Crazy Vacation Rental Insurance Claims: A $22,000 Nap

Insurance Claims Leader

Manic Monday – The Overindulgent Overflow

As a leading provider of short-term rental (STR) insurance, when it comes to claims, we’ve seen it all. If you read our last story about the chicken sacrifice, then you understand what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, the title pretty much says it all. In other words, when we say crazy vacation rental insurance claims, we mean it.

For this week’s Manic Monday story, we wanted to dive into a claim that, although it isn’t as bizarre as finding the remnants of a chicken sacrifice, this story is actually much worse. The point of reviewing something like this is to show you that no matter how extreme a claim may be, if damage was caused due to guest negligence, then we cover it. And this story…was absolutely caused by negligence.

Night of Negligence

This story starts the same way most of them do: renters are drinking, things get a little crazy, somebody breaks something…you know where this is going, right? I thought I did, so I started reading the claim:

“Drunk renters clogged a toilet and left it to overflow overnight. Black water and sewage flooded the entire home. Renter didn’t even call to let us know. It was discovered after they checked out.”

Coverage Saves The Day

Here’s the kicker – the total cost for this overflow? $22,407.58. The thing is, we’ve seen claims with clogged toilets, and even with flooding, but this was more than that. The wood floors in the home were damaged and needed to be repaired, and a ton of the furniture was ruined and had to be replaced. In other words, this one act of negligence managed to cause a ripple effect of damage.

Ultimately, if the guests had called the property manager when the toilet began to overflow, that probably could have prevented a lot of the damage. However, regardless of how quickly the issue was dealt with, or what could have happened, this was a result of negligence by the guest, so we were able to cover it.

So, if you’ve ever wondered if having STR insurance is worth it, let this be your lesson that it absolutely is.

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Amber Harris

Insurance Claims Leader

Amber is the Claims Leader at Safely and has been with the company for over four years. She manages a team of claims adjusters, working with company leadership to improve processes, maintain accurate documentation and educate team members across various departments on best practices. Before joining Safely, Amber worked as a GAP Adjuster Supervisor. Her early career includes serving as a customer service representative and unit manager at Assurant Specialty Properties as well as business operations manager at Farmers Insurance. Amber was born in Dayton, Ohio and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance.