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Trip Insurance Overview

Find out how you can make commission offering trip insurance to your guests.

Tim Parry avatar
Written by Tim Parry
Updated this week

Trip Insurance is an automatically-enabled upsell that gives your guests peace of mind - and generates you revenue. While Airbnb and Vrbo allow guests to purchase travel insurance only at the moment of booking, Hospitable provides a more flexible experience: guests can purchase Trip Insurance after the reservation has been created. This expanded availability increases the likelihood that guests will purchase coverage and you earn commission each time the trip insurance upsell is sold.

Trip Insurance is currently in beta and available for U.S. properties only.

What Is Trip Insurance?

Trip Insurance helps guests safeguard their reservation from financial loss due to unexpected events.
Hospitable partners with RentalGuardian to offer two types of protection:

  • Standard Trip Protection - Costs 7.5% of the booking total

  • Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) - Costs 11% of the booking total, offering broader cancellation flexibility

Coverage availability depends on guest location and booking timing, which we manage automatically.

View what trip insurance typically does / does not cover

✅ Typically covers:

(Coverage varies depending on the specific policy.)

  • Trip cancellation (for approved reasons)

  • Trip interruption

  • Some travel-related emergencies

  • Unexpected events described in the policy document

CFAR (when eligible) offers even broader cancellation flexibility.

Coverage limits for the standard Trip insurance policy:

❌ Typically doesn’t cover:

  • All scenarios—coverage is based on carrier rules

  • Cancellations outside policy windows or rules

  • Guests located in restricted regions

  • Refunds after purchase unless policy rules allow

Guests always see full policy details before completing their purchase.

Why Guests May Want Trip Insurance

Guests may choose Trip Insurance because:

  • They want financial protection if they need to cancel or interrupt their stay

  • They value peace of mind for non-refundable bookings

  • Travel disruptions - health issues, weather delays, family emergencies

How Trip Insurance Works in Hospitable

  1. We automatically create and enable the Trip Insurance upsell for all eligible properties.

  2. You can verify if enabled under Guest Experience → Upsells (and toggle it off anytime).

  3. Guests may be offered Trip Insurance in the guest portal in two places:

    • At the end of the check-in form, rental agreement, security deposit, or ID verification task if applicable

    • As a standalone tile in the Guest Portal (if you don’t use check-in tasks)

  4. Guests decide to opt in or opt out.

  5. If purchased, coverage is issued automatically via RentalGuardian.

  6. You receive commission for each policy sold.

Eligibility & When Coverage Is Hidden

Despite the trip insurance upsell being enabled, coverage may not be possible due

to the guests country of origin or booking-timing restrictions. Hospitable automatically evaluates these conditions and displays Trip Insurance only when coverage can be issued.

View full eligibility criteria

🚫 Trip Insurance is hidden entirely when:

  • The guest’s billing address is in:

    • New York

    • Quebec

    • Restricted or war-torn countries: Afghanistan, Antarctica, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria

🚫 CFAR coverage is hidden when:

  • More than 14 days have passed since the booking was made

  • Check-in is in less than 30 days

  • The billing address is outside the U.S. or Canada

🚫 Additional timing restriction:

Trip Insurance will also be hidden when:

  • Check-in is in less than 30 days, and it has been more than 5 days since the booking.

These rules may be updated from time to time to remain compliant with carrier requirements.

How Much Commission You Can Expect to Earn

When a guest purchases Trip Insurance, you earn a commission on the policy. The exact amount varies based on the guest’s country of residence and standard processing fees, but we handle all of that complexity for you behind the scenes.

For example, on a $1,000 booking from a U.S. guest, the Trip Insurance premium would be approximately $75, and your commission would be around $16.

Your commission $ amount varies depends on the guest’s country of residence (Non-US guests yield lower commission)

To receive commissions, you’ll need to have a verified payout method set up under:
​Settings → Payments & Payouts

Once your payout method is verified:

  • Commission for each Trip Insurance purchase is paid out the day after check-in for that reservation.

  • Your commission will appear alongside your regular Hospitable payouts.

  • If you don’t yet have a payout method verified, we’ll continue accumulating your commissions in the background until you’re ready to add one.

How Guests File a Claim

Guests can manage their own claims without needing any assistance from you.

If a guest asks how to file a claim, direct them to:

  1. The Guest Portal

  2. Upsells Purchased

  3. Their Trip Insurance policy

There they’ll find:

  • Their policy number

  • Coverage description

  • Claims contact information

  • Filing instructions

  • External links (if applicable)

You do not need to file or manage claims on their behalf.

Want to see how Trip Insurance works from the guest’s perspective?

You can watch this Storylane walkthrough for more information and to see exactly what the Trip Insurance experience looks like for guests, including how it appears in the Guest Portal and during the check-in flow.

▶️ View the Storylane here: https://hospitable.storylane.io/share/8xyvbbqyxg5m

Best Practices for Trip Insurance

Trip Insurance is sold inside the Guest Portal. If you never direct guests there, they will have no opportunity to view or purchase it. To maximize both guest experience and revenue potential, we strongly recommend:

1. Always link guests to the Guest Portal

Use the %guest_portal% shortcode in:

  • Your New Reservation message

  • Your check-in messaging rules

  • Any reminders about signing rental agreements, completing guest verification, or security deposits

This ensures guests visit the Guest Portal, where they can see:

  • Trip Insurance

  • Any other upsells you’ve enabled

  • Required pre-arrival tasks

2. Create additional upsells to improve the guest experience

Consider creating or enabling extras such as:

  • Early check-in / late checkout

  • Welcome basket

  • Equipment rentals

  • Local experiences

Guests are more likely to visit - and purchase from - the Guest Portal when there are multiple helpful offerings.

3. Add a mention of Trip Insurance in your messaging

If you want to highlight the option, consider adding a line such as:

“You can access your Guest Portal here: %guest_portal%. From there you can review your stay details and optionally purchase Trip Insurance for added protection.”

Just remember that Trip Insurance is not shown to all guests due to eligibility restrictions.

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