Your Pool Is an Asset—It’s Also a Lawsuit Waiting to Happen

In This Article

Summer contains the best three months of the year in short-term rental investing: occupancy and rates climb, guests book further out, and your calendar looks like the one you dreamed about when you underwrote the deal.

They are also the three months when a pool, hot tub, or wet deck can turn a profitable property into a six-figure legal problem faster than you can respond to a bad review.

This is not intended to be a scare piece. The numbers are what they are, and if you own a short-term rental with a water amenity, you should know about them.

The Data That Should Get Your Attention This Summer

The CDC estimates over 4,000 fatal unintentional drownings happen in the United States every year. That is 11 people every single day. Another 8,000 nonfatal drownings are treated in emergency departments annually, which works out to 22 per day. 

For children, the numbers are worse. Drowning is the leading cause of death for kids ages 1 to 4 and the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death for kids ages 5 to 14. 

The number that should matter most to anyone reading this: According to Pool Guard USA, about 81% of fatal child pool and spa drownings occur in residential settings, not public pools or water parks. These are properties that look exactly like yours. 

And all this peaks May through August, right on top of your highest-revenue booking window.

Hot Tubs Are Not Safer Just Because They Are Smaller and Shallower

A lot of STR hosts assume the liability risk is mostly about the pool. The hot tub feels lower stakes because the water is shallow and nobody is swimming laps.

The data says otherwise. Hospitality safety resources compiled from CPSC data report that more than 300 people die from hot tub-related accidents in the United States every year, with children under 5 accounting for roughly one-fifth of all hot tub drownings. 

About half of all hot tub injuries are caused by slips and falls around the tub. Around 10% involve heat overexposure. The rest are near-drownings and entrapment incidents.

That last category, entrapment, is what keeps liability attorneys busy. Entrapment means a drain cover that has not been inspected, a child who gets a limb or hair caught, or a guest who did not read the posted depth or temperature warning. These are the same mechanisms of injury that show up in wrongful death filings, just at a property that happens to be listed on Airbnb.

What a Claim Actually Costs

Nobody publishes a clean “average drowning settlement at a vacation rental” number, but wrongful death data across premises liability cases gives you a range worth knowing.

Recent wrongful death settlement analyses show that serious negligence cases typically land in the high-six-figure-to-seven-figure range. One review of 956 wrongful death cases found a mean settlement of around $973,000. Other analyses describe settlements ranging from $500,000 to over $1 million, with cases involving clear negligence and substantial lost earnings that reach several million dollars.

Even before you get to drowning, the slip-and-fall numbers are significant. A 2026 premises liability review puts the average residential slip-and-fall settlement on private property at around $105,000, with severe injuries regularly exceeding $500,000 and catastrophic cases topping $1 million. 

A wet pool deck, a missing antislip mat at the hot tub steps, and an unlit path from the back door to the spa at 10 p.m. are not edge cases. These are Tuesday nights in a vacation rental.

Before you scroll past that number, run your own property through the BiggerPockets landlord insurance calculator powered by Steadily and see what adequate coverage on your specific property actually costs. The gap between what you are paying now and what you should be paying is usually smaller than people expect, but the gap between your current coverage and a seven-figure claim is usually larger.

The Gap Your Standard Homeowner’s Policy Leaves Open

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This is where many STR hosts find out too late that they were not actually covered.

Insurance industry guides treat a home pool as an “attractive nuisance,” which increases your premises liability exposure and leads standard insurers to recommend raising liability limits to at least $300,000 to $500,000, or adding an umbrella policy. That is for a standard residential property with occasional social guests. An STR is not that.

Standard homeowner’s insurance provides some personal liability coverage, but it is designed for the occasional dinner guest, not paying strangers booking through a platform three weekends a month. 

Multiple STR insurance guides, such as Guesty and Uplisting, are explicit on this point: Standard homeowner’s policies typically do not cover any sort of rental activity, especially at an STR when the property is regularly used for paying guests. Pools and hot tubs are specifically flagged as amenities that standard carriers often exclude or tightly limit.

The practical risk: If something goes wrong at your pool or hot tub during a guest’s stay and you are relying on a standard homeowner’s policy, you may face a denied claim on top of the injury itself. Some carriers will cancel or non-renew entirely when they discover regular STR use combined with a pool on the property.

If you are not sure where your current policy stands, the Steadily insurance calculator on BiggerPockets is a fast way to get a real number on what STR-specific coverage would cost for your property, without talking to anyone or filling out a lengthy application.

What STR-Specific Insurance Coverage Actually Looks Like

A dedicated STR or landlord policy built for vacation rental use treats the property as the business it is. That means:

Liability limits that explicitly include guests using pools and hot tubs, often $1 million or more per occurrence
Medical payments coverage for injured guests
Legal defense costs, which add up fast even when you win
Property damage coverage for guest misuse of water amenities
Loss of rental income if you have to take the property offline after an incident

A policy like this will cost more than a standard homeowner’s policy. That is the right trade-off. The extra annual premium is not large compared to the six- and seven-figure exposure a single serious incident creates.

Steadily is the official landlord insurance provider of BiggerPockets, built specifically for STR operators and landlords who need coverage that matches the actual risk profile of their properties, including water amenities. BiggerPockets Pro members get a 5% discount on premiums through the Pro Perks dashboard, worth up to $256 per year. 

The Practical Checklist Before Your First Summer Booking

Good insurance does not replace good operations. The properties that generate claims are usually the ones where the physical safety setup has been ignored. 

Before your peak season bookings check-in, run through this list:

Pool fencing and gate latches: Self-closing, self-latching gates are code in most jurisdictions and a basic line of defense. Inspect them before every season.
Drain covers: CPSC-compliant anti-entrapment drain covers are required by federal law under the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. If yours have not been inspected recently, have them inspected now.
Antislip surfaces: The deck around your pool and the steps leading to your hot tub should have nonslip surfaces in good condition. Replace anything worn.
Depth and safety signage: Posted pool depth markers, “no diving” signage in shallow areas, and hot tub temperature and time limit warnings are cheap. Replacing them after an incident does not help you.
Lifesaving equipment: Have a reaching pole and life ring within easy access of the pool, with their location documented in your house manual.
Lighting: Guests use pools and hot tubs at night. Unlit decks and steps are how slip-and-fall claims start.
Hot tub chemical logs: Documented maintenance records are evidence of due diligence if a waterborne illness claim is ever filed.
House rules in the listing: Explicit pool rules, hot tub occupancy limits, and prohibited hours in your listing and house manual create a paper trail that matters if a guest ignores them.

Final Thoughts

A pool or hot tub is one of the most effective revenue drivers in the STR category. Listings with hot tubs can see occupancy increases of up to 13% and charge meaningfully more per night compared to similar properties without them. That premium is real and worth having.

So is the liability. The same amenity that fills your calendar in July is also the one that generates the most serious guest-injury claims in the vacation rental space. 

The operators who run this well treat insurance, safety setup, and guest communication as part of the same system rather than separate tasks. They know exactly what their policy covers, have the physical safety basics dialed in, and are not finding out for the first time during a claim what their homeowner’s policy does and does not cover.

Summer is too good a season to spend it exposed. Run your property through the calculator and see where you stand.

This post is sponsored by Steadily, the official landlord insurance provider of BiggerPockets. Get an instant estimate at the BiggerPockets landlord insurance calculator powered by Steadily. BiggerPockets Pro members save 5% on premiums through the Pro Perks dashboard.