What Happens If An AirBnB Guest Is Injured In Your Home?
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
Florida is one of the great tourist states of the country, and with good reason. As if the tropical weather and sunny days weren’t enough attraction, cities like Orlando and Miami provide a lot of tourist destinations for the many travelers that come to our state looking for a good time.Thanks to new innovations in the market, there are special services such as “Airbnb,” that allow homeowners to turn their residences into “hotels” or “guesthouses” for people coming to our state. It’s an easy and lucrative way for an enterprising homeowner to let their property investment make even more money. However, where some people view this enterprise as allowing a stranger into their home, and see that as the biggest risk, there’s another legal hazard that you need to consider; a stranger may be harmed in your home, and you may be responsible.
Legal Protection
Many people who don’t look into the legalities of Airbnb don’t realize that they are “on the hook” and responsible for many things when they allow a guest into their home, and this includes being responsible for certain types of injuries. Airbnb protects itself against litigation because guests that use the service absolve Airbnb itself from any fault for injury right in the terms and conditions.
This may make you think that your own home protection might then act as some kind of financial coverage, should an injury take place on your property due to negligence, but again, you might be surprised. Most home owner insurance will only cover the injuries for negligence in normal, social situations, such as friends or family visiting your home. However, when you accept an Airbnb guest for a fee, you are now conducting business, and that person coming to your home is a business invitee.
This can potentially mean that in the event that a guest should injure themselves due to your negligence, for example they slip and fall in the bathroom because your tiles are very slippery and you removed all the bath mats, you may be entirely responsible financially for this injury. Your own insurance may claim they have no obligation to protect you since you have homeowner’s insurance, not business or commercial insurance.
Management Responsibility
When you decide to take on guests for money via Airbnb, you are now, in effect, a hotel owner. And that means that as a hotel business owner, you have the same legal obligations as any hotel to a certain minimum standard of guest safety. Broken appliances, faulty architecture, unsafe furniture or any other factors that would make you complain at a hotel and demand compensation can now be applied to you.
This is why if you’re thinking of having people over as guest for money in your home, you should go over your legal responsibilities to them carefully. And if you’re a guest at an Airbnb home that has been injured as a result of the negligence of your host, you should contact us at All Injuries Law Firm. We can help you to get what you deserve.