AIBU to ask why people don’t take out travel insurance when booking a holiday?

[Frannyhy]

I’m an Airbnb host. Guest due tomorrow has had to cancel. I won’t refund her, and I’ve just heard that Airbnb have agreed with me after she went to them for help.

She’s going to lose around £600. I’ll normally refund if I can rebook, but I won’t this time because the lady rang me and swore at me when I told her to take the matter through Airbnb.

So to those of you who don’t think travel insurance is necessary, why not?

I have a colleague who didn’t know that insurance was for things like cancellation- she thought I was for lost luggage, medical help etc. She also didn’t know about annual insurance, takes multiple city breaks a year.

I’ve never taken out insurance for a U.K. break, I would just suck up the loss.
I always get insurance for abroad as I’d worry about costs of health treatments or needing to extend a stay due to injury or illness.
I think because we have the NHS, many people don’t consider insurance for U.K. breaks, certainly nobody I know.

It’s actually never crossed my mind to get insurance for a uk holiday, also assuming that it wouldn’t cover cancellations and would be more like hospital bills, flights home etc. saying that we have an air B&b booked in the summer and if we have to cancel for whatever reason I wouldn’t expect the host to reimburse us. I always get insurance when travelling abroad.

It's not necessary because you don't legally have to procure it. Simple.

I do have travel insurance. But the amount I've spent on it in the past 12 years would have funded another holiday, and I've never made a claim.

Fine, whatever, I've made my choice. But others make a different one and that's fine too.

(NZ, for example, don't mandate car insurance. It is a person's choice if they want to insure a risk.)

I have spent far too much time working on risks/opportunities/threat analysis for my work this week, plainly, but I do think that most people don't think a lot about choices to accept risks or not. They just do whatever is normal for them.

because either they are too stupid to know you need it, or so stupid they think they will never need it

Our annual travel insurance cost just over £300 this year. So much more than last year. I was very huffy about it but then realised it was cheaper than the cost of our holiday/s and is just the gamble you take.

I've never claimed either but one day I might need to. I think unless you have annual travel insurance, it just doesn't occur to people to do it for UK holidays.

I don't take our insurance for local breaks because it's cheaper for me to absorb any losses than it is to pay all those premiums. I would never expect a host to reimburse me if I cancelled at the last moment, though!

Just be careful they don’t turn up and trash the place in retaliation.

A lot of people seem to have the idea that travel insurance will cover you for every eventuality when the detail in the small print says otherwise.

There's a very high chance that specific circumstances in the OP wouldn't be covered anyway. Additionally they could easily have a £500 excess.

I've tried claiming a couple of times over the years (minor medical treatment, lost luggage, delayed flights) and the amount you actually ending up getting never really covers the true costs incurred.

The only thing that I think is important is to have insurance that covers in-hospital medical treatment and repatriation which is why I'd never bother for a UK holiday.

I have family annual insurance. So all up breaks, holidays abroad, trips away for hobbies etc are covered. More useful now the kids are older teens and starting to go away with friends, so between us there are multiple trips per year.

I live in the EU with a EU passport, always book flexible flights, hotels I can cancel on the day of arrival so I never bother with travel insurance for trips within the EU. I would get it though if I went further afield, but that rarely ever happens anymore.

Yes it is so important to read the small print.

Most travel insurance will not cover you for any natural disasters. I have cover that covers for all travel disruption. Paid more for it, possibly won't need it but not taking the risk.

You think people are stupid for not taking out insurance on a Uk break? There's no indication that the reason for cancellation in this case would be covered by insurance anyway

I don’t understand either. DHand I have travel insurance through his work but even before that. I would always have taken out insurance. It’s not that expensive for something that could potentially cost thousands.

I don't see the point in throwing about hundreds of pounds on something I'm extremely unlikely to use.

I understand why people who do extreme sports holidays type stuff might want it, but otherwise why waste the money? On the slim chance I have to cancel, it's no more than I would have wasted if I'd handed piles of money to greedy insurers for every trip I've taken over the years.

There’s also no indication it wouldn’t.
The golden rule with insurance is if you can’t afford to lose the money, insure yourself - and there’s plenty of policies that’ll cover you for cancellation in most circumstances.

My very clever double first Oxford degree SIL never took out travel insurance until the volcano dust cloud nightmare which meant they were stuck in Croatia and had to return via various modes of transport. I think she does it now.

So easy to get cheap travel insurance.

In the UK? The only thing you would be covering is cancellation and there's always only a very specific list of reasons that would actually payout.

Abroad is totally different and I would always buy insurance for that.

I get it free with my bank, so I always use it even for 1 night stays in the uk

Why is it stupid not to take it out for breaks in the UK? From experience, it’s next to useless to have it when staying in the UK as the coverage is so poor and they do anything they can to avoid paying anyway.

I’d always have it when travelling abroad, but I’ve never seen its use within the UK.

For most people without medical issues and travelling on European breaks travel insurance is super cheap and if you're going to say the US it's got to be worth the money to avoid the possibility of huge medical costs

Insurance isn't based on greed, it's based on actuarial risks.

We have annual worldwide cover and always have had for many years.

However, for a last minute cancellation most insurance will only pay out for specific reasons so she may well not have been covered anyway.

Unfortunately if you book anything that doesn't have a cancellation policy you may lose out with ir without travel insurance in place.

Because some people think it's a waste of money......until they need it. Then out come the begging go fund me posts on social media, please help fly my mum/sister/brother/son home from Turkey/Egypt/wherever after a road accident/heart attack.

I have no idea op. I always take out insurance and we always holiday in the uk. I can't afford to lose the money and you never know if someone will get ill/have an accident etc. Always do it asap after I've booked as well, no point leaving it until the last min otherwise it may be too late!

Never taken it out separately for a UK holiday, but have ticked the "insurance" box on a couple of UK holidays when offered. I think it's Butlins and Haven that offered it as an optional extra. I guess others do.

Going abroad is a different matter and I get proper travel insurance that covers my DH and DS medical issues, everything declared, so no nasty surprises further down the line.