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Comment by rdl | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand how people could do that much damage and it would only come to $8k. Just the cleanup and repairs to the complex outside of his property should be nearly that much; losing his lease, other damages, and damage to his property should be a lot more than that.

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It reads like he only submitted claims for repairs to his apartment (for whatever reason, maybe he wasn't billed for repairs/cleanup outside of it). I'd be surprised if AirBnb would cover him loosing his lease.

Maybe he had renter's insurance or something, or some other form of liability insurance? (I don't know how this works in the UK).

If I were the lessor/host, I'd demand Airbnb pay 100% and then let them go after whichever other parties they want later. The host should not be the one on the hook for any of this, including float for however long reimbursement takes.

(If I were Airbnb I'd probably sue the guest; clearly there was some level of organization if they brought in an audio system and had an event. Even if it cost them $20k in legal to go after a $10k judgment it is probably worth the precedent.)

I'd be surprised if residential renter's insurance in the US, UK, or Canada covered things done during a daily sublet of the space without some special rider policy. This customer should be covered well enough by AirBNB's agreement, which apparently only with the help of The Observer is actually the case.

I think it would be easy for a policy to waive contents insurance in such a case, but a lot more challenging if it waived liability. (Otherwise, as a condo association or whatever, you could be potentially ruined if any condo owner owns a unit, has "full insurance" as required, and sublets/has a guest burn the entire building down.) Insurers have far deeper pockets than individual property owners, guests, or condo associations. It's possible the condo association would have additional liability insurance above and beyond this which would step in, though.

This is an existential risk for AirBNB, and they are not handling it well.

It's quite possible that exterior damage was covered by the insurance of the homeowners/building association. I'd love more information on this case to see if that's true.

If that's the case, it's another example of negative externalities from AirBNB being dumped on the neighbors of a host.

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