AirCover’s $3 million headline isn’t what you’d actually collect

Airbnb’s Host Damage Protection terms are explicit about this, even if the marketing isn’t: payouts are calculated at Actual Cash Value — replacement cost minus depreciation — not what it costs to buy everything new. There’s also no independent adjuster. Airbnb decides what to pay, and hosts in community forums frequently report receiving a fraction of what they claimed once depreciation and documentation requirements are applied.

None of the guest-screening tools on the market answer this question. Autohost, Superhog, and similar services tell you whether to accept a booking. This calculator answers a different question: if you do accept it and something goes wrong, how much of the damage is actually on you?

A worked example

Say you’re hosting a guest who booked last-minute with a brand-new account — no other red flags. Your furnishings at risk are worth $6,000 to replace, averaging 3 years old. You don’t have backup insurance, and you haven’t committed to timestamped photos.

That’s on a $6,000 loss with a fairly average risk profile. The depreciation rule alone accounts for over $2,500 of the gap — before documentation risk is even factored in. Separately, hosts in comparable situations commonly report recovering somewhere between $1,200 and $3,000 of a similar claim once Airbnb’s review process runs its course — a real-world data point, not part of the calculation above.

The income rule almost everyone misses

AirCover’s Booking Income Loss provision only covers nights that were already confirmed before the damage happened. If your calendar was simply open — no bookings yet, just lost potential — that vacancy isn’t covered at all, even though the lost revenue is just as real to you.

Timing matters just as much as the rule itself: claims have to be initiated within 14 days of the guest’s checkout, or before the next guest checks in, whichever comes first, and hosts have reported claims rejected for missing that window by even a single day, with no exceptions made. On the deposit side, most hosts can no longer collect one directly through Airbnb at all — unless connected booking software with API access is in use, protection now runs entirely through AirCover’s post-stay claims process or a separate damage waiver via that connected software, not a deposit held upfront. And worth being clear-eyed about going in: Airbnb itself describes AirCover as a protection program, not an insurance policy, with no named-insured rights attached. A real short-term rental insurance policy gives contractual coverage rights that AirCover, by its own description, doesn’t.

This calculator provides estimates based on Airbnb’s published Host Damage Protection Terms. The 20–50% recovery range cited above reflects a pattern reported across host community discussions (Reddit’s r/airbnb_hosts, the Airbnb Community Center, and industry write-ups) summarizing typical claim outcomes — it is an informal, commonly-cited range, not an official Airbnb statistic or a guarantee. This is not legal or insurance advice and does not guarantee any specific claim outcome. Review Airbnb’s current terms and consider a licensed insurance advisor before relying on any coverage.