STR Damage Protection: Waivo, Truvi, Safely vs AirCover

Most operators discover the gaps in their damage protection after the claim. A guest leaves a $6,000 hot tub cracked, or a 3AM party guts the kitchen, and the reimbursement process reveals exactly which scenarios each program actually covers. This guide breaks down what Waivo, Truvi (formerly SUPERHOG), Safely, and Airbnb AirCover each pay when a claim lands, so you know before the damage happens.

TL;DR: AirCover is the right free baseline for Airbnb-only operators with properties below $500K in contents. Multi-OTA operators need a third-party program for non-Airbnb channels. Truvi has the most transparent published pricing. Waivo covers pet damage, which Truvi excludes. Safely is the option when you need liability coverage bundled with property damage protection. Security deposits alone are not a protection program.

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At a Glance: Five Options Compared

Option	Max Coverage	Cost to Host	Covers Pet Damage	Covers Intentional Damage	Liability Included
Airbnb AirCover	$3M damage + $1M liability	Free	Yes (as of public terms)	Has conditions/exclusions (see below)	Yes ($1M)
Truvi	$0-$1M per booking	$10.90-$31.95/booking	No (service animals only)	Yes	No
Waivo	$500-$20K per booking	Quote-based	Yes	Yes	No
Safely	Up to $1M	Quote-based	Yes	Yes	Yes (bodily injury)
Security deposit	Amount collected	$0 (if no damage)	Yes (via deduction)	Yes (via deduction)	No

Data verified from each provider’s public product documentation, August 2026. Verify current terms before purchasing.

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Airbnb AirCover: The Free Baseline

AirCover for Hosts includes $3M in Host Damage Protection and $1M in Host Liability Insurance, at no cost, for every Airbnb booking. The protection activates automatically on eligible reservations with no opt-in required.

What AirCover covers (per public terms analyzed at airbnb.com/aircover-for-hosts, August 2026):

• Physical damage to host property caused by guests or their invitees
• Pet damage
• Cleaning costs from stains, smoke odor from unauthorized smoking, or pet bodily fluids
• Income loss from cancelled future reservations if the property becomes uninhabitable due to covered damage

The claim process requires hosts to contact the guest through Airbnb’s Resolution Center within 14 days of checkout, then submit a formal request within 30 days of checkout. Missing either window closes the claim.

Where AirCover falls short:

First, it applies only to Airbnb bookings. Any stay booked through Vrbo, Booking.com, or your direct site is outside AirCover’s scope. Operators managing 10+ properties across multiple OTAs cannot treat AirCover as their complete solution.

Second, AirCover’s Terms include conditions and exclusions. Airbnb explicitly notes the protection “isn’t an insurance policy, and not all damage is included within its terms” and recommends that hosts purchase additional personal insurance. Operators with high-value properties or high-risk scenarios should read the current Terms before relying on AirCover as their primary coverage layer.

Third, the dispute process runs through Airbnb. You are relying on Airbnb’s adjudication when the guest contests your damage claim. Third-party programs avoid that conflict.

For operators managing an Airbnb-primary portfolio at 5-15 doors with standard furnishings, AirCover covers the realistic damage scenarios without added cost. That calculus changes once you add other channels or move into higher-value properties.

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Truvi (Formerly SUPERHOG): Published Pricing, Bundled Screening

Truvi is the rebrand of SUPERHOG, a UK-founded guest verification and damage protection provider. The platform is “insurance-backed but not insurance” per their public documentation, meaning they have an underwriting arrangement but are not a licensed insurance carrier.

Pricing (from Truvi’s damage protection page, August 2026, verify with vendor):

xychart-beta
  title "Truvi Damage Protection: Cost Per Booking by Coverage Tier"
  x-axis ["$0-500", "$0-50K", "$0-1M", "$500-50K", "$500-1M"]
  y-axis "USD per booking" 0 --> 35
  bar [20.10, 28.75, 31.95, 10.90, 18.40]

The two lower tiers in the chart (the $500-$50K and $500-$1M bands) are designed for operators who already collect a security deposit or run a damage waiver. The upper tiers cover from dollar zero. Pricing sourced from truvi.com/damage-protection as of August 2026.

What Truvi covers: Accidental and intentional guest damage, rental content damage, smoke damage on non-smoking properties, unauthorized parties, service animal damage, excessive cleaning costs, and replacement of damaged linens or accessories.

What Truvi excludes: Liability claims, lost income, pet damage (excluding service animals), authorized parties, general wear and tear, acts of nature, cosmetic damage, chargebacks. Pet damage is the most significant exclusion for operators running pet-friendly properties.

Claims: Truvi targets 3-5 business days for payment after settlement approval, via a dashboard where you upload photos and invoices.

PMS integrations: Hostaway, Hostfully, Hospitable, Guesty. If your PMS is not on that list, the integration layer requires manual booking data entry or a workaround.

The per-booking cost adds up. At the $0-$50K tier (see chart above, pricing from truvi.com/damage-protection as of August 2026, verify with vendor), an operator doing 300 bookings per year is spending several thousand dollars annually in Truvi fees before a single claim is filed. That is real cost that a damage-free operator has paid for nothing. The question is whether the claim risk at your property type justifies the ongoing cost.

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Waivo: Covers Pet Damage, No Public Pricing

Waivo targets both individual hosts (via their WaivoNow self-serve product) and property management companies (via their enterprise program). Coverage options run from $500 to $20,000 per booking, with the $1,500 and $5,000 tiers described as most popular on their site.

What Waivo covers (from Waivo’s product page, August 2026):

• Accidental and intentional guest damage
• Pet damage (including both accidents and intentional damage by pets)
• Theft by guests, with a valid police report
• Building and personal property

No deductible applies. The claim starts from the first dollar of covered damage.

Waivo’s key differentiator from Truvi is pet damage coverage. If you run pet-friendly properties, Truvi’s service-animal-only exception is a real gap. Waivo fills it.

The main drawback is pricing. Waivo does not publish per-booking or per-property rates on their public site. You need to contact them directly or go through their portal to price it. That makes direct cost comparison with Truvi difficult without a live quote. The claim review is typically same-day, with a 24-hour target for response.

Platform integration details are also not publicly listed. For growing operators who need tight PMS integration to run their tech stack cleanly, the due diligence step on Waivo is longer than with Truvi.

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Safely: Real Insurance, Bundled Liability

Safely sells actual short-term rental insurance, not a protection program. The distinction matters for two reasons: the payout obligation is governed by state insurance law, not Safely’s internal claims team, and the product includes bodily injury liability coverage alongside property damage.

Per their public product page (safely.com, August 2026), Safely covers up to $1M in STR insurance covering structural damage, content replacement or repair, bodily injury, pet damage, intentional guest damage, and theft. Pricing is quote-based. You fill out a property profile and receive a per-night or per-booking rate.

When Safely makes sense:

If you have already reviewed our STR insurance coverage guide and identified a gap between what your homeowner or landlord policy covers and what your STR operation exposes you to, Safely addresses both the property and liability sides in one product. Operators running high-traffic properties, properties in cities with litigation-heavy guest cultures, or properties where a guest injury is a realistic scenario, get more complete coverage from Safely than from any of the damage-only programs.

The trade-off is cost. Insurance that covers bodily injury and is backed by licensed carriers will price higher than a contractual protection program. Get the quote, then compare it to the combined cost of Truvi (damage) plus whatever you are paying for liability coverage separately.

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Security Deposits: What They Actually Protect

A security deposit is a refundable amount collected from the guest before their stay, held by the OTA or by you directly, and released after checkout if there is no damage.

The coverage ceiling is whatever you collected. A $500 security deposit covers $500 of damage, period. A $6,000 cracked hot tub is $5,500 out of pocket after you process the deposit. Security deposits are not protection programs.

Security deposits create guest friction, particularly on Airbnb where many travelers expect no pre-authorization hold. The practical result is that deposits work as a filter against the lowest-risk bookings while doing little for the high-risk scenarios (party bookings, large groups) where the damage typically lands.

For operators who allow pets and want pet damage covered, a security deposit is the bluntest tool. Collecting $300 in a pet deposit when a dog destroys $2,000 in furniture is a partial coverage scenario, not a managed one.

Security deposits belong in the stack as a psychological deterrent and to cover minor damage without triggering a formal claim. They do not substitute for a damage protection program.

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What Claims Actually Look Like

The payout data from any of these programs is not public. The most useful signals come from aggregated operator reports on r/AirBnBHosts, BiggerPockets, and Capterra.

The pattern across all damage protection programs: small claims (under $500) process fast, with most programs paying within a week if documentation is clean. Large claims (above $5,000) take longer and generate more scrutiny, with adjudicators questioning repair estimates, requesting competitive quotes, or disputing the distinction between pre-existing damage and guest damage.

The documentation discipline that separates paid claims from denied ones is consistent: timestamped check-in photos, timestamped check-out photos, dated repair invoices from licensed contractors, and a police report for theft. Operators who run this process systematically collect more often. Operators who take casual pre-stay photos and then submit a receipt without photos lose the large claims.

Platform guarantee disputes have an additional layer: if your AirCover claim is denied, your appeal runs through Airbnb’s internal process, not a neutral third party. Third-party programs at least remove the OTA from the dispute.

For operators scaling toward 20-30 properties, the documentation process is an operational SOP, not a manual effort. Building photo evidence into the turnover checklist is the single most important step before worrying about which protection program to buy.

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Decision by Operator Profile

Solo operator, 1-8 properties, primarily Airbnb: AirCover as your baseline. If you run pet-friendly properties, add Waivo for pet damage that falls outside AirCover’s conditions. Review the current AirCover Terms before deciding you are fully covered.

Growing operator, 5-20 properties, multi-OTA: You need a third-party program for non-Airbnb channels. Truvi has published pricing for 4 major PMS systems and is the easiest to evaluate on cost. If pets are a significant use case, Waivo is the better fit despite the opacity on pricing. AirCover remains your free Airbnb layer on top.

Pro operator, 15-50 properties, high-value inventory or high-liability markets: Safely’s insurance approach gives you regulated payout obligations and liability coverage in one product. The premium will be higher than Truvi or Waivo, but you are buying from a licensed carrier, not a protection program. Compare the all-in Safely quote against Truvi cost plus whatever your current liability coverage runs.

Operators with security deposits as their only coverage: Consider what you would do if a $10,000 damage event hit tomorrow. If the answer is “absorb it”, you have chosen self-insurance. If the answer is “file a claim”, you need to set up a program before the event, not after.

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The Real Question: When AirCover Is Enough

For the majority of operators running 5-15 standard properties on Airbnb, AirCover’s $3M damage limit covers nearly every realistic damage scenario. The coverage is free, automatic, and broadly protective.

The case for adding a third-party program is specific:

• You list on Vrbo, Booking.com, or direct (AirCover does not cover those bookings)
• You run pet-friendly properties and want pet damage covered under a clear contract
• You have had an AirCover claim denied and want a non-Airbnb adjudicator on subsequent claims
• You have high-value contents (art, collectibles, custom furniture) that exceed what your general property policy covers
• You need liability coverage beyond what AirCover provides or in jurisdictions where it does not apply

Outside those conditions, AirCover is a strong free baseline, and adding a per-booking fee on top of it for Airbnb-only bookings is cost for risk already covered.

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Pricing and coverage information analyzed from each provider’s public product documentation as of August 2026. Protection program terms and pricing change; verify current terms directly with each vendor before purchasing. For STR insurance options and gaps in standard homeowner policies, see our STR insurance coverage guide.