Best Insurance for Airbnb Hosts in 2026: Proper vs Steadily vs Endorsements

Here is the uncomfortable truth most new Airbnb hosts learn the hard way: the moment you accept paying guests, your standard homeowners policy stops working the way you think it does. Insurers classify short term rentals as a business activity, and homeowners insurance excludes losses from business activities conducted in the home. That leaves a gap exactly where the biggest potential risks live: guest injuries, guest caused damage, and lost rental income after a covered loss. Short term rentals are a hospitality business, and they need to be insured like one. This guide compares the best Airbnb host insurance options in 2026, what each type of insurance policy actually covers, what short term rental insurance costs, and how to choose the right coverage based on how you host.

Why Your Homeowners Policy Will Not Cover Short Term Rentals

The Insurance Information Institute is blunt about it: renting your home to paying guests on a regular basis constitutes a business, and standard homeowners insurance provides no coverage for business activities conducted in the home. Carriers like Progressive say the same thing: hosting on Airbnb or Vrbo is essentially running a business out of your residence, which triggers the business activity exclusion in a typical homeowners policy.

In practice, that means three ugly outcomes for Airbnb hosts relying on a homeowners policy alone:

• Denied property damage claims. A guest floods the bathroom or burns a countertop, and the claim is denied because the damage happened during a commercial stay.
• No liability coverage for guest injuries. A guest falls on the stairs and sues for bodily injury. Legal expenses and the settlement come out of your pocket.
• Policy cancellation. Some insurance companies will non-renew or cancel a home insurance policy entirely once they discover undisclosed short term rental activity.

A landlord insurance policy is not the fix either. Landlord insurance is built for long term tenants on a lease, and most landlord policies exclude short term rentals unless an STR endorsement or add on is attached. If you converted a long term rental to an Airbnb without telling your carrier, you have the same gap under a different name.

What About AirCover? What Airbnb Actually Provides

Airbnb includes AirCover for Hosts with every booking: $1 million USD in Host liability coverage and $3 million USD in Host damage protection, plus guest identity verification and reservation screening. It is genuinely useful for Airbnb hosts, and it is genuinely not the only policy protecting your business, because on its own it leaves major gaps:

• Host damage protection is not insurance. It is a discretionary reimbursement program with its own terms, a 14-day filing window tied to the next check-in, and depreciated payouts on many high value items.
• It only applies to Airbnb stays. Direct bookings and Vrbo reservations get nothing, which matters for short term rental hosts marketing beyond one platform.
• No coverage for your building. Fire, floods, and other natural disasters, or a burst pipe between guests, are entirely outside AirCover, and so is the lost income while the Airbnb property is unbookable. Additional living expenses if you live on site are not contemplated either.
• Claims are documentation-heavy. Airbnb hosts routinely report denials or partial payouts in the claims process, and since Airbnb's 2026 evidence update, the documentation rules are stricter than ever.

Treat AirCover as a free backstop on top of real coverage, never as the foundation. Every serious operator we work with carries dedicated short term rental insurance and treats AirCover as a bonus layer on top of real STR coverage.

What STR Insurance Covers: The Five Components

What good str insurance covers goes well beyond a standard policy. Whatever provider you choose, a comprehensive insurance policy for short term rentals needs five components. Use this as your checklist when comparing quotes and coverage limits:

1. Commercial liability coverage: at least $1 million in liability insurance per occurrence for guest injuries, and ideally coverage that follows incidents off-premises (the guest hurt on the kayak you provided, not just on the stairs).
2. Building and contents on special form: all-risk property damage protection at replacement cost for the structure and your personal property inside it (furniture, linens, electronics), so a total loss from fire or natural disasters rebuilds the rental property and replaces the personal property in it instead of paying out its depreciated value.
3. Guest caused damage: property damage by guests explicitly included, not excluded as "tenant damage" the way many landlord insurance forms treat it.
4. Lost rental income: if a covered loss takes the property offline for four months, the insurance policy should replace the rental income those months of lost bookings would have produced.
5. Amenity and animal liability: pools, hot tubs, bikes, and pet-friendly listings all raise risk; the policy must say yes to your actual amenities.

The Best Airbnb Insurance Options, Compared

Insurance providers competing for short term rentals fall into three lanes: commercial policies purpose-built for vacation rentals, landlord policies with short term rental coverage, and endorsements bolted onto what you already have. Newer entrants like Obie Insurance and regional insurance companies provide coverage in the same lanes, and the best insurance for your situation may simply be whichever underwriter knows short term rentals in your market. Here is how the main airbnb insurance options stack up in 2026:

Option	Best for	What you get	Watch for
Proper Insurance	Full-time STRs and higher-revenue properties	Commercial policy that replaces your homeowners policy entirely: building and contents on special form, $1M/$2M commercial general liability, guest caused damage, lost income protection, amenity liability	Premiums typically $1,000 to $3,000+ per year; quotes are underwritten, not instant
Steadily	Hosts who want fast online quotes and multi-property portfolios	Landlord insurance with short term rental coverage in all 50 states; an instant quote and binding online in minutes; covers Airbnb and Vrbo use	Coverage is built on landlord forms; confirm guest caused damage and income limits match a true commercial policy
Home-sharing endorsement or add on	Occasional hosts renting a room or their primary home a few weekends a year	A rider on your existing homeowners insurance that extends coverage to paying guests	Low coverage limits, often caps on nights per year, and no income protection; outgrown quickly
Landlord policy + STR endorsement	Owners mixing mid-term and short stays	Standard landlord coverage extended to sub-30-day stays	Liability limits and guest damages coverage vary widely by carrier; read the endorsement, not the brochure

Proper Insurance: the comprehensive commercial option

Proper Insurance writes a commercial package specifically for vacation rentals, and it is the policy most full-time operators end up comparing everything else against. One policy covers the building, contents, business liability, and lost rental income, replacing your existing homeowners insurance rather than stacking on top of it. The liability side is commercial general liability at $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, with higher coverage limits available, and it extends to amenity-driven claims that personal policies exclude. The trade-offs: it is usually the most expensive option, and reviews of its claims process are mixed, with an A+ BBB rating on one side and Trustpilot complaints about slow settlements on the other. Proper insurance premiums also reflect that breadth of protection. We are publishing a full Proper Insurance review separately.

Steadily: the fast, flexible option

Steadily comes at the problem from the landlord insurance side and has become the speed benchmark: online quotes in minutes, coverage for short term rental properties in all 50 states, and pricing that frequently comes in below commercial alternatives, especially for smaller or lower-revenue properties. For property owners converting a long term rental, or anyone insuring multiple properties across states, the convenience is real. The homework is making sure the specific quote includes guest caused damage and enough loss-of-income coverage, because landlord forms treat those differently than a purpose-built short term rental insurance policy does, and the answers vary depending on state and property type.

Endorsements: fine until they are not

If you rent a spare room occasionally, an add on to your current homeowners policy may honestly be enough, and it is the cheapest path. But endorsements are built for incidental hosting, not a rental business. The moment your property runs as a dedicated short term rental with properties rented year-round, you have outgrown the endorsement, and carriers can deny claims when the hosting activity exceeds what the rider contemplated.

What Does Short Term Rental Insurance Cost in 2026?

For a dedicated STR, expect $1,000 to $3,500 per year for short term rental insurance depending on property value, location, amenities, and revenue. Higher deductibles buy lower premiums, but never at the expense of the policy limit on liability. Coastal and wildfire-exposed markets mean more property damage exposure and higher prices; a San Francisco condo and a Galveston beach house both carry surcharges for very different reasons, and a San Francisco host may also face carrier restrictions that push them toward specialty insurance providers. As a rule of thumb, purpose-built airbnb insurance runs one and a half to two times the price of the landlord insurance policy on the same property, and the difference buys liability coverage and income protection the cheaper policy simply does not contain. In Texas, we broke down real premiums in our Texas STR insurance cost guide.

One more budget note: insurance is a deductible operating expense for a rental property, which softens the real price. Our STR tax deduction guide covers how hosts write it off.

How to Choose: Match the Policy to How You Host

• You rent your primary home a few weekends a year: ask your current carrier for a home-sharing endorsement, and confirm the night caps fit your calendar.
• You run one dedicated Airbnb: get short term rental insurance quotes from both a commercial provider like Proper Insurance and a landlord-based provider like Steadily, then compare the guest damages, liability coverage, and income-loss lines side by side rather than the premium alone.
• You operate multiple short term rentals: comprehensive coverage with commercial liability is not optional at this scale, and consolidating short term rentals with one of the specialist insurance providers usually beats a patchwork of endorsements. A good property manager will also require proof of coverage before taking a property on, because uninsured short term rentals put every stay at risk.
• Your property sits in a state with specific requirements: local regulations in several states and cities require Airbnb hosts to carry minimum liability limits or prove insurance coverage at registration. Check our state guides, including California and Florida, before you bind a policy.

Whichever direction you go, compare policies line by line and disclose your hosting to every carrier in writing. The cheapest insurance coverage in the world is worthless if the insurer can void it for misrepresentation, and non-disclosure is the most common reason Airbnb host claims collapse.

FAQ: Insurance for Airbnb Hosts

Is AirCover enough insurance for Airbnb hosts?

No. AirCover provides $1 million in Host liability insurance and $3 million in damage protection, but it only applies to Airbnb rentals, excludes the building itself, pays depreciated value on many items, and is a discretionary program rather than a regulated insurance policy. Use it as a supplement to short term rental insurance, never a substitute. Homeowners insurance will not fill the gap either.

Does homeowners insurance cover Airbnb guests?

Generally no. Short term rentals count as business activity, and homeowners insurance excludes business losses. Occasional hosting may be insurable through an endorsement, but regular hosting requires a dedicated STR insurance policy from insurance providers who underwrite short term rentals on purpose.

What is the difference between landlord insurance and STR insurance?

Landlord insurance assumes long term tenants; carriers built those forms before short term rentals existed, and most exclude nightly stays, guest caused damage, and short-stay income loss. Short term rental insurance is priced for the turnover, occupancy, and amenity risks that come with short term rentals, and includes them explicitly. It exists to protect hosts running a business, not just a property sitting empty, which is why specialists provide coverage that generalists will not touch. Short term rentals simply carry risks that standard forms never priced.

How much liability coverage should a host carry?

$1 million of liability protection per occurrence is the practical floor, and hosts with pools, hot tubs, or high-value property should consider $2 million or an umbrella policy on top. Liability claims from guest injuries are the losses that end hosting businesses, not broken lamps.

Can I deduct Airbnb insurance premiums?

Yes. Premiums for insuring a rental property are an ordinary business expense for property owners, deducted against rental income. Keep the policy documents with your tax records.

Quick Answers for Airbnb Owners

The best insurance for airbnb hosts in 2026 is a policy that treats hosting as the business it is: Proper Insurance for comprehensive coverage on full-time vacation rentals, Steadily for fast, affordable coverage across property types and states, and a home-sharing add on only for genuinely occasional hosts. Whether you host one unit or run short term rentals at scale, insist on commercial-grade liability coverage, replacement-cost property damage protection, explicit guest damages language, and income protection for lost bookings, and never let AirCover stand in for real coverage. Compare at least two quotes, read the coverage limits instead of the marketing page, disclose everything, and revisit the policy each year as your property value and booking volume grow.

Keep reading in this series: what AirCover actually covers, whether homeowners insurance covers Airbnb, and when a guest legally becomes a tenant.