Holiday Let Contents Insurance: What's Covered

No law requires contents insurance on a holiday let. It is entirely a commercial decision, and the wording is entirely contractual — which means the detail is not set by any regulator and varies far more between insurers than people expect.

The specific way contents cover fails on a let property is worth knowing before you buy: most standard theft cover assumes a break-in. In a holiday let you hand strangers a key, so a guest who walks out with the television has not forced entry — and under a lot of wordings, that is not a theft claim.

This is general guidance, not insurance advice. Contents wordings vary considerably — confirm the detail with a broker who specialises in holiday accommodation.

What Counts as Contents

The line between buildings and contents decides which policy pays, and getting it wrong means arguing with two insurers while your property sits unlettable.

The rough test is whether the item would stay if you tipped the house upside down.

Usually contents	Usually buildings
Sofas, beds, tables, chairs	Fitted kitchen units and worktops
Free-standing white goods	Integrated ovens, hobs, extractors
Televisions, kettles, small appliances	Boilers and central heating systems
Curtains, blinds, rugs, bedding	Fitted wardrobes
Crockery, cutlery, cookware	Sanitaryware — baths, basins, WCs
Garden furniture, barbecues	Fitted flooring in some wordings

Carpets and fitted flooring are the classic grey area — some wordings put them in buildings, some in contents. Check which, because they are a common casualty of escape of water.

The Forcible-Entry Problem

This is the most important paragraph on the page.

Many contents policies cover theft only where there is evidence of forcible and violent entry to the premises. That condition makes sense for an owner-occupied house. It makes very little sense for a property where you deliberately give access to people you have never met.

The consequences in practice:

• A guest removing items at the end of a stay: no forced entry
• Someone using a key safe code shared after a previous stay: no forced entry
• A cleaner or contractor with legitimate access: no forced entry
• An opportunist entering through a door a guest left unlocked: no forced entry

A specialist holiday let policy should cover theft by paying guests explicitly, usually as a named peril with its own excess and sometimes with conditions attached — a signed booking agreement, recorded guest identity, or an inventory check between stays.

What to ask, in these words: does this policy cover theft by paying guests where there is no forced entry, and what conditions apply? A generic "contents are covered" answer does not resolve it.

Theft and Damage Are Different Covers

Policies treat these separately and can include one without the other.

• Accidental damage by guests — a broken glass, wine on the sofa, a cracked hob
• Malicious damage by guests — deliberate destruction
• Theft by guests — items removed

Check all three are present. Malicious damage is sometimes excluded even where accidental damage is covered, and theft by guests is the one most often missing entirely.

New-for-Old or Indemnity

How claims settle matters as much as whether they are covered.

New-for-old replaces an item with an equivalent new one, with no deduction for age. Indemnity deducts for wear and tear, paying what the item was worth on the day it was damaged.

On a holiday let this distinction bites unusually hard, because soft furnishings in a let property age fast. A four-year-old sofa that has hosted 150 changeovers has very little indemnity value — an indemnity settlement might not fund anything you would want to put back in a property guests are paying to stay in.

Watch for wordings that are new-for-old generally but switch to indemnity for specific categories — commonly carpets, curtains, bedding and clothing. Those are exactly the high-turnover categories in a holiday let.

Limits That Catch People Out

Single-article limit. Most policies cap the amount payable for any one item, commonly expressed as a percentage of the total sum insured — 5% is a figure that appears often enough to be a useful illustration, though the actual cap varies by insurer and policy, so check yours rather than assuming it. Worked example at a 5% cap: a £4,000 television under a £30,000 sum insured pays out £1,500. Items above whatever your policy's limit is usually need specifying individually.

Category limits. Separate inner caps on electronics, artwork, or jewellery, independent of the overall sum insured.

Outbuildings and gardens. Barbecues, hot tub covers, garden furniture and bicycles are often outside standard contents cover or subject to a much lower limit. If you advertise the outdoor space as a feature, check it is insured.

Excess per claim. Guest-damage claims are frequently small. If the excess is £250 and the average incident is £180, the cover is theoretically present and practically unusable — which is fine if you have priced it that way deliberately, and expensive if you have not.

Setting the Sum Insured

Contents sums insured drift low because people estimate from memory and forget the accumulation.

Work through the property room by room and cost replacement rather than purchase price. The categories most often understated: kitchen equipment across a fully-equipped holiday let, bedding and towel sets across multiple bedrooms and changeovers, and outdoor equipment.

Some policies apply a condition of average to contents in the same way as buildings — where the sum insured is short, settlements are reduced proportionally, including on partial claims. Our holiday let buildings insurance guide explains that arithmetic in detail; check whether it applies to your contents section as well.

Keep an Inventory

Contents claims are settled on evidence, and a let property has a natural evidence rhythm most homes do not: changeover.

A dated inventory with photographs, updated when you replace items and checked between stays, does three things. It establishes what was in the property, it establishes condition immediately before a stay, and it pins down when something disappeared. Without it, a theft-by-guest claim becomes an argument about whether the item was ever there.

Keep purchase receipts for higher-value items, and keep the inventory somewhere that survives a fire in the property — cloud storage, not a folder in the kitchen drawer.

While you are organising records, the compliance side needs the same treatment: our Compliance Checklist Generator sets out which certificates your property needs and the Certificate Expiry Tracker keeps renewal dates visible. Insurers commonly ask about both when quoting.

Platform Guarantees Are Not Contents Insurance

Some short-term rental platforms offer host damage guarantees. These are contractual promises from the platform, with their own caps, exclusions, evidence requirements and claim windows — often short ones, requiring a report before the next guest arrives.

They are not a substitute for a contents policy with a regulated insurer, and they generally do not respond at all to incidents outside a platform booking. If something is presented to you as insurance, you can check the provider's authorisation on the FCA register.

Action Checklist

1. Confirm the policy covers theft by paying guests with no forced entry, and note the conditions
2. Confirm accidental and malicious damage by guests are both included
3. Check whether settlement is new-for-old or indemnity, and whether any categories are treated differently
4. Note the single-article limit and specify anything above it
5. Check category limits for electronics and any higher-value items
6. Confirm outbuildings, gardens and outdoor equipment are covered
7. Compare the excess against the size of a typical guest-damage incident
8. Cost the sum insured room by room on a replacement basis, and check whether average applies
9. Keep a dated, photographed inventory stored off-site, checked at changeover

Where to Go Next

For how contents sits alongside the other covers, see our holiday let insurance types guide. For the sum-insured and average mechanics, see our holiday let buildings insurance guide. For comparing quotes on terms rather than price, see our guide to comparing holiday let insurance quotes. For guest-injury liability, see our public liability insurance for holiday lets guide.

Sources

• FCA — Financial Services Register

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Contents wordings, settlement bases and inner limits vary considerably between insurers, and the figures above are illustrative. This is general guidance, not insurance advice — confirm your own cover with a specialist broker before relying on it.