Does AirCover cover me as the co-host or just the owner?

Question

Owner of a lake cabin about 40 minutes from me wants me to run it. 18% of what the guest pays, he keeps paying the cleaner and the linen service directly. He told me his policy is a short-term rental policy and AirCover handles everything else, so I don't need to carry anything myself.

What I read is that AirCover is damage protection up to $3M and host liability up to $1M. I can't work out whether "host" there means him or me, since I'd be the account doing all the messaging and I'd be the one telling a guest the dock is fine to use. If someone slips on that dock at night, who ends up named?

Rena Guide · Accepted Answer

Start with the vocabulary, because the platform uses it loosely. A co-host is someone given permission on an existing listing to handle messages, calendar, pricing and cleaning. The host of record stays the account the listing lives under, normally the owner. The platform protection programs attach to that listing and that account. Whether a co-host counts as a covered party depends on the current program terms, which the platform rewrites periodically, so read them as they stand rather than trusting a summary.

More useful point: these programs aren't an insurance policy you own. They're a limited promise from a company, with exclusions, claim windows and dollar caps, and no obligation to defend you in a lawsuit. Your own coverage is a separate question. You're running a service business, so most co-hosts carry general liability for their own operations, and some carry errors and omissions for things like mispriced nights or a botched booking. An insurance broker who writes short-term rental accounts is the person to price that, and coverage rules vary by state.

The thing that will decide who pays, though, is the co-hosting agreement, not the platform. Being named in a suit and being liable aren't the same thing, and a plaintiff's lawyer names everyone who touched the property. If your agreement is silent on indemnification, you're arguing from zero. If it says the owner indemnifies you for property conditions and you indemnify him for your own operational mistakes, everyone knows where the dock sits. Have a lawyer in your state look at whatever you sign.

bmoreno23 · Answer

The dock is the part I'd worry about before the insurance. Is there a railing, a light, a depth marker? Owner-side condition problems land on you in the review either way.

marcus_hale41 · Answer

I'd ask him for the actual declarations page rather than his description of it. "It's a short-term rental policy" often turns out to be a landlord policy with a rider that assumed long-term tenants, and some carriers exclude nightly stays outright. Also check whether the policy names anyone other than him. If you're going to be the operating party and you aren't listed anywhere, you're relying entirely on the agreement language.

samantha_ruiz · Answer

18% with him paying cleaning and linens directly is a fine structure for you, but notice what it does to your control. If the cleaner is his vendor and she no-shows on a Saturday turnover, you eat the guest complaint and you don't have the leverage to fire her. I'd want the vendor relationships in my name and billed through to him, or at minimum a written right to replace them.

hannah_west29 · Answer

Run the number before the liability question decides anything. A cabin that grosses, say, $55k a year pays you about $9,900 at 18%. General liability for a small co-hosting operation is usually a four-figure annual premium, and if you're carrying it against one listing it's a real bite out of $9,900. Against six listings it's noise. Single-listing co-hosting rarely justifies the compliance overhead, which is why most people either take three or four properties in the same market or don't start.

wendy_park48 · Answer

Two clauses I'd read before anything else in whatever he sends you. First, who has authority to accept a booking and who eats a chargeback or a platform payout reversal. Second, the termination clause, specifically whether bookings already on the calendar survive you leaving and who services them. I've seen co-hosting agreements that terminate on 15 days notice with six months of confirmed reservations sitting there, and nobody had written down whose problem those guests were.

ehernandez74 · Answer

Does the county even allow nightly rentals on that lake, and does he hold a permit? If the answer is that everyone up there just does it, then the insurance conversation is secondary. A carrier that finds out the use was unpermitted has a reason to deny, and you'd be the operator of record for an unpermitted use. I'd want the permit number in writing before I answered any message on that listing.

paulgrant17 · Answer

Ask him what his current guest screening looks like too. If he's had instant book wide open with no minimum, the dock is not the first thing that'll go wrong.

Does AirCover cover me as the co-host or just the owner?

8 replies