What Accidental Guest Damage Actually Costs a Host

Three ordinary accidents

A guest sets a drink down, reaches for something on a high shelf, and a lamp goes over. Glass and ceramic don't bend — one wrong angle and it's broken. It's the kind of thing that happens in your own house too.

A different stay, a different accident: a glass tips onto the carpet, or a guest dragging a suitcase across the room catches the weave and tears it. Fabric and carpet don't forgive a spill the way a hard floor does, and a snagged tear doesn't smooth itself back out.

Then there's the accident with the highest price tag. A guest is cooking, a skillet slips, and it lands on a glass cook-top. The surface doesn't dent or scratch — it cracks, and a cracked cook-top isn't something you patch. It's a replacement, not a repair, and that replacement runs into the hundreds of dollars before you've done anything else.

Three different accidents, three different price tags — but the same basic shape. Something ordinary broke by accident, and now it has to be fixed or replaced before the next guest checks in.

The costs you don't see on the receipt

The repair or replacement bill is the cost you can point to. It isn't the only one.

There's your time — finding a replacement that matches, scheduling a repair, coordinating it all around your next guest's check-in. And there's the conversation itself: raising a broken lamp or a torn cushion with a guest who meant no harm is an awkward conversation you'd rather not have to have.

If you're relying on a security deposit instead, there's a third cost: the deposit dispute. Documenting what happened and deciding how much to withhold is its own task, on top of the other two, and it lands on you every time something breaks.

What a plan changes

A damage protection plan turns that whole picture into a flat, known cost. The $1,500 plan runs $59 per stay; the $3,000 plan runs $79. That's the number you know going in, whether or not anything ends up breaking.

If something does break, the plan pays for it: accidental damage to the unit or its contents is reimbursed 100% up to the limit you chose for that stay — $1,500 or $3,000. There's no deductible, so you aren't covering the first part of the loss yourself before the plan starts paying. The full cost of the covered damage is what gets paid, up to that limit.

And the guest isn't the one carrying the risk of an honest accident. The plan is what pays for the lamp, the carpet, or the cook-top — not a withheld deposit, not an invoice sent after the fact.

That's the trade a flat per-stay price buys you: a known cost before the stay starts, and full reimbursement afterward if one of those ordinary accidents actually happens.

The plan is purchased at the time of reservation and covers that one guest stay, up to 30 days — not the property going forward. Once you're participating, every guest stay needs its own plan, the same way it needs its own reservation.

Which limit fits

$59 per stay covers up to $1,500 in accidental damage; $79 covers up to $3,000. Registered partners pay $49 and $69.

Both tiers cover the same accidents, and neither carries a deductible — the full cost of a covered loss is paid up to whichever limit you chose. Compare the two tiers side by side on the Coverage page .

When an accident happens

Two deadlines govern every claim. Photos of the damage have to accompany the claim, and the claim itself has to start within 14 days of the guest's departure. A second clock then starts: paid receipts with proof of payment are due within 45 days of that start date. Both dates are firm — there's no extending either one.

Before a claim is approved, a claims adjuster guest-verifies it. Approval means reimbursement of 100% of the claim, up to the limit of the plan covering that stay.

Photograph the damage and start the claim as soon as you can after the guest leaves — that's the deadline with the shortest window, and the one most worth building into your own routine. Full details on filing are on the Claims page .