Channel-agnostic protection: Whether the booking comes through Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, or your own website, the coverage applies. One policy, every channel.
Streamlined claims processing: Some policies bury you in documentation requirements or take months to resolve. Look for claims handling integrated with your property management workflow — no separate portals, no context-switching.
Coverage that scales: Adding properties shouldn’t mean renegotiating your entire insurance setup. Solutions should grow with your portfolio without administrative overhead.
Building coverage into your operations
The smartest approach treats insurance as operational infrastructure, not a separate administrative task.
Guesty’s Damage Protection integrates directly into the property management workflow. Claims processing happens inside the same system you use for reservations, guest communication, and owner reporting. No separate portals, no context-switching, no chasing paperwork across platforms.
For hosts managing multiple properties across multiple channels, this integration matters. You need a clear, fast path to resolution — not a scavenger hunt through different insurance provider websites trying to figure out which policy covers which booking source.
The Ohana Group specifically cited claims processing as a turning point. Before Guesty, they struggled with “significant claims processing challenges.” After implementing Damage Protection, the administrative burden dropped, and they were finally able to focus on growth instead of paperwork.
End-to-end protection with Guesty
With Guesty, you can build end-to-end protection that covers the full guest lifecycle — not just damage after the fact.
Guest verification screens guests before they book, flagging potential risks early. GuestyVerifyTM syncs directly with the Guest App, so identity verification becomes part of your check-in flow rather than a separate hoop. Screen once, use everywhere — across every channel and every property.
Guesty Travel ProtectionTM covers cancellations before they hit your bottom line. When guests purchase coverage and then cancel, you still earn commission on sold policies. Instead of eating the lost booking, you’ve built a small revenue buffer into the transaction. Plus, all cancellation requests get passed on to the provider, saving you hours.
Guesty Liability CoverageTM handles the risks you can’t predict — guest injuries, structural damage incidents, and accidental damage to neighboring properties. This coverage applies regardless of which platform the booking came through.
The difference: these tools talk to each other. Verification feeds into your guest communication. Damage claims process inside your existing workflow. Protection becomes operational infrastructure, not administrative overhead.
The bottom line
Is AirCover enough? For Airbnb-only hosts with a few listings, it provides solid baseline protection. Use it.
But recognize what it is: platform-specific coverage, not business insurance. The moment you expand to Vrbo, take direct bookings, or list on Booking.com, you’re operating without a net on those channels.
Guesty is built for exactly this trajectory. Whether you’re managing your first few listings or scaling toward your fiftieth, the platform grows with you — channel management, automation, guest communication, pricing, and protection that works across every booking source. One system, every tool.
Your channel distribution shouldn’t be limited by your protection. Build both to scale.
FAQs
No. AirCover for Hosts only applies to bookings made through Airbnb. Direct bookings are not covered, regardless of whether you verified the guest through Airbnb previously. If you’re taking direct bookings, you need separate short-term rental insurance for those reservations.
No. AirCover only covers Airbnb stays. Vrbo has its own protection programs, but if you want unified coverage across both platforms, you’ll need third-party vacation rental insurance that applies to all booking sources.
No. AirCover is Airbnb-specific. Booking.com reservations require separate coverage. For hosts listing on multiple OTAs, channel-agnostic insurance is essential.
For Airbnb-only hosts with a small portfolio, AirCover provides baseline protection. But as you scale — adding properties, expanding to new channels, taking direct bookings — the coverage gaps widen. Most professional hosts layer additional short-term rental insurance to cover all booking sources.
Usually, yes. AirCover only covers Airbnb stays and has specific exclusions. If you take bookings from other channels, you need coverage for those. Even for Airbnb-only hosts, AirCover explicitly states it’s “not a substitute for personal insurance.”
No. Most homeowners policies exclude short-term rental activity. AirCover doesn’t fill that gap — Airbnb says so directly in their documentation. You need a homeowners policy that permits rental use plus coverage for the rental activity itself.
Look for short-term rental insurance or vacation rental insurance that’s channel-agnostic — coverage that applies to all bookings regardless of source. Solutions like Guesty’s Damage Protection cover every reservation that flows through your property management system, not just specific platforms.
AirCover covers Airbnb stays only. Guesty Damage Protection covers bookings from any channel — Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and direct bookings. Claims processing is integrated into your property management workflow, so you’re not juggling separate systems.
Guesty’s talented marketing team is comprised of passionate professionals who share insightful industry knowledge and shape brand narratives. By bringing a diverse blend of expertise to the table, we are the visionary architects behind the Guesty brand and innovative campaigns that help people understand our product.
