What happens should you have an accident while staying at an AirBnB rental?
The answer won’t surprise anyone with the sharing economy’s business model, as Zak Stone tragically found out when his father was killed while staying in a Texas AirBnB rental.
Stone’s story is only redeemed by the rental’s home insurance covering the claim, had they not things would have become very expensive for everyone.
The conclusion of the story isn’t satisfactory as AirBnB, while sympathetic to the Stone family, isn’t about to accept any liability while those booking through the service remain at the whim of the property owners’ insurers.
Ultimately what the Stone’s tragic tale shows is just how flawed the comparisons between hotel chains and booking platforms, the line “AirBnB is the world’s biggest accommodation service but it owns no hotel rooms” is a trite as saying the local travel agent owns no aircraft.
The model of the ‘sharing economy’ services depends upon pushing as many costs as possible onto the users and providers, while that might be sustainable it creates a new set of costs and risks for customers which aren’t really understood.