Thinking about diversifying into holiday lets?
In an ever-changing world, it’s important to adapt to survive – and thrive! According to government figures, over 60% of farms have diversified – moving away from traditional activities to create extra forms of income. One of the most popular, and successful, forms of diversification is converting farm buildings into holiday lets. If you’ve considered this, or already have short-term lets on your site, do you know what insurance you’ll need?
Your existing farm insurance policy might cover a holiday-let, but it’s not safe to assume that’s the case. The good news is, there are a few different insurance options, depending on the type of accommodation you are letting:
Serviced accommodation
Serviced accommodation combines hotel services, like daily housekeeping and laundry, with more traditional holiday-let amenities like cooking and washing facilities. They are usually available for short or longer-term bookings, rather than in blocks of three-days or one week at a time.
We offer a serviced accommodation insurance policy, tailored to this specific model of short-term letting. Key covers include buildings, contents, business interruption, public liability and employers’ liability. Add-ons such as legal expenses can also be arranged.
Holiday homes
The most traditional kind of self-catering holiday homes. We provide a specific holiday home insurance policy similar to serviced accommodation cover, except it doesn’t include business interruption cover. Instead, our policy includes loss of rent/alternative accommodation cover. This means you won’t lose out financially if your holiday home becomes uninhabitable due to an insured event.
Read more: Guide to buying and renting out a holiday let
Airbnb
Airbnb is a simple way to advertise your accommodation. It’s particularly useful if you plan on having guests throughout the year, rather than just at peak holiday seasons. However, the nature of Airbnb rentals means they provide a unique insurance challenge and therefore require a unique insurance product. We can arrange a bespoke insurance package for different types of Airbnb rentals, including cover for individual rooms in your home, holiday accommodation combined with longer-term lets, year-round holiday accommodation and properties leased on rent-to-rent terms.
Going without the right cover on your holiday properties just isn’t worth the risk. If you need to make a claim, you may find that the damage, loss or injury won’t be covered – either because the policy won’t cover it, or because the insurer didn’t understand the situation from the start!
The best way to avoid nasty surprises, and to safeguard your investment, is to work with an independent insurance broker with plenty of expertise in farm and short-term let insurance. Our team has experience in dealing with all types of farms and will ask appropriate questions in order to fully understand the risk before advising accordingly.
Get in touch today by calling 01603 218000 or click here to find out more.
