Every ranking of short-term rental insurers you will find is written by someone selling one of them. Insurer blogs rank themselves first, and affiliate sites rank whoever pays. This comparison has no quotes to sell and no affiliate links. We read what each insurer publishes, and where a company publishes no pricing, we say so instead of inventing a number.
Here is the independent side-by-side for Texas hosts, as of August 2026.
Why a normal policy fails an STR
The problem is not fine print. It is the basic structure of the products. A homeowners policy insures a residence, and a landlord policy insures a long-term lease. The Insurance Information Institute draws the line plainly: an owner who rents short term on a regular basis is running a business, and standard policies do not cover business activity. Our Texas landlord insurance guide covers the long-term-lease side; this article covers what replaces it when guests arrive by the night.
There are two ways to fix the gap. An endorsement bolts limited short-term rental permission onto a home or dwelling policy; it is cheaper and works for occasional hosting. A commercial or specialty STR policy replaces the underlying policy entirely and is built for the exposure: commercial general liability instead of personal liability, business income instead of loss of rents, and guest-caused damage handled as a business risk. Full-time Texas listings belong in the second category.
Three coverage mechanics separate the products below:
- Liability form and limit. Commercial general liability at $1 million is the benchmark; personal liability written into a landlord-style policy is thinner protection for a business.
- Lost income. “Loss of rents” on a landlord form caps at a percentage or a set number of months. “Business income, actual loss sustained” pays what the calendar would have earned for as long as rebuilding takes.
- Underwriting paper. Who actually pays the claim matters more than the brand on the website. Some of these companies are carriers; some are agencies placing you with other carriers.
1. Proper Insurance — most complete coverage
Proper writes nothing but short-term rental insurance, and the policy design shows it. The Proper policy is a commercial package that fully replaces your homeowners or landlord policy rather than endorsing it. Per Proper’s published policy description, it carries $1 million in commercial general liability per occurrence (with a $2 million option), special-form (all-risk) coverage on building and contents at replacement cost, no sub-limit on guest-caused damage, theft, or vandalism, and business revenue coverage on an actual-loss-sustained basis with no time limit. Amenity exposures Texas hosts actually have — pools, hot tubs, golf carts, liquor liability — are addressed in the policy rather than excluded. The paper behind it is Lloyd’s of London and Concert Insurance Group.
Proper publishes no premium figures; every price is quote-only, and hosts who have shopped it generally report it as a premium product at a premium price. That is the honest trade. Fits: a full-time, revenue-serious STR, especially with a pool, hot tub, or coastal exposure. Does not fit: a spare-room host or an occasional renter, who would be buying more policy than the risk requires.
2. Steadily — fastest landlord-style option
Steadily is a landlord insurance company that also writes short-term rental policies, with a quote process built to finish online in minutes. Steadily’s Texas STR page says it writes $300,000 to $2 million of liability into every landlord policy in all 50 states, and includes fair rental value coverage for income lost when a covered event makes the property uninhabitable.
On price, Steadily publishes a useful rule of thumb rather than a dollar figure: STR coverage generally lands about 15 to 25 percent above what the same property would cost as a long-term rental, and the company notes that Texas hurricane and coastal storm exposure pushes premiums toward the high end of that range. For context, Steadily’s own published Texas landlord median is about $1,714 per year, so the arithmetic puts many Texas STRs near $2,000.
Fits: an investor who already thinks in landlord-policy terms, wants a quote today, and runs a straightforward single-family STR inland. Does not fit: a host who wants commercial general liability and uncapped business income; the coverage is landlord-form in structure, and the loss-of-rent mechanics are the thinner of the two designs.
3. Obie — clearest published pricing
Obie is an insurance agency and marketplace, not a single carrier: it quotes your property across multiple carriers and binds online, often the same day. That structure makes it the natural comparison-shopping stop, and Obie is also the only name on this list that publishes real cost data. Obie’s STR cost guide puts a typical single-family short-term rental at $1,000 to $2,000 per year, with a national average around $1,377; condos at roughly $600 to $1,200; small multifamily at $2,000 to $3,000; and luxury or beachfront properties at $2,500 to $4,000 or more, as of August 2026. Coverage components run dwelling, contents, liability to $1 million, and loss of rental income, with endorsements like water backup and equipment breakdown available.
Because Obie is a marketplace, the policy you end up with depends on which carrier wins your quote — read the form you are actually offered, not the marketing page. Fits: a host who wants competing quotes with minimal effort and a benchmark to negotiate against. Does not fit: a host who wants one purpose-built STR form regardless of price.
4. Foremost — the traditional-carrier route
Foremost, part of the Farmers family of companies, is the old-line answer: a dwelling-fire specialist sold through local agents whose Texas program accepts vacation and short-term rentals. Per Foremost’s agent-facing product materials, there is no cap on rental frequency — daily and weekly rentals are acceptable — with the sole stipulation that the property not be rented to the same tenant for more than five consecutive months. Dwellings can be written on named-peril or comprehensive forms up to $1 million in Coverage A, homes of any age qualify, and properties held in an LLC or trust are accepted.
Pricing is quote-only through an agent. Fits: a host who wants a household-name carrier, has an older or harder-to-place property, holds title in an LLC, or simply wants a human agent in Texas handling the account. Does not fit: a host who wants online binding or STR-specific extras like amenity and liquor liability, which are not the point of a dwelling-fire program.
5. CBIZ — built for portfolios
CBIZ runs a dedicated vacation rental insurance program aimed at owners who operate STRs as a genuine business, including multi-property portfolios. Per CBIZ’s program overview, the package covers building and contents, commercial liability at $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, loss of business income, and an unusual one: up to $25,000 for bed bug remediation and the rental income lost to an infestation — a real operational risk no standard form touches. Pricing is quote-only through the program’s own team.
Fits: an operator with several properties, or one large property run as a primary business, who wants program-level commercial coverage and has time for a human quote process. Does not fit: a single-property host who wants instant online pricing.
What about Airbnb’s AirCover?
It is not insurance, and Airbnb says so itself: the Host Damage Protection terms state the program “is not insurance or an offer to insure and does not take the place of insurance obtained or obtainable by you.” AirCover reimburses certain guest-caused damage and provides separate host liability insurance, but nothing in it rebuilds your dwelling after a fire or a hailstorm. Treat it as a free supplement on top of a real policy. The same goes for per-stay damage-waiver products sold to property managers — useful for security-deposit friction, not a substitute for property coverage.
The Texas-specific trap: wind and hail deductibles
Whichever insurer you pick, the deductible page matters more in Texas than the premium page. STR policies here typically carry a separate wind and hail deductible expressed as a percentage of the dwelling limit — 1 to 2 percent or more — so a $500,000 coastal or Hill Country property can carry a five-figure hail deductible that no nightly rate schedule anticipates. Two quotes are only comparable at the same percentage. Our wind and hail deductible guide explains how to read that page before you bind, and the discipline in how to compare insurance quotes applies doubly here: match limits, forms, and deductibles before you match prices.
The bottom line
For a full-time Texas STR where the revenue matters, Proper’s commercial package is the most complete design on the market, and you pay for that completeness. For a quick, adequate policy on a straightforward inland property, Steadily and Obie both get you covered fast, and Obie’s published $1,000-to-$2,000 single-family range is the best pricing benchmark in the category. Foremost is the agent-served traditional route, strongest for LLC-held or harder-to-place homes. CBIZ is the call when you stop being a host and start being a portfolio. Whichever you choose, tell the insurer exactly how the property is used — a claim denied for misrepresented occupancy is the most expensive premium you will ever save.