Short-term rental and Airbnb insurance in Greece: what it costs

At a glance

What insurance does a home on Airbnb need?

A home on Airbnb needs insurance that declares the short-term rental, and since 1 October 2025 the law asks for liability cover. For a €110,000 building and €12,000 of equipment, the market average comes to about €171 a year with tax. The platform guarantee is not an insurance policy and pays only for guest damage.

Short-term rental is a change of use. It must be declared, otherwise the company can refuse the claim.
Since 1 October 2025, every short-term rental property must have liability insurance for damage or accidents¹.
For a €110,000 building and €12,000 of equipment, the market average for property comes to about €171 a year with tax².
The platform guarantee pays last, only for guest damage, and has no liability towards third parties worth the name.
In the ΕΑΕΕ survey, short-term rental properties reported a claim more often than homes: on 5.36% of policies in 2023, against 1.41%³.

The essence

The home you let by the night is no longer a home to the insurer. It is a business with strangers who hold the keys. The home policy you had does not cover this use from the day you post the listing, and the platform guarantee does not replace it. Insurance for Airbnb and short-term rental is a special package, and since 1 October 2025 liability cover is compulsory¹. This guide says what it holds, what the platform does not have, and where the money is lost.

Why a home policy is not enough

A home policy insures a household. The premium was set on the assumption that you live inside, or a tenant on a one-year lease, who knows where the main switch is and does not throw parties for twenty people. Letting by the night changes all of that. Someone else comes in every three days. Nobody knows the water heater. Suitcases knock into the walls, the washing machine runs twice a day, and the keys change hands forty times a year.

Article 4 of law 2496/1997 says that if the risk increases during the insurance, you declare it to the company within fourteen days. Turning the home into a tourist property is the clearest example of an increase in risk there is. If you do not declare it and damage happens, the company can reduce or refuse the payment. And it will find out: the loss adjuster sees the linen in the wardrobe, the key box with a code at the entrance, the listing on the internet.

There are two ways. The first is to ask your company in writing whether it accepts short-term rental on the existing policy. The company may accept with an extra premium, or terminate the contract, as article 4 provides. The second is the special package, written for this use.

What the special package has

Some companies have a separate package for properties let through platforms, such as Groupama BnB⁴, Euro Insurance BnB of Europe Insurance⁵ and the liability programme of Syndea for AirBnB-type properties⁶. Such a package differs from a home policy in three points.

First, the use. The package says that the home is let to guests, so the use is declared from the start. At a claim, the company has no reason to ask why you did not declare the letting.

Second, liability. A home policy has liability towards neighbours, for the water that went through to the flat below. The special package has liability towards guests: the injury on the stairs, in the bathroom, on the veranda. This is the claim that reaches the courts, because the injured guest is not your friend.

Third, guest damage. The broken table, the soiled mattress, the burn on the worktop. A home policy treats these as wear and does not pay for them. A special package may cover them, with a limit and an excess. Ask whether yours does.

The comparison follows three steps. The basic one is fire and liability, the minimum that keeps the policy valid. The middle one adds theft, water, weather and guest damage. The full one adds earthquake and the rents you lose while the home is closed.

Not all companies have a separate package for the platforms. You may be offered a holiday home policy, written for a house that stays empty for months. If it is offered to you for Airbnb, ask explicitly whether the use is declared and accepted, and whether it has liability towards guests.

What the platform guarantee does and does not do

The platform tells you that you are covered with an amount in the millions for guest damage and for liability. Read what that means.

The guest damage guarantee pays for the damage a guest did on a booking through the platform. First you ask the guest for the money through the platform, within a deadline of a few days from departure. If the guest refuses, you ask the platform. The platform decides on its own terms, asks for proof, and excludes normal wear, cash, jewellery and pets in some cases. It is a commercial process, not an insurance one. You do not have article 7 of law 2496/1997, nor the Bank of Greece to complain to.

The platform’s liability covers, on paper, injury to a guest. In practice it applies only for the duration of the booking, only to guests with a booking, and it comes after every other insurance you have. If the injury happens to a guest who came from another platform, or to a friend of the guest, it does not exist.

And neither of the two touches the risks of the home. The fire from the short circuit in the kitchen, the earthquake, the flood, the pipe that burst in February when the home was empty, the theft without a guest. Without a policy, all of these are yours.

The right set-up is: the special package for the home and the liability, and the platform guarantee as a second line for guest damage.

What counts in the price

The sum insured, as in every property insurance. The rebuilding value of the building and the value of the equipment. In the equipment you count everything you hand over to the guest: furniture, appliances, linen, television, air conditioners. Linen is replaced often in a home that is let. Declare the value as new.

The nights. The comparison asks how many nights a year the home is let, in four bands: up to 60, 61 to 120, 121 to 200, over 200. A home let for thirty nights is a home with guests. One let for two hundred is a business with a changeover every third day. The market average comes only from the value and does not change with the nights. The company may still ask about them, on the application.

The guests. Six beds are more people than two, and guest damage is mostly more guests.

The year of construction, for earthquake. And the pool, if there is one, which raises the liability.

The extra covers that make sense

Loss of rent. Say the home burns in June and reopens in September. The damage to the building is €15,000. The bookings you cancelled are €9,000. This line pays the second, with a maximum number of months and with proof from the booking calendar. In the comparison it is inside the full package.

Guest accident. Beyond liability, an amount for the guest’s medical costs without the need to prove that you are at fault. It closes the claim before it becomes a lawsuit.

Keys and lock. The guest loses the key and you change the lock. This line pays the locksmith.

Emergency cleaning. The party that leaves the home in a state that needs professional cleaning, painting and new linen before the next booking. The platform guarantee may pay for it, slowly. This line pays for it quickly.

Landlord legal protection. The guest who does not leave, the dispute with the platform, the neighbour who sues over noise. Ask whether the cover of the owner who lets is inside the package or a separate line, because the legal protection of a home does not necessarily cover the disputes of a letting.

What the law says

The policy is governed by law 2496/1997⁷.

Article 3. On the application you declare the use. “Tourist furnished home” or “short-term rental through a platform”, with the registration number. If you write “main residence” to get a cheaper price, the company can refuse the whole claim.
Article 4. If you start letting after signing, you declare it within fourteen days. The company may ask for an extra premium or terminate. Silence is the most expensive choice.

For letting, the basis is article 111 of law 4446/2016, and the property is declared on the special platform of AADE, the tax authority¹. Since 1 October 2025, article 3 of law 5170/2025 asks every short-term rental property for liability insurance for damage or accidents, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, a residual current switch, escape signs, a certificate of pest control, a first aid kit and a guide with emergency phone numbers¹. Staff of the Ministry of Tourism carry out checks on site, with notice at least ten days before¹. Confirm the current list before you open the home, because the rules change.

What the public figures show

ΕΑΕΕ, the association of insurance companies, counts properties let short-term through a digital platform, of the Airbnb type, separately in its survey of property insurance³.

ΕΑΕΕ figures, 2023	Short-term rental	Homes
Policies with a claim	5.36%	1.41%
Average claim	€1,624	€2,607
Claims per policy	€87	€37

The short-term rental policies of the survey rose from 4,252 in 2023 to 11,181 in 2024³. The most frequent cause of claims in 2023 was weather, with 73 of the 228 claims, and second came burst pipes, with 60³. For the liability of the owner, ΕΑΕΕ counts 7,747 covers in 2024, with a claim on 0.3% of them and an average claim of €893 in the first count of the year⁸.

The comparison takes the premium from the average of all property insurance, about €1.17 per €1,000 of value, without tax². For a €110,000 building and €12,000 of equipment that comes to about €142 a year, and about €171 with the 20% tax of the fire class⁹. Earthquake has no public average and is not in this sum.

Of the prices that companies publish on their own sites, we found three for short-term rental, in the order of their names:

Europe Insurance, Euro Insurance BnB: minimum annual gross premium €185⁵.
Groupama, Groupama BnB Eco Light: liability with a €100,000 limit, from €50 a year in total⁴.
Syndea: liability of a short-term rental property, four packages at €45, €70, €100 or €130 a year, gross premiums⁶.

An example

Nikos has a 65 m² flat in Koukaki, on the third floor, with a 1998 building permit. He lets it from April to October, about 90 nights, to four people at most. Building €110,000, equipment €12,000.

He had the home policy from the bank, for the mortgage. He asks the agent. The answer: the policy is valid for the bank as far as fire goes, but guest damage and liability towards guests do not exist, and the use must be declared. He takes a package for short-term rental, with earthquake and loss of rent, and keeps the bank as beneficiary for the building. He adds landlord legal protection. Say that all of it costs him €300 a year. Over 90 nights, that is about €3.30 per night let.

In August, a guest leaves the bathroom tap running and goes to the beach. The water goes through to the second floor. Damage to his own floor €1,800, to the flat below €2,600. The next two bookings, eight nights, are cancelled: €960.

The policy pays his own damage from the “leak” minus the excess, the neighbour from liability, and the eight nights from loss of rent. In parallel, Nikos asks the guest through the platform for the €1,800 of his own damage. If the guest pays, the company keeps the amount or asks for it back. He is not paid twice. If the guest does not pay, he has already been paid by the policy.

A second example: the holiday home that works three months

Maria has a 55 m² stone house on Naxos. She lets it in June, July and August, around 70 nights, and the rest of the year the house is closed and empty.

Building €95,000, equipment €9,000. With the market average, that is €104,000 at 1.166 per thousand, it comes to about €121 a year without tax, and about €145 with tax². Less than Nikos, because the value is lower.

But here a condition comes in that played no part for Nikos: non-occupancy. A property policy may exclude or limit theft and water damage when the property stays closed for more than a number of consecutive days. In the product information document of Ydrogios for small lodgings, the number is 45¹⁰. Maria’s house is closed nine months a year.

What this means in practice. A break-in in February may not be paid at all. A pipe that burst in January and is found in May, with the wall eaten away and the floor lifted, the same. It is not bad faith on the company’s part. It is written in the terms and almost nobody reads it, because it looks like small print while it is the core of the risk in an island holiday home.

What Maria does. She asks in writing for three things before she signs: how many days of non-occupancy the policy accepts, what the company asks for to raise them, and how much continuous cover costs. The answers she got were a limit of days, shutting the main water valve together with an alarm connected to a monitoring centre, and a surcharge on the premium for continuous cover.

She chooses shutting off the water, which costs her nothing, and agrees with the neighbour that she opens the house once a month. No policy asks for the second, but it is what in the end saves houses on the islands.

The registration number and the apartment block

Two things that are not insurance, but decide whether you can get insurance.

The property registration number. Short-term rental is declared in the AADE register and the number goes into every listing. The insurer will ask you for it, because it proves that the use is declared and legal. Without it, a company may not issue the special package at all and leave you with a plain home policy that does not fit what you do.

The rules of the apartment block. If the building rules forbid short-term rental, or if the general assembly forbade it with the majority the law asks for, your problem is not with the insurer. It is with the neighbours and with the court. No policy protects you from a lawsuit by a co-owner who asks for the use to stop.

In practice: before you take out a policy, find the building rules and read what they say about the use of the flats. Old building rules often say “exclusively for residence”, and that phrase has been judged differently in different cases. If in doubt, ask a lawyer once, before you invest in furniture and photo shoots.

And a practical tip that saves relations inside the block: tell the building manager that the flat is let short-term and give them a phone number that answers. Half of the neighbours’ displeasure goes away when someone picks up the phone at two in the morning.

The order of steps when a guest causes damage

Guest damage has two time windows that run at the same time, one of the platform and one of the insurer. Missing one does not mean you miss the other, but it is easy to miss both if you wait to see whether the guest will answer.

Before the next guest comes in. The most important step is the first. Photograph everything before you clean and before you hand the home over to a new booking. Once another guest has come in, it cannot be proven who did what, and the platform may reject the request.

The request to the platform. First you ask the guest for the money, through the platform’s system, with photographs and a repair quote or a purchase receipt. The deadlines are tight and are counted from departure or from the next arrival, whichever comes first. Write it on the same day.

The report to the company. Eight days, in writing, with the policy number. You report even if you hope the guest will pay. If the guest pays later, you tell the company and the file closes. You do not collect twice for the same damage, but you are not left without a file either if the platform says no in the third month.

The papers they will ask for. The booking page with the dates and the name, the whole conversation with the guest, two repair quotes, and for the equipment, receipts or photographs of the original furnishing. Keep a folder from the start with the receipts of each appliance. It is the difference between payment at value as new and an estimate with a deduction for age.

Do not repair before you get approval, unless the damage is growing, like running water. Then you stop the leak, keep the broken pieces and take photographs before and after.

Where the companies differ in short-term rental

The market is new, and each company wrote its own terms.

On theft without forced entry. This is where a lot of money can be lost. In the product information document of Ydrogios for small lodgings, the cover is “theft with burglary or robbery”, that is with signs of violent entry or with force¹⁰. The guest comes in with a code and a key you gave them. If the guest leaves with the television, there is no forced entry, and such a cover does not pay. The line “damage or theft by a guest” pays, where it exists, or the platform guarantee. Ask in these words: “if the guest takes things and leaves, which line pays?”.

On the limit and the excess of guest damage. The limit per incident and the excess change from company to company. In a home with six beds, a small limit runs out with one mattress and one television.

On the number of properties. If you have several properties, a company may stop seeing them as a home and ask for a business policy, with employer’s liability cover if you employ a cleaner.

On the days of non-occupancy. The limit changes from policy to policy. In the product information document of Ydrogios for small lodgings it is 45 consecutive days¹⁰. Ask whether the limit goes up when you shut the main water valve. For an island property that works one quarter, this number decides whether you have insurance for the other nine months or not.

The mistakes that cost money

You keep the home policy and say nothing. At the claim the company finds the listing. The fix: an email to the company before the first booking. Either it accepts in writing or you change package.
You rely on the platform guarantee for everything. It does not cover fire, earthquake, flood, the neighbour. The right way: a package for the home, the platform as a second line for guest damage.
You declare the equipment at half its value. The linen, mattresses and appliances of a home for six people cost many thousands of euros. Instead: a list with the receipts of the original furnishing, at value as new.
You leave out loss of rent to save a few euros. A closed August can cost more than the damage. How to fix it: if the home pays a loan, take it.
You leave the water heater and the pipes unchecked. Burst pipes were the second most frequent cause of claims for the short-term rental properties of ΕΑΕΕ in 2023, after weather³. Do this: a main water valve that is shut between bookings, and a plumber every spring.

The home on the platform makes money, and it is insured like everything that makes money: for the damage, for the guest who gets injured, and for the months it stays closed. Put the details of your own home into the short-term rental insurance comparison. It shows the market average from public figures and our own estimate for each company, from the cheapest.

Frequently asked questions

Does my home insurance still apply if I put the house on Airbnb?

As a rule, no. A home policy insures a house lived in by you or by a long-term tenant. Letting by the night is a change of use, which article 4 of law 2496/1997 obliges you to declare. If the company learns of it at the claim, it can refuse. You need either explicit approval in writing or the special package.

Does the platform's AirCover not cover me?

AirCover is a guarantee of the platform, not an insurance policy. It pays for damage a guest did on a booking through the platform, after you first ask the guest for the money, and on its own terms and exclusions. It does not cover fire from a short circuit, earthquake, flood, theft without a guest, or the damage your home does to the neighbour. It is a supplement, not insurance.

How much does insurance cost for a flat in short-term rental?

The average of all property insurance is about €1.17 a year per €1,000 of value, without tax. For a €110,000 building and €12,000 of equipment that comes to about €171 with tax. Two companies also publish packages for the liability of the property only, from €45 and from €50 a year.

What happens if a guest is injured in the home?

This is the claim that reaches the courts. The staircase without a railing, the slippery bathroom, the water heater that burst. You need liability cover towards guests, with a limit that fits one serious injury. Since 1 October 2025, law 5170/2025 asks for it from every short-term rental property. A home policy has liability towards neighbours, not towards paying guests.

Are the rents I lose while the home is closed after damage covered?

Only with the line "loss of rent" or "loss of income". It pays the bookings you cannot accept while the home is being repaired from damage the policy covers, for a set number of months. A flat closed in July and August can lose more than the damage cost. In the comparison it is in the full package.

Do I need insurance to get a registration number?

Registration in the AADE register is made under article 111 of law 4446/2016. Since 1 October 2025, however, article 3 of law 5170/2025 asks every short-term rental property for liability insurance for damage or accidents, together with fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, a first aid kit and other measures. Checks are made on site.

Laws the article cites: ν. 2496/1997 άρ. 3 · ν. 2496/1997 άρ. 4 · ν. 4446/2016 άρ. 111 · ν. 5170/2025 άρ. 3

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