Queens County, NY Short-Term Rentals: Insurance Requirements (2026)

Queens short-term rental insurance is a gap-management question, not a statutory mandate. The OSE short-term rental registration under Local Law 18 does not require proof of liability insurance as part of the application, unlike in some other large cities. However, most standard New York homeowner or cooperative insurance policies contain a business-pursuits or transient-occupancy exclusion that voids coverage for paid stays of fewer than 30 days. If a guest is injured on the property or causes damage during a short-term stay, the host can be left personally liable. Major platforms offer their own programs. Airbnb provides Aircover for Hosts which includes up to 1 million dollars of liability protection and up to 3 million dollars of damage protection for booked stays, while Vrbo offers a similar 1 million dollar liability program to its hosts. These platform programs are secondary to the host personal policy and have exclusions for intentional acts and certain high-risk features like trampolines. Industry recommendations for Queens hosts are to purchase a dedicated short-term rental endorsement, a landlord policy with STR coverage, or a commercial general liability policy with at least 1 million dollars per occurrence. Condominium and co-op boards often impose their own insurance requirements in house rules, and some Queens co-ops prohibit short-term rentals entirely through proprietary lease language.