Insurance for short-term rentals in Montreux: what you actually need

Your standard home insurance policy was underwritten for a private residence, not a commercial short-term rental — and many policies explicitly limit or exclude cover once you start renting nightly to strangers. Closing that gap needs three distinct types of cover: building insurance, contents insurance, and liability insurance for guests.

None of these are covered elsewhere on this blog in detail, so this guide walks through what each one protects, what's mandatory in Vaud, and what's genuinely optional. It pairs well with our registration and permit guide and property readiness checklist.

Why a standard home policy usually isn't enough

Household and building insurance in Switzerland is typically priced and underwritten around private, non-commercial occupancy. Renting a property nightly to paying guests is a commercial activity, and insurers are entitled to treat that differently from a family living in their own home — whether through an explicit exclusion clause, a requirement to declare the activity, or a different premium tier entirely.

The practical risk isn't abstract: if a guest is injured, or causes damage that spreads to a neighbouring unit, an insurer who wasn't told the property is used commercially can have grounds to deny or reduce a claim. The fix is straightforward — tell your insurer what the property is actually used for, and adjust cover accordingly, before you take your first booking.

ECA: Vaud's mandatory building insurance

In Canton Vaud, every building is covered by law under the Établissement Cantonal d'Assurance (ECA) — the canton's mandatory fire and natural-hazards insurance monopoly. If you own a Montreux apartment, the building it sits in is already insured against fire and natural perils through ECA; this isn't optional and isn't something you shop around for.

What ECA does not cover is your liability toward a guest who's injured on the property, or the furniture and appliances you've fitted out the apartment with. It insures the structure — walls, roof, fixed installations — not your rental business or its contents. That's what the next two sections cover.

Liability insurance for guest injuries and damage

This is usually the single most important gap for short-term rental owners to close. A general/civil liability policy — responsabilité civile (RC) — that explicitly names short-term rental or commercial letting as a covered activity protects you if a guest is injured in the apartment, or if something in the property causes damage to a third party (a water leak affecting the apartment below, for example).

Ask specifically whether an existing personal RC policy extends to commercial letting, or whether you need a separate landlord/business liability policy. Many personal liability policies are written for private life and explicitly exclude commercial activity — the same distinction as the building insurance question above.

Contents insurance for furnishings

A fully-furnished luxury apartment — beds, sofas, kitchen appliances, electronics, artwork — represents real replacement value that ECA's building cover doesn't touch. A household contents policy, rated appropriately for rental or commercial use, covers theft, accidental damage, and loss for everything inside the apartment that isn't part of the building structure itself.

This matters more for larger or higher-end properties. A single-room studio has less at stake than a multi-bedroom lakefront apartment furnished to the standard guests expect for a premium nightly rate — see our property readiness checklist for the furnishing standard that Montreux's competitive market typically requires.

What platform host-protection programmes do and don't cover

Airbnb and similar platforms offer built-in host-protection programmes that provide some coverage for property damage and liability claims tied to bookings made through the platform. These exist and can genuinely help — but their terms, exclusion lists, and claims processes are set by the platform, can change, and generally don't cover bookings made through other channels (Booking.com, direct bookings, your own website).

Treat platform protection as a supplement to your own insurance, not a substitute for it. Confirm the current terms directly on the platform you use — don't rely on out-of-date information, since these programmes are revised periodically.

Insurance checklist before your first guest

• Confirm the building carries mandatory ECA cover (automatic for Vaud properties, but worth verifying with your building's administration)
• Ask your insurer explicitly whether your household/liability policy covers commercial short-term rental use — get the answer in writing
• Obtain or confirm a general liability policy naming short-term rental as a covered activity
• Insure furnishings and contents at their real replacement value, not the building's insured value
• Read the current terms of your booking platform's host-protection programme — don't assume last year's terms still apply
• Re-confirm cover annually, especially after any renovation, furnishing upgrade, or change in how the property is let

Related reading: How to legally register your apartment for short-term rental · Property readiness checklist before your first Airbnb guest · Hidden costs of self-managing a Montreux rental · Airbnb tax and VAT in Montreux

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Établissement Cantonal d'Assurance (ECA Vaud) — cantonal mandatory building insurance body, Canton de Vaud — eca-vaud.ch