Short-Term Rental & Airbnb Insurance in Ontario

A standard Ontario homeowner or condo policy is priced for a household living in its own home. Once you take money for a stay, most insurers see that as a commercial activity, and many policies exclude or limit claims that happen during a paid booking. If a guest starts a kitchen fire or slips on your stairs and you never told your insurer you host, the claim can be questioned or denied, and the policy itself can be cancelled for non-disclosure.

That doesn't mean hosting is uninsurable. It means the policy has to match how the property is actually used. Telling your broker you host is what keeps a future claim clean.

Booking platforms offer their own host protection programs, and they can be useful. But they come with their own conditions, limits, exclusions and claim processes, they are built around that platform's bookings, and they are not designed to replace your own property insurance. Direct bookings, repeat guests who pay you outside the app, or a listing on a second platform may fall outside them entirely. Treat platform protection as a possible extra layer, not your foundation.

Coverage varies by insurer and by how you host, but a properly built STR policy in Ontario commonly includes:

• The building: fire, wind, hail, burst pipes and other insured perils, on a rebuild-cost basis.
• Your contents: the furniture, linens, electronics and appliances you supply for guests.
• Liability to guests and the public: bodily injury and property damage claims arising from the rental.
• Loss of rental income: replaces booking income you lose while a covered loss is being repaired.
• Optional water coverage: sewer backup and overland water are usually add-ons, and they matter for basement suites and cottages.
• Guest damage: some policies respond to certain damage caused by guests; wording varies a lot, so we confirm exactly what is and isn't included before you bind.

Yes, and this is the most important question we ask. There are generally two very different situations:

• You rent out your own home occasionally (a few weekends a year while you travel). Some insurers can extend your homeowner or condo policy with a home-sharing endorsement.
• The property is a dedicated short-term rental (an investment condo, a cottage rented most of the season, a basement suite listed year-round). This usually needs a policy written specifically for short-term rental or seasonal rental use.

Getting this wrong in either direction is costly: under-disclosing risks a denied claim, and over-insuring an occasional host wastes premium.

Rules are set mostly by municipalities and they change, so check yours before you list. Toronto, for example, generally limits short-term rentals to a host's principal residence and requires registration. Other cities require licences, cap nights, or restrict STRs in certain zones. Condo corporations often ban or restrict short-term rentals in their declarations and rules. Insurers ask about these rules, and operating in breach of a bylaw or condo rule can create coverage problems, so compliance and insurance go together.

Having these answers ready speeds up quoting:

• Is it your principal residence, a secondary home, a cottage or an investment property?
• How many nights per year is it rented, and what is the typical stay length?
• Which platforms do you use, and do you take direct bookings?
• Do you or a property manager live on site or manage check-in and check-out?
• Features that raise liability: pool, hot tub, dock, fire pit, stairs, boats or kayaks.
• Safety: working smoke and CO alarms, fire extinguishers, monitored alarm, water leak sensors, keyless entry.
• House rules: party bans, occupancy limits, noise monitoring.

Many Ontario cottage owners rent their cottage for part of the summer to cover carrying costs. That rental use has to be on the policy. Cottages also bring their own rating factors: distance from a fire hall, water access, wood stoves, docks and boathouses, and months of the year when the place sits empty. We place cottage and seasonal rental risks with markets that understand them.

• Hosts renting their own home, condo or basement suite occasionally
• Investors with one or more dedicated STR units
• Cottage owners renting seasonally
• Hosts who were declined or non-renewed after disclosing Airbnb use