AirCover

AirCover pays for direct physical damage to your home and contents caused by a registered Airbnb guest during a confirmed booking. It also covers some unbooked extra guests, certain pet damage, and unexpected deep-cleaning costs caused by stains, smoke, or biohazards left behind.

The maximum payout is $3 million per stay, but the operative number for most hosts is the deductible structure and the burden of proof. Airbnb pays only what you can substantiate with timestamped before-and-after evidence and itemised repair or replacement costs.

AirCover excludes ordinary wear and tear, pre-existing damage, lost or unrecovered items without proof, cash, securities, certain high-value collectibles, and any damage where the host cannot identify the responsible guest. It also excludes damage discovered more than 14 days after the responsible guest checked out, or after the next guest has already checked in - whichever comes first.

This last point is the most common reason claims fail. By the time a host notices a scratched floor or stained mattress, the property has often been turned over and the evidence trail is broken.

Airbnb describes AirCover as a protection program, not a regulated insurance policy. There is no insurance carrier behind it, no state insurance commissioner you can appeal to, and no legal contract obligating Airbnb to pay any specific claim. Decisions are made internally by Airbnb resolution agents.

In practice this means the same set of facts can produce a paid claim for one host and a denied claim for another, depending on the agent reviewing it and the quality of the evidence package. Hosts with verified, tamper-evident inspection reports succeed at a much higher rate than hosts submitting phone photos.

The fastest path is to file through the Resolution Center within 14 days of the responsible guest’s checkout or before the next guest checks in. Open a claim, attach itemised evidence, include repair quotes or receipts, and request a specific dollar amount. Vague claims (“the place was trashed”) almost always lose.

Evidence that wins consistently shares four properties: GPS verification (location proven), tamper-evident timestamps (the file cannot have been edited after capture), a public verification link Airbnb can check independently, and a clear before-and-after pair tied to a specific guest.