Category: Insuring Your Trip

Vacation Home Rental Insurance

We know not everyone vacations in a hotel or an all-inclusive resort. So when you vacation at your favorite locale in that rental home you just adore, you should be covered by vacation rental insurance too.

Complete Coverage for Your Vacation Rental

A furnished house, cabin, or apartment is a unique form of accommodation. These rentals can offer a little more space, a little more privacy, and feel more like “home” than a traditional hotel room. However, with these additional benefits come additional responsibilities.

While the rental property owner surely has homeowner’s insurance, that coverage won’t necessarily protect you from the cost of accidental damage to the property or furnishings while you are in residence. This may include accidents such as broken lamps, windows or glass, damaged doors or electronics, stained bedding, linens, walls or furniture, lost keys or re-keying costs, you will want to ensure your plan includes property damage coverage.

The Nationwide Vacation Renter Protector Plan is the first and only comprehensive plan to include this coverage for property damage. This is in addition to the benefits found in a typical comprehensive plan including, but not limited to, coverages such as Trip Cancellation or Interruption, Emergency Medical Coverage, Travel Delay, and Baggage Loss.

Rental Home Vacation Coverage

Any vacation is susceptible to unexpected disruptions or inconveniences. Even if you plan the perfect vacation and do not experience any missteps yourself, your vacation rental – particularly those located in places with unpredictable weather – may still be vulnerable. You want a vacation rental insurance plan to cover if a destination becomes uninhabitable before or during your trip.

Most comprehensive plans offer some kind of coverage for vacation rentals. If a major weather event or another unforeseen issue, like a fire, damages the property you will be renting so badly that you can’t use it, you may be reimbursed. Many popular vacation rental spots are located in hurricane-prone areas. Some comprehensive plans will provide you with trip cancellation coverage if you must cancel your trip due to a NOAA Hurricane Warning for your destination issued 24 hours or less before your departure.

When Driving to a Rental Property

If you’re driving to a vacation rental property, you may need to look into a travel insurance plan that has coverage for road closures that prevent you from getting to your destination. If your vacation rental home is located on a beautifully secluded island, only accessible by one road, you may want to consider this coverage.

This is a highly specialized benefit that not all companies offer. Be sure to review the plans you are considering to find which include this benefit. Can’t find it in the fine print? Give one of our licensed experts a call to find the best vacation rental home insurance plan for you.

Vacation Medical Coverage when Renting

While travelers with vacation rentals within the United States may not think about adding medical coverage to their list of needs, extra medical coverage to transport you closer to home, in the case of long-term care, can add peace of mind to your trip. Although the details of coverage vary by plan and company, you may want to consider a comprehensive plan that includes medical evacuation coverage if your trip takes you 50-100 miles away from home.

If you are renting a vacation home outside the United States you should consider both medical evacuation coverage and secondary medical coverage. Check with your health insurance provider to see their limit of coverage in your vacation spot. Then look for a plan that will pick up where your health insurance leaves off to keep you worry-free during your trip.

Extended Stay Travel Insurance for Longer Trips

The duration of your planned travel is an important consideration in purchasing travel insurance. As a matter of statistics, the longer the trip, the greater the chances that something disruptive will happen. Also, longer trips and vacations are often more expensive than short-term travel, which means that a major disruption to your plans could be financially more burdensome. That’s why most people who would choose not to insure their weekend getaways or even a five-to-seven-day trip would consider travel insurance more seriously for trips lasting two weeks, two months, or even longer.

There are also some serious considerations that may arise when planning a long-term trip, which wouldn’t be of concern to the average traveler. While a typical comprehensive policy or travel medical insurance product might suit the needs of someone booking a trip of a few weeks’ duration, for someone who is planning to be away from home for a long-term trip – say, anywhere from 3 months to a year or more – basic travel insurance coverage may not be expansive enough. That’s where long-stay travel insurance coverage comes in.

Long-Term Travel Health Insurance

When a traveler plans to be away from home for months at a time, practical considerations like medical care become a very real need to be addressed. There’s a good chance that, in the course of three, six, or twelve months abroad, you might need to seek medical care at some point – whether for a minor injury, a cold or flu virus, or even for preventive care and filling necessary prescriptions. If you’re planning a long-term trip outside your home country and are concerned at all about medical insurance while traveling, you’ll first need to check with your regular health insurance provider to find out what the terms of your usual coverage are when you’re traveling abroad. Some providers cover you while traveling just as they would at home, but it may be only for a defined period of time. Others may only cover a portion of your costs, or not offer coverage at all. Medicare, for example, does not offer benefits to its subscribers while they’re outside of the United States. Once you’ve determined whether or not you will need additional medical insurance while you’re traveling, there are various options to consider for getting that coverage.

For long-term travel of up to six months, it’s a good idea to look into a travel medical plan, which can offer you the additional health care coverage you may need while abroad for an extended period of time. Travel Medical plans may offer not only coverage for emergency care, but also emergency evacuation coverage. With emergency evacuation coverage, you can be transported as needed to a facility that can appropriately care for you in the case of an unexpected illness or injury. In some cases, travel medical plans may also provide some non-medical benefits to you which are worth considering if you’re taking a long-term trip. You may be able to get a medical plan that also allows you to interrupt your trip and return home for an unscheduled visit if there is an emergency, such as the death of an immediate family member or destruction of your home by fire, flood, or natural disaster.

If you’re planning to travel for longer than six months, consider purchasing a Travel Major Medical plan, which differs from a traditional Travel Medical plan in that it behaves more like a regular health insurance policy. With Travel Major Medical, you will likely be able to get all of the benefits of a travel medical plan, along with coverage for non-emergency medical care such as prescription refills and some preventive care. Also, while travel medical plans typically work on a reimbursement model – meaning that you pay out-of-pocket for any emergency medical expenses, and are reimbursed by the travel insurance company after filing a successful claim – Major Medical often works on a co-pay system, much like traditional health insurance, and may come with a deductible. There is also an application and underwriting process required to purchase Travel Major Medical products, which differs from purchasing a regular travel medical insurance policy. However, a significant benefit of Travel Major Medical policies is that they may extend your benefits even after you return home, depending on the terms of your specific plan. That benefit means that you can seek well visits, preventive screenings such as mammograms, prenatal care, hospital stays, and prescriptions for a limited time after coming home, which can be an important benefit for people who have been out of the country for a long period of time and may need to make new arrangements for at-home health insurance.

There are many considerations when planning a long-term trip. If you’re looking into extended travel insurance, be sure to also ask questions about evacuation services, Accidental Death and Dismemberment coverage, and what the terms of your policy may allow for short visits home during your scheduled trip. It may be helpful to refer to this list of questions you may need to ask when discussing travel insurance options with a provider.

Corporate & Business Trip Insurance

Business travelers typically have somewhat different concerns than the average vacationer. Business travel insurance can help fill in the gaps and quell the worries of corporate employees. While many people taking pleasure trips worry somewhat about delayed or cancelled flights and missed connections as well as the financial burdens and inconveniences that can often result from these disruptions, most business travelers can be confident that their employers will take care of the financial aspect of a cancellation or lengthy delay. Corporate travelers’ needs, therefore, are more specific than those of the average traveler, and a typical comprehensive policy – the most common form of travel insurance for vacation travelers – may not quite address what enterprise business travelers are looking for.

Medical Coverage for International Business Trips

When traveling overseas for business, medical care is likely a top concern. Business travelers should always check with their employers to find out what the workplace healthcare plan offers in terms of benefits while abroad. Some medical insurance plans cover emergency care outside your home country, but some don’t; among those that do, they may only cover a portion of the costs. However, a travel medical insurance plan can augment your existing healthcare plan to offer complete coverage in the case of an emergency during your business trip. Travel medical may also offer some benefits for emergency evacuation in the event that you need to be transported to a facility that can adequately care for you. Medical Evacuation plans are also available to be purchased separately, and may be a good option for business travelers whose workplace healthcare policies will cover emergency medical care but may not offer benefits for evacuation to hospitals of excellence for adequate care.

Corporate Equipment Loss & Damage Coverage

In addition to medical emergencies while abroad, many business travelers are concerned about the loss or damage of their property. Since business travel almost universally requires traveling with expensive equipment such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, it’s important to research business travel insurance options that will cover baggage loss or property damage. Be sure to pay close attention to the limits set within the policies, however; many won’t reimburse you for more than $250, which is of course not enough to replace or repair expensive business or enterprise-grade equipment. If you’re unable to find a traditional travel insurance plan with a higher limit, look into specialized corporate and business travel insurance products. These types of plans and coverages are typically harder to find, but the extra effort may be worth it because they usually offer much higher limits for baggage loss and damage with your expensive equipment in mind.