Airbnb will cover guests' accidental injury costs
Accidents happen, and for Airbnb guests, it could take place while navigating an unfamiliar home. It would come as no surprise if people ended up arguing on who should foot the bill, so Airbnb has decided to make it easier on all its customers by launching a $1 million Host Protection Program. It's a completely different entity from the $1 million Host Guarantee, which promises to reimburse home owners for any damage to their properties. This program covers not only Airbnb hosts, but also their landlords, in case a guest gets injured inside their house or building during a stay and makes a claim against them. As you'd expect, though, there are exceptions, including injuries caused by defects in the property, or (gulp) those that were intentionally inflicted by the hosts themselves.
It's a great show of goodwill on Airbnb's part, but the bad news is (and there always seems to be one, no?) it will initially cover only listings in the US when it launches on January 15th, 2015. The company says it's doing what it can to expand the program to other countries, but until that happens, hosts outside the US will just have to be extra diligent in inspecting their homes before a guest arrives.
[Imagecredit: jupiterimages]
