Traveler's insurance

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
41

I’ve need to claim on insurance a few times when traveling, and it was the best money spent on the trip. Admittedly, I am accident-prone but accidents can happen to anyone.

On one trip to Croatia, I had a bike accident very early. I shattered my shoulder, fractured my skull, and needed stitches in my chin. The insurance paid for business class flights back to the US, hotel stay in Croatia, refunded the tour cost and the return flight that I didn’t use.

On another trip, I broke my wrist in ireland and needed surgery. Again, the insurance paid for that and for flights that I had to rearrange.

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42

Omg! That’s awful! Take care of yourself :pray:

43

Which insurance plan? Are you from the U.S.?

44

@Catgoddess_99

45

I am from ireland and live in the US. I’ve been using Generali for the past few years. Old Republic was the company when I was in Croatia.

46

Thanks for the info. Just signed up with Generali for my trip starting next week.

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47

Could you recommend insurance that reimburses plane or train costs in the event of HO sit cancellation ?

48

Depending on where you are based, you may want to look into a “cancel for any reason” type of insurance.
To the best of my recollection, Manulife covers you if, besides people in your inner circle, your host gets ill, which is one of the reasons they aren’t traveling anymore and won’t need a sitter.

49

Do you only have medicare or do you also have a supplemental insurance ? If you do, you could certainly check that policy

50

@Solela booking refundable plane / train tickets is one option .

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51

A refundable plane / train ticket is expensive.
It’s not fair to support the cost of plane/train tickets if the HO cancels.
It is practically impossible for us to find an other sit with the same dates and the same place.
Conversely, a HO will be able to find another petsitter more easily. There are many more demands than offers for petsitting.
Could TH rules and policy evolve in favor of petsitters?

52

It’s not normally worth booking refundable tickets in our experience. Even if 1 in 10 sits involving flights cancelled you’d still spend less on the cheap tickets than the flexi options. Just one of the risks of sitting. #weighupthecosts

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53

They “could,” but it’s doubtful, since they have previously said they start with hosts in mind, because without them, there’d be no need for sitters.

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54

When you talk about insurance, what exactly do you mean?

Are you worried about losing your bag, missing a flight, or falling off a mountain and damaging the scenery?

Insurance is a for-profit business much like a casino. On average, you can expect to always give them more money than you get back. So for any conceivable risk that you can afford to cover, it’s cheaper to not have insurance.

The value of everything in my bag is lower than the amount I haven’t spent on insurance over the years. If I lost it tomorrow and had to replace eveything at my own expense I would still be richer than if I had paid for insurance.

And let’s not forget that there are always exceptions. Expensive electronics may not be covered for example.

Same with flights. I buy the cheapest short-haul, and cheapest convenient long-haul flights (no long waits in airports), none of the insurances. If I have to miss a flight, I eat the cost. It happens rarely enough that there’s no reason to pay the higher fares - and that’s why they offer those fares. They do it to maximise profits.

I’ve been travelling independently for 40 years and never once had a medical issue that required major treatment. If I fall downstair tonight and break my leg then that’s an affordable loss too

But if I fell off a mountain most insurers would turn around and tell me I needed some other kind of specialist policy. A more expensive one.

Most claims are affordable if you budget properly and think of insurance as a gamble. You’re better off without it.

The only time that’s not true is if you have a really really big disaster, one that doesn’t kill you but leaves you with a huge potential bill. How often does that actually happen?

I’m sure everyone has heard a horror story, and someone here may have experienced one, but that doesn’t change the truth: statistically it won’t happen to you, and insurance is all about statistics. Are you going to play the odds or are you going to let them play you?

You can get on a plane between any two points on Earth at a cost a lot lower than the credit limit on your card. If you can survive the journey home you don’t need insurance.

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55

Most people cannot or are too uncomfortable taking a risk such as the one you describe here. Some people literally couldn’t pay the often thousands of $, €, £, if something went bad for them. As you are a seasoned traveler, and clearly have put a lot of thought into this, you are aware that the medical expenses for even a fairly minor ailment at the emergency room in some countries will cost you thousands.
Statistically, it might not happen to you often, but when it does, it could hit you really hard.

In my opinion, insurance buys you peace of mind if you read the fine print carefully. You need to get the product that covers your reality, not a generic one that might leave you out to dry because of a previous condition, for instance.

56

Yes, @Peonie19 that’s why I said

It really depends on your own financial circumstances, but any kind of financial decision needs to be based on an understanding of the true numbers. Not just fear of what might happen and how bad it could possible be.

I do buy, for example, proper insurance for my van. I can’t afford the cost of a claim if I hit someone else and cause damage/injury/death, so I have to pay someone else to take on that risk.

It seems that some comments are coming at this from a US perspective - hence the focus on health insurance and the uncertainty about being able to get decent care.

But many of us live in countries where the cost of health insurance is not a major factor in life planning, so when we talk about travel insurance we’re talking about lost bags and missed flights. The question was about travel insurance, not health insurance while travelling.

I had some hospital treatment in Thailand a couple of years ago and the quality of care was excellent. It cost very little too.

I carry a European Health Insurance Card issued by the government in my home country, which gives me medical coverage throughout the 27 countries of the EU. At least, that’s the theory. I haven’t actually read the small print like you advise, and that’s probably why I have peace of mind. I’m just not a fearful traveller, so I don’t get conned into buying unnecessary insurances.

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57

With insurance, I start with thinking, if worst case happened, could I recover without that coverage? If not, then buy appropriate coverage. Depending on the insurance, I go for high deductibles, because I can cover the lesser things and don’t want to deal with red tape if I can avoid it. I’m really looking for catastrophic coverage that I couldn’t deal with on my own.

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58

They need HO as much as PS. A fair balance must be established between the two parties. The satisfaction of each party counts. Who would want to continue pet-sitting while losing money ?

59

From what I’ve seen competition wise, THS has significant room to operate their business as they’ve been doing.

About “losing money”: I think folks — whether hosts or sitters — should always have backup plans. If they can’t afford that, then maybe do sits that are within driving distance or not use the platform.

All sits are voluntary, and traveling this way and taking the associated risks aren’t necessities in life. And as you can see from various sitters’ experiences, many are able to make things work with THS, some even over years of sitting. As long as there are enough such users, THS doesn’t have to worry about the few who can’t make it work. No business has to work for every sort of customer — they just have to be able to please enough to make a profit and keep going.

And if the marketplace changes and THS ends up unable to keep running effectively, shrug. Then presumably some other business replaces them. That’s how business and competition work.

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60

Your point of view is realistic. But do you have all the reliable data to judge the THS situation.

I also hear from POs who are having trouble finding the right pet sitter. So quantity is not always an answer.

To keep unpaid pet sitters motivated, you have to treat them well.

About the distances I’m not interested in pet sitting near where I live.
It would be interesting to have statistics on the motivations of pet sitters. How many want to travel abroad country.