The House Gets Rebuilt. The Season Doesn't.
Monday, August 03
I've had this conversation with a lot of hosts, and it almost always starts the same way. Someone tells me their insurance is handled. Good policy with a solid dwelling limit, they've never had a problem. Then I ask one question. If a fire took your place out of service for six months, who pa...
What to Do in the First 24 Hours After Something Goes Wrong
Monday, July 27
I've been through the incident report files enough times now that I can spot the pattern before I even finish reading. The claims that settled clean, no fight, no gap, paid out close to what the host expected, almost always had one thing in common. Good documentation from day one. The ones ...
Why Your Insurance Payout Might Be Half What You Think
Monday, July 20
I had a host call me last year, pretty rattled, holding a check from her insurance company after a kitchen fire. She was expecting something in the neighborhood of fifteen thousand dollars to replace everything that got destroyed. The check was for six thousand.Same policy limits she thought she...
Wildfire Isn't the Only Thing That Can Take Your Short-Term Rental
Monday, July 13
I've had this conversation with hosts in California, Colorado, and half a dozen other states now. They call because a claim got denied, or worse, because a renewal notice came with a number that made no sense. Almost every time, wildfire is somewhere in the story. Sometimes the fire takes the ho...
Most Hosts Don’t Know Their Smoke Detectors Are Expired
Monday, July 06
I had a conversation with a host last fall that I keep thinking about. She runs three properties, all in good shape, all well-reviewed. We were doing an insurance review and I asked her when she'd last replaced the smoke detectors. She thought about it for a second and said, "I honestly don't k...
Seasonal Short-Term Rentals and the Off-Season Coverage Gap
Monday, June 29
I was up north last fall helping a buddy shut his lake place down for the winter, and he said something that stuck with me. He looked at the house and said, "Eight months a year that thing just sits there making me nothing." We both laughed. Then I asked him whether his insurance knew it sat empt...