A house rented by the night is not a residence and it is not a landlord property. It is a transient lodging occupancy — and the two policies most owners are actually carrying were written for the other two things.
Tybee, St. Simons, Jekyll, Hilton Head, Charleston, 30A, the mountain markets in North Georgia and East Tennessee: the Southeast is full of well-run rentals sitting on a homeowners policy or a dwelling fire policy that no longer matches how the property is used. It usually works fine, right up until the claim.
| Policy | What it assumes | Where it breaks on an STR |
|---|---|---|
| Homeowners (HO-3) | Owner-occupied residence, family and guests, no rental activity | Business/rental activity limited or excluded on liability; occupancy no longer matches what was underwritten |
| Landlord / dwelling fire | A lease, a tenant in possession for months, tenant's own renters insurance, minimal owner contents | Many forms restrict or exclude transient or hotel-type occupancy; liability not rated for guest exposure; owner's furnishings under-covered |
| STR program / commercial package | Nightly guests, full owner-furnished contents, rental income, guest liability | Fits — but must be built to the actual booking pattern, not a generic template |
Some carriers will endorse a homeowners form for occasional home-sharing of a residence you genuinely live in, and some will endorse a landlord form for short-term use. Those are legitimate answers for the right property. What is never an answer is buying either one and not disclosing the use.
Host protection programs from the major booking platforms are useful. They are not your insurance program. Terms differ by platform and change, so read the current program document rather than any summary, but the recurring limits are consistent:
Not nightly rate times 365. Short-term rental income is seasonal and lumpy, and the question isn't what an average month earns — it's what you lose if the property is out of service across the months that actually produce the revenue. A coastal house damaged in September can miss the entire following season sitting in the permitting and contractor queue.
Four things to confirm, all of which share mechanics with ordinary business interruption coverage:
A rotating series of unrelated guests, unfamiliar with the property, often with children, frequently after a long drive and a drink. That's a small lodging operation, not a house.
Because guest injury verdicts can outrun a primary limit quickly, an umbrella over the whole structure is usually the cheapest meaningful thing on the account — if it actually sits over the STR liability rather than following a restriction on it.
Flood is excluded from essentially every property policy and is bought separately — NFIP or private. Lenders require it in a special flood hazard area. See commercial flood insurance.
Named windstorm is usually covered, but behind a percentage-of-value deductible rather than a flat dollar figure — a large retained loss on a coastal property. In the hardest markets wind is stripped out and placed separately. The mechanics are in named storm deductibles explained, in the Florida named-storm guide, and by county in Florida coastal property costs by county. For Georgia and South Carolina specifically, see coastal commercial property in GA and SC.
These are the errors that show up most often on STR accounts, and all three are free to fix before a loss:
One unit is usually a program placement. Somewhere between three and a handful of doors — the exact point depends on structure and revenue, not a rule — it becomes cheaper and cleaner to run a commercial package: property and rental income on a schedule of locations, one general liability with a proper guest exposure, an umbrella over the whole thing, and any golf carts or watercraft written where they belong. If you have staff, cleaners, or maintenance people on payroll, workers compensation enters the picture too. At that point the analysis looks much more like apartment and habitational property than like a second home, and a cyber conversation belongs in it as well — you are holding guest names, addresses, and payment data.
Bettr Coverage is an independent commercial insurance agency serving Georgia and the wider Southeast. Short-term rental is a placement where the disclosure decides the outcome — the account has to go to market described as what it actually is, with the booking history, the amenity list, and the roof documentation attached, to carriers and programs that write transient occupancy on purpose. Then the terms that come back need reading: whether the pool is sublimited, whether the golf cart is covered anywhere, whether rental income survives a lost season rather than a lost month, whether the umbrella truly sits over the guest liability, and whether the named insured matches the deed. One agency, one relationship, every line reviewed together.
Send us your current declarations page and a year of booking history. We'll tell you whether your policy actually contemplates nightly rental, where your pool, golf cart, and rental income sit, what your wind deductible would really cost you in a lost season — and whether the named insured matches your deed. No charge, no pressure to move.
Get a free coverage reviewGenerally not. HO forms are underwritten for an owner-occupied residence and most limit or exclude rental and business activity on the liability side, while the property side no longer matches the occupancy that was underwritten. Some carriers endorse occasional home-sharing of a home you truly live in; few contemplate a house rented nightly as its primary use. The mismatch is usually discovered at the claim.
Better, but written for a different tenant — a lease, months of possession, the tenant's own renters insurance, few owner furnishings. An STR inverts all four. Many landlord forms restrict transient or hotel-type occupancy and the liability isn't rated for guest exposure. Endorsements and dedicated STR programs exist; buying a landlord policy without disclosing the use does not work.
It helps, and it isn't a program. Typically conditional and excess rather than primary, tied to stays booked on that platform (so direct bookings may fall outside), oriented to guest injury and guest-caused damage rather than the full property peril set, usually without lost rental income — and it won't satisfy a lender or an HOA. Read the current program terms, which change.
From actual booking history, not nightly rate times 365, and sized to the months that produce the revenue rather than an average month. Keep two years of payout statements so the limit is provable. Check for a waiting period, whether an extended period of restoration is available, and whether civil authority or evacuation loss is covered.
Pools and hot tubs above all — often sublimited, conditioned on fencing, or excluded. Then stairs, decks, railings, loft ladders, and bunk beds. Then anything guests operate: golf carts, ATVs, watercraft, docks. Furnishing alcohol or marketing for events changes the profile. And indoor cameras create privacy claims a liability form may not answer.
Same as any coastal commercial property. Flood is excluded and bought separately; lenders require it in a flood zone. Named wind sits behind a percentage-of-value deductible, sometimes placed with a separate wind carrier. The rental-specific twist: a storm takes the building and the season together, so evaluate the wind deductible and the income limit as one decision.
Yes — it's the most common defect on these accounts. If the deed is in an entity and the policy names an individual, the owner and the insured are different parties, and that surfaces at claim time. Match the named insured to the titleholder and add related entities, the manager, and the mortgagee in the right capacity. Also confirm lender form requirements, whether a condo master policy is all-in or bare-walls, and whether local rules permit short-term rental at all.
For general information only. Not legal advice and not a quote or contract of insurance. Homeowners, dwelling fire, landlord, and short-term rental forms are not standardized — business activity and rental exclusions, transient occupancy restrictions, pool and animal sublimits, rental income and civil authority triggers, and named storm deductible structures vary substantially by carrier and program; read the endorsements actually attached to your policy. Booking platform host protection programs are governed by their own terms, which differ by platform and change over time — review the current program document. Short-term rental ordinances, permitting and registration requirements, occupancy and lodging tax rules, HOA and condominium covenants, landlord-tenant law, pool fencing and safety statutes, and premises liability standards differ across Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama and often by city or county — consult your attorney and confirm permitted use locally. Carrier appetite in this class varies by state, county, distance to coast, construction year, and amenity set. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, exclusions, and carrier appetite.