Standard landlord insurance and ordinary home insurance are both usually written around long-term occupation by a vetted tenant, and most policies exclude short-term paying guests from the outset. Airbnb's and Booking.com's own host protection schemes are not insurance and do not replace it. What a short let actually needs is a specific short-term letting policy covering buildings, contents, public liability and loss of income.
Why the standard policies do not apply
Insurers price a policy on the risk they think they are taking. A standard home insurance policy assumes the owner lives there. A standard landlord policy assumes a single household on an assured shorthold tenancy, referenced once and then left largely alone for months or years. Neither assumption holds for a short let.
A short let has a different occupant every few days, arriving with no reference check in the usual sense, using the property intensively for a short period, and then leaving for the next guest to arrive. That is a materially different risk from the insurer's point of view, whether the guests are careful or not. Most standard policies deal with this by excluding short-term letting from cover altogether, sometimes explicitly, sometimes buried in a definition of permitted use that a nightly guest simply does not meet.
The practical effect is that a landlord who lets short-term on an unmodified home or standard landlord policy may find, at the point of a claim, that the policy was never covering the activity that caused it. Insurers do not usually raise this until a claim is made, which is the worst possible time to discover it.
What platform host protection actually does
Airbnb offers host protection and damage cover to hosts, and other platforms have similar arrangements. These are worth having, but they are not a substitute for insurance, and it is worth being clear about what they are.
They are generally limited to bookings made through that specific platform. A guest booked directly, or through a different site, is outside it entirely. They typically apply to certain kinds of damage and liability arising from a stay, but they are contractual protections offered by the platform, not a regulated insurance policy you can rely on in the same way. Cover can exclude categories of loss, cap what is paid, and depend on the host following the platform's own process for reporting a claim within a set window.
None of this makes the schemes worthless. It makes them a backstop for one part of the risk, not a policy that covers the property, its contents, or the owner's liability more broadly. A landlord who treats platform protection as their only cover is exposed everywhere that scheme does not reach: bookings on other channels, gaps between guests, damage that falls outside what the platform will pay for, and liability claims that go beyond what the scheme handles.
What a proper short-let policy should cover
A specialist short-term letting policy is written for exactly this pattern of occupation, and it should cover several distinct things, not just guest damage.
Buildings and contents, rated for short-term occupation. The policy needs to say explicitly that it covers the property while let on a short-term or holiday-let basis, not leave it implied. This includes cover for the structure and for the furniture, appliances and fittings that a furnished short let depends on.
Public liability. If a guest is injured on the property, or their belongings are damaged in a way that is the property's fault rather than the guest's own doing, liability cover is what responds. This matters more for a short let than a tenancy, because far more people pass through the property in a year.
Loss of income or alternative accommodation. If the property is damaged and cannot be let while repairs happen, a proper policy can cover the lost booking income for that period. A standard landlord policy, if it covers loss of rent at all, is usually built around a single tenancy being interrupted, not a calendar of bookings that a manager also has to unwind and refund.
Cover that matches how the property is actually run. If it is professionally managed, cleaned between every stay, or ever sits empty for extended periods between bookings, the policy needs to reflect that. An unoccupied property clause is a common feature of standard policies, and if a short let has genuine void periods, it is worth checking that the policy does not quietly reduce cover once the property has been empty for a certain length of time.
What to actually do
Tell the insurer, in writing, that the property is let short-term through platforms, and ask them to confirm the policy covers that use specifically. Do not assume a landlord policy extends to it just because it covers letting in general terms. If it does not, ask for a specialist short-let or holiday-let policy instead, several insurers write these specifically for the Airbnb and serviced accommodation market.
This sits alongside, not instead of, the lease and mortgage checks that also need clearing before a property is free to short-let. A policy that covers the letting is no help if the lease bans it or the mortgage was never told about it.
If you are setting up a London property for short lets and want to know what else needs checking before the first guest arrives, send us the postcode and we will tell you honestly what is worth sorting out first.
This is general information about how short-let insurance typically works, not insurance or legal advice. Policy wording varies significantly between insurers. Confirm the specific terms and exclusions of any policy directly with the insurer or a broker before letting a property short-term.