There’s a warning that landlords of short lets in tourist hotspots are risking invalidating their insurance.

In 2025, the UK saw nearly 101 million guest nights spent in short-term lets, 14% (14,143,560) of which took place in August alone. 

Standard home insurance is designed for owner-occupiers, not paid guests, and hosting without informing your insurer, or not having a specialist short-term rental policy in place, could leave you out of pocket and uninsured.

If you rent out a room or your whole home to guests – even for a single weekend – your insurer may not cover you for accidental damage, theft or injury caused by a guest. 

In some cases, it could even cancel your policy altogether if you didn’t declare that you were hosting.

While rental platforms like Airbnb offer their own protection, Uswitch experts say this isn’t a substitute for home insurance, and it’s important to ensure you have appropriate cover. 

Airbnb’s AirCover for Hosts offers up to £2,234,250 in host damage protection and £744,750 in host liability cover but it won’t cover events such as lost booking income or high-value items. 

Top tips by Uswitch for landlords renting out rooms or properties this summer on short let platforms:

• Always inform your insurer. This is essential to keep your policy valid.
• If you have a mortgage, review it to make sure you are allowed to conduct short-term lets. 
• Don’t rely on a rental platform’s cover alone. While protection like Airbnb’s AirCover is a helpful safety net, it has limitations and gaps that you need to watch out for.

• • Consider specialist insurance. If your standard home insurance doesn’t cover renting out your home but you still want to do so, dedicated policies,such as holiday let insurance, are available. These can fill the gaps left by your existing insurance.