"We’re delighted that this partnership with Confused.com will now go a long way in making sure that people operating legitimately in the sharing economy have the right type of insurance cover and won’t be left at risk from theft, damage, fire or even public liability."
The new service will consist of home, holiday home and landlord insurance that incorporates its specialist ‘Host insurance’, designed for customers participating in short-term rentals.
Within Confused.com’s home insurance quote process, an option is now presented to customers for them to declare if they plan to let out their property on a short-term basis. They are then diverted onto a specialist journey developed to meet the varied and specific needs of customers who operate in the short-term rental sector, whether that’s renting out a room in their own home, having a holiday home or if they are a landlord offering short-term rentals when they have a gap in between long-term tenancies.
Standard home insurance policies do not cover the commercial use of a property such as letting a room or the whole property, so it’s important that customers understand this and are guided away from unsuitable products to products which meet their specific needs and set of circumstances.
Not only have home insurance policies traditionally not covered short-term rentals but they are usually invalidated by this sort of activity causing the policies to be cancelled or claims not being paid out.
This is particularly important with the incoming Consumer Duty regulation due to go live in 2023, the focus of which is to help clients make effective decisions to ensure they meet their financial goals. By introducing customers to the right insurance at precisely the right time Confused.com is putting customers’ interests first.
Pikl’s ‘Host insurance’ has been designed to run alongside its panel of standard home, holiday home and landlord insurances and provides cover specifically for guest injuries, property loss, theft or damage caused by hosting activities. The added benefit of Pikl’s host insurance is that customers only pay for the cover they actually need, which is the additional short term let cover.
Louise Birritteri CEO and Founder of Pikl said: “Since publishing our industry-wide report ’Insuring the sharing economy’ in 2019 , which highlighted that the insurance needs of over 1 million short-term rental hosts were not being adequately accommodated by the UK’s major insurers, we have been working closely with many of the industry’s insurers and distributors on solutions to identify these customers and divert them into appropriate insurance buying journeys.
“We’re delighted that this partnership with Confused.com will now go a long way in making sure that people operating legitimately in the sharing economy have the right type of insurance cover and won’t be left at risk from theft, damage, fire or even public liability.”
Matthew Harwood, Product Manager at Confused.com, said: “Renting out homes or rooms during key events or peak times of the year is becoming increasingly popular. But there’s also the concern that many see this as just handing over their keys to and moving on.
"In working with Pikl, we are able to educate and help customers who may look at renting out their home short term in the future by signposting the need for specialist cover when they are quoting on our site. It’s important that homeowners have the right cover in place for these types of arrangements, so we’re pleased to now have a solution in place that makes sure our customers are better protected.“
