For South Florida residents, staycations are often a welcome break from our everyday routines. We live in such a beautiful city with an 
abundance of unique areas, it’s easy to plan a getaway that’s close to home. If staying at a hotel feels a little too formal for your South Florida staycation, you may opt to rent an Airbnb. You may also be a property owner who chooses to rent your home to visitors through Airbnb. With the growing popularity of this type of accommodation, it’s important that you understand Airbnb liability and how it may affect you as a guest or as an owner.
General Premises Liability
A property owner is always responsible for maintaining a safe premise. This responsibility includes ensuring that the property is free of any danger for visitors, including any hazardous situations that the owner is aware of, as well as any situations that could be potentially dangerous on the property. Property owners and Airbnb hosts should always work to make sure that any property is as safe as possible for all guests.
Airbnb Liability and Guest Injuries
Even with these precautions, it is possible that a renter may suffer an injury on a property. If this is the case, it’s important to begin to document everything immediately following the incident. Make sure you have photos of the property where the injury occurred, of the injury itself, and get the contact information of any witnesses. Review Airbnb’s policies and procedures and immediately contact the site. You should make sure that Airbnb is aware of the dangerous property and begin to work through their communication channels before notifying the host separately. Of course, if the property continues to be hazardous, remove your loved ones and find a safe location to stay.
Also, keep track of the damages when you seek medical care. It’s important to keep all your receipts for any charges incurred as a result of your injury. Once you are safe and have received medical attention, it may be a good idea to seek the counsel of a personal injury attorney who can help you understand if you have a case.
Airbnb does offer all hosts Host Protection Insurance, which covers them for up to one million dollars in the event of a personal injury claim under certain restrictions. You can review the Airbnb policy for all restrictions on the website before your stay.
Guests Have a Responsibility
Remember, that when it comes to premises liability, guests also bear a responsibility to act safely. If a guest is found to be partially at fault for an injury on a property or if the injury is found to be the result of an intentional act, this may affect the case against the property owner.
In any situation where there is an injury on someone else’s property, it’s a good idea to contact a personal injury attorney to evaluate your case. At Panter, Panter, and Sampedro, we offer our clients a complimentary first-time consultation to discuss and evaluate each individual situation. Contact us at 305-662-6178.
References:
Panterlaw. (2018, July 04). Airbnb Premises Liability. Retrieved from https://panterlaw.com/2018/01/08/airbnb-premises-liability/
