FAQs

We get emails and calls every day from homeowners who have been dropped by their insurance agent for simply inquiring about how to add protection for their home during short term rentals!

When you are renting your home for profit, you are running a business. And businesses have risks that are vastly different than those of a single family living in their own home. Imagine how expensive homeowner’s insurance would be if it also covered everyone’s business activities.

This is where Safely Insurance comes in.

Our policies are designed to cover your home and assets only when you need it. Every reservation is covered, and you only pay for coverage when a guest is staying in your home.

Up to $1,000,000 in home structure and bodily​ injury

Good news! If a guest does something during their stay that causes your house to burn down, then your home’s structure is covered for up to $1,000,000. This includes expenses such as contractor labor and building materials.

Bodily Injury is also included as part of the $1,000,000 coverage. So if a guest slips and falls, breaking both their arm and your porch railing, we have your back!

Up to $10,000 in coverage for your stuff

Whether the guest damages your things or pulls a five finger discount, we have you covered for up to $10,000 for the contents in your home. A police report is required for any stolen items, and of course you will need all of the normal supporting documents such as receipts and good pictures for a successful claim.

Contents are the things in your home that are not attached to the structure of your house. If you were to lift your house up, turn it upside down and shake it, all of the things that fall out, for the most part, are the “contents.” The contents also includes your guest’s property when they are staying in your home.

In general, home structure means anything that has to do with the home’s fixed structure such as walls, the roof, windows, carpets/flooring, and doors.

At Safely, we believe in being as transparent as possible with your coverage, exclusions, and limitations. Our goal is to be your advocate in getting your home back to normal, and make the claims process as simple and straightforward as possible.

Our exclusions and limitations are very similar to what you are used to seeing with a typical homeowner’s insurance policy, and here are some examples of exclusions and limitations with your Safely policy:

Exclusions: Force majeure, uninsured periods, loss that cannot be tied to an insured rental, damage not caused by the guest. Damage caused by: weather, normal wear and tear, formal events. Liability related to: use of recreational equipment (ATVs, golf cart, bikes, kayaks), pets (including bites), bed bugs, viruses, bacteria, invasion of privacy, injuries a guest causes to another guest, damages a guest causes to neighbors, or property not maintained by the named insured.

Limitations: Covered up to $200: money, banknote, bullion, gold other than goldware, silver other than silverware, platinum other than platinum-ware, coins, medals, smart cards. Covered up to $2500: securities, accounts, deeds, evidences of debt, letters of credit, notes other than bank notes, manuscripts, personal records, passports, tickets and stamps, watercraft, trailers, theft or damage of jewelry, watches, furs precious and semiprecious stones, art work, firearms, silverware, goldware, platinum-ware.

While the above is an extensive list, this is not intended to represent all exclusions and limitations. Please feel free to contact us if you have any specific questions about coverage, exclusions, and limitations.

A typical damage waiver has very low coverage – under $3,000 – and only covers accidental damage caused by the guest. So if a guest experienced bodily injury, smoked in your home, or brought unruly pets into a non-pet friendly home, you or your guest would be out of pocket for medical expenses, legal fees, and damage to your home.

The Safely policy is intended to replace the damage waiver, providing extensive coverage for your home’s structure and contents, and bodily injury to the guest.

Our policy is also uniquely designed to cover the homeowner, property manager and the guest:

Did your guest throw a party, resulting in a busted dishwasher and carpet stains? Covered.

Did the homeowner neglect to install proper burglar alarms, resulting in stolen guest property? Covered.

In addition to more extensive coverage than a damage waiver, our policy also includes a background check on every primary guest for Safely covered stays, further protecting your home from bad guest experiences.

While a few booking channels provide some coverage for guest stays, we understand there is often a gap between booking channel coverage and homeowner needs.

At Safely, we are your advocate. We strive for both an easy, painless claims process, and transparency of your coverage, exclusions, and limitations. We not only take the guesswork out of vacation rental insurance, covering the guest, homeowner, and property manager, but we also help prevent bad guest stays with our comprehensive guest screening on every reservation.

You have put love, sweat, years into the details of creating your perfect vacation home –  the symbiotic splashes of teal and red, the rustic modern kitchen, the cozy living room with pullout couches and a 72” widescreen for an added escape. The bed linens smell like fresh rain, and the bathrooms are pristine. Not pets. No parties. Of course you don’t want criminals to stay in your home, but that goes without saying, right?

Unfortunately, no. Without a comprehensive guest screening service, your picturesque escape is exposed to anyone with access to a credit card and internet service, including convicted armed robbers, money launderers, sex offenders, and known destructive guests.

When you partner with SafelyStay™ at Safely.com, we not only screen for convicted felons, Interpol wanted persons (terrorist watchlist), sex offenders, and identity fraud, but we also run every primary guest through The List – our database of guests who previously caused damage to a home due to negligence.

SafelyStay™ at Safely.com goes beyond simply providing information. Offenses such as felonies and identify fraud place individuals into “unprotected classes,” which gives you the right to decline the guest based on the information found. We take care of everything behind the scenes, ensuring we all comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and provide you with the tools you need to protect your home from the headache of a bad stay.

But I don’t want to offend my guests. Isn’t a background check intrusive?

Our guest screening is built to be non-intrusive – we never ask for a social security number. In order to screen for criminals and other nefarious characters, all we need is the guest’s name, date of birth, and address. If you are already asking for valid photo IDs, you have all the information needed to screen for bad guests!