Winter is coming - are you planning to use a home sharing site like Airbnb or VRBO?

October 29, 2019, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

With the winter coming many people are planning holidays to warm and cold destinations. The sharing economy has gone mainstream for most of us, and besides car sharing services like Lyft and UBER, one of the most popular peer to peer sites are ones like Airbnb and VRBO that are used to book accommodations throughout the world. While many of us prefer to stay in hotels and motels a growing segment enjoy the feel of an apartment or house or room and prefer the generally discounted prices compared to hotels and motels.

What most of us blindly ignore are the risks involved in using these sites. You don’t need to look hard on the internet to find the horror stories of homes being destroyed by giant parties, people being injured in homes and being left to cope themselves, or extravagant holidays being ruined when hosts cancel the accommodations at the last minute.

Some of us with vacation properties, or houses in desirable locations are renting out our properties to earn some extra money. Many people consider it an easy side gig to make money to pay property taxes, utilities or even renovations. Indeed, it can be easy to sign up and use the service either as a renter or accommodation provider, but this isn’t without risk to you, your property and your financial security.

If you are renting out your property, it’s extremely important to advise your insurer to make certain you have enough liability insurance and damage insurance to protect your home and yourself in the event of an accident or willful damage by guest. You don’t want to find yourself being sued for damages and not having insurance to protect you. It is crucial to recognize that Airbnb is essentially a booking platform. Fees paid are for providing the platform to advertise, and a mostly safe online booking process and payment solution.

If you are a guest using these platforms you should realize that the commissions cover booking and advertising but do NOT protect you in the event the host cancels your reservation at the last minute. You also will find that there is very little in the way of protection to you in the event of an accident. Insurance is spotty at best, making claims in a foreign country through foreign insurers can be a nightmare, and you may in fact find you are not insured at all.

The best strategy if you are using one of these sites is to purchase travel insurance that covers cancellation costs, and also health insurance that covers and medical costs incurred while you are away.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.