Seattle, WA Short-Term Rentals: Insurance Requirements (2026)

A lists the general operating standards every licensed short-term rental host in Seattle must follow, and item 10 fixes the insurance floor: an operator must maintain liability insurance appropriate to cover the short-term rental use in the aggregate of not less than $1,000,000, or conduct each short-term rental transaction through a platform that itself provides equal or greater insurance coverage. In practice this lets hosts satisfy the rule either by buying their own commercial or short-term-rental-endorsed homeowner's policy sized to that $1,000,000 aggregate, or by booking exclusively through a platform such as one that supplies host protection coverage meeting or exceeding that figure, without a separate personal policy.

M, meeting the smoke detector, carbon monoxide alarm, and fire extinguisher requirements, posting emergency and occupancy information inside the unit, and remitting all applicable taxes. 12, so an operator should be prepared to produce proof of the policy or the platform's coverage terms on demand.