How the insurance industry is responding to the sharing economy
Skift Take
We're finally starting to see some of the changes that are necessary for service like Airbnb and RelayRides to expand from hot, growing companies to bankable services that won't get tripped up by insurance and lease disputes.
Debbie Wosskow created a way to help travelers avoid hotel costs on their next vacation by swapping their Manhattan apartment for a villa in Zanzibar. What she hasn’t figured out is how to insure their stuff.
Wosskow, chief executive officer of London-based Love Home Swap, which she describes as “online dating for homes,” said it was easier to find people in 95 countries to post properties on the website and make a trade than to line up coverage in case something goes wrong. After contacting about two dozen insurers, she’s been able to strike a deal for coverage of residences only in Europe. That means about two-thirds of homeowners will have to arrange their own or go without.
“It’s a nightmare,” she said. “The insurance industry as a whole has been painfully, and I emphasize painfully, slow to react and offer relevant services.”
Startups that help people rent their houses and cars to strangers have proliferated on the Internet, with Wosskow’s firm now listing about 5,500 properties, three times as many as in December. The entrepreneurs behind the companies are finding they have to convince insurers from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to Hiscox Ltd. they’re worth the risk.
The process was a surprise for Tony Adam, who co-founded Eventup, a service for finding and booking properties for parties and other gatherings. It took only two months for the startup to build and launch its website and three to secure a policy through Lloyd’s of Lond
