Short-term rentals through Airbnb, Vrbo, and similar platforms have brought a new kind of premises case to Kingsport, one where the question of who is responsible for a guest's injury can be more tangled than at a hotel.
Fox and Farmer represents guests and others hurt at short-term rental properties across Sullivan County and the Tri-Cities. Our lawyers can help identify who is responsible and explore every possible form of compensation for the injured guest.
When a guest is hurt at a hotel, the responsible party is usually clear: the hotel owns the property, employs the staff, and carries commercial insurance built for exactly that risk. Short-term rentals work differently. The property is owned by an individual host who rents it out through a platform like Airbnb or Vrbo, and that arrangement scatters the responsibility across parties whose roles and insurance are not always obvious.
A guest injured by a hazard at a rental faces a more complicated question of who is responsible and what coverage applies. The host is a private property owner who may or may not carry insurance suited to a commercial rental activity. The platform sits between the host and the guest but structures its role to limit its own liability.
The property may have hazards that an individual host, unlike a professional hotel operator, has never identified or addressed. These differences mean that a short-term rental injury, while governed by the same general premises liability principles as any other, raises distinct questions about responsibility and coverage that require careful analysis.
Treating a rental injury like a hotel injury misses the features that make these cases their own kind of claim.
More than one party may share the blame in an Airbnb or short-term rental injury. The host is the most direct, as the owner and operator of the property who owes guests a duty of reasonable care to keep it safe and to warn of hazards.
A paying guest is owed the duty a business owes an invitee. To recover, the guest generally must show the host created the hazard or knew (or should have known) about it and failed to fix it or warn, so proving what the host knew, and when, is central.
A host who failed to address a dangerous condition, such as a broken stair, a faulty railing, an unmarked hazard, or an unsafe pool or hot tub, may be liable for the resulting injury under ordinary premises principles. Even an obvious hazard like a pool can support a claim in Tennessee; obviousness is weighed in the fault analysis rather than automatically defeating recovery.
Responsibility can reach beyond the host. A property management company that handles the rental on the host's behalf may share the duty to maintain the property safely.
A contractor whose faulty work created a hazard, or a manufacturer whose defective product caused an injury, may bear responsibility. In some circumstances, the platform's own conduct may be at issue, though the platforms work hard to limit their exposure.
Where the property is part of a larger complex or association, that entity may have responsibility for common areas. In a rental injury case, recovery will come from the parties who had control over the hazard that caused the injury and from the insurance each carries.
Platforms like Airbnb position themselves as intermediaries that connect hosts and guests rather than as operators of the properties. This structure is intended to keep liability with the host rather than the platform. The terms guests agree to when booking are designed to reinforce that arrangement.
The platforms maintain liability insurance programs that can provide coverage when a guest is injured due to a host's responsibility. Platform programs such as Airbnb's host liability coverage may respond to a guest injury, sometimes as the primary source and sometimes above the host's own policy, depending on the program's current terms. This is why the specific coverage has to be checked in each case.
No. Airbnb does not automatically compensate injured guests simply because an injury occurred at a listed property. Liability depends on whether someone was legally negligent and whether that negligence caused the injury. Airbnb also maintains certain host protection and liability programs, but their availability and applicability depend on the circumstances and do not replace the legal analysis of fault.
Short-term rentals have grown throughout the Kingsport area and the broader Tri-Cities, drawing visitors who come for the region's attractions, its proximity to the mountains and Bays Mountain Park, business travel tied to the area's major employers, and events.
These rentals range from rooms and apartments in the city to cabins and houses in the surrounding county, and each setting carries its own potential hazards. A property rented out for income is being used commercially, even if it is someone's home, which raises the expectation that it will be reasonably safe for paying guests.
The hazards at short-term rentals reflect the residential nature of the properties combined with their use by unfamiliar guests. Stairways and decks that a regular occupant navigates safely can be dangerous to a guest unfamiliar with the layout, especially if a railing is loose or a step is uneven.
Pools and hot tubs present drowning and injury risks, particularly without proper barriers, markings, or safety equipment. Fireplaces, heating equipment, and appliances can cause burns or carbon monoxide exposure if poorly maintained.
Slippery surfaces, inadequate lighting, and unmarked changes in elevation injure guests who do not know the property. Identifying the specific hazard that caused an injury is the starting point for a rental injury claim.
An injured person does not have to be the individual who made the Airbnb or short-term rental reservation to have a potential injury claim in Tennessee. If the guest was lawfully staying at the Kingsport-area rental and was injured by a dangerous condition the host or another responsible party failed to address, they may be entitled to pursue compensation. The focus is generally on who controlled the hazard and whether negligence caused the injury, not whose name appeared on the booking.
Injuries at short-term rentals can range from minor to catastrophic, and the medical response becomes part of the claim. A fall down an unsafe staircase, an injury from a collapsing deck or railing, a near-drowning in a pool or hot tub, or a burn from faulty equipment can all produce serious harm.
A serious injury at a Kingsport-area rental brings the injured to Holston Valley Medical Center, which operates as a Level III trauma center. Severe cases are usually stabilized and transferred to Johnson City Medical Center, the region's only Level I trauma center, since the trauma system was reorganized in 2019.
For a guest who may be visiting from elsewhere, an injury at a rental can be especially disorienting, leaving them hurt far from home and unsure who is responsible or how to proceed. The medical record documenting the injury from the scene through treatment establishes its severity and connects it to the hazard at the property, which is necessary to strengthen a claim.
Tennessee allows a short-term rental injury victim to recover both economic and non-economic damages under the same premises liability principles that govern other property injuries.
Economic damages cover medical expenses, future treatment, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity where the injury limits future work, proven through records and projections of future need. The recovery reflects the severity of the injury, which at a rental can range from a minor slip and fall to a catastrophic incident at a pool or on an unsafe structure.
Non-economic damages compensate for pain and suffering and the loss of the ability to live as before. Tennessee caps non-economic damages at $750,000, rising to $1 million for catastrophic injuries such as severe burns or a brain injury from a near-drowning. The cap is removed entirely when the responsible party's intoxication or felony conduct caused the harm.
What makes the recovery in a rental case unique is the question of which sources will pay it: the host's insurance, the platform's coverage program, a management company's policy, or another responsible party's coverage. A guest injured by a host's negligence should not be left undercompensated simply because the responsibility was spread across parties. Mapping the available coverage is as important as proving the injury in these cases.
The challenge in a short-term rental injury case is identifying which of several parties is responsible, and this sorting process shapes the entire claim. The starting point is determining who had control over the hazard that caused the injury.
A host who personally manages the property and fails to maintain it safely is directly responsible. But when a property management company handles rental, maintenance, and guest communications, it may share or even assume the primary responsibility for keeping the property safe. The arrangement between the host and the manager, often invisible to the guest, can determine who is responsible.
Other parties enter the picture depending on the hazard. A contractor who performed faulty work that created the dangerous condition, such as a poorly built deck or improperly installed equipment, may be responsible for the defect. A manufacturer whose product failed and caused the injury may be held liable under product liability law.
If the rental is a unit within a larger building or community, the association or owner responsible for common areas may have a duty regarding hazards in those spaces.
Each potential party carries its own insurance and its own legal relationship to the injury. Sorting out the responsibility, which a guest is in no position to untangle alone, is a central task in a short-term rental injury case.
In Tennessee, the modified comparative fault rule can significantly impact injury claims arising from an Airbnb or other short-term rental. The amount an injured person can recover depends not only on whether the property owner or host was negligent, but also on whether the injured person shares responsibility for the accident.
Tennessee follows a modified comparative fault system established by the McIntyre v. Balentine decision and applied through Tennessee case law. Under this rule, an injured person may recover damages only if they are less than 50% at fault for the accident. If the injured person's fault is 50% or greater, they cannot recover damages. If they are less than 50% at fault, their damages are reduced by their percentage of fault.
Comparative fault arises when the insurer argues that the guest contributed to the accident. Whether these arguments succeed depends on the specific facts of the case.
Getting medical care is the first priority, both for health and to document the injury. As soon as possible, photograph the hazard that caused the injury, the broken railing, the unsafe step, the pool feature, or the faulty equipment, before the host has any opportunity to repair or alter it, because that documentation may be the only proof of the condition as it existed.
It also helps to preserve the surrounding evidence. Save the rental listing, including its photographs and description, and keep all communications with the host through the platform, since these establish what was represented and what was discussed.
Get the contact information of anyone who witnessed the injury or was staying at the property. Report the injury through the platform to create a record.
If you are visiting and will return home, gather this evidence before you leave, since coming back to document the property is rarely feasible. Avoid giving recorded statements to any insurer before getting advice. These steps, taken promptly, preserve the foundation of a claim that may need to be pursued after you have returned home and the property has moved on to its next guests.
A significant issue in short-term rental injury cases is that many hosts do not carry insurance suited to the commercial activity of renting their property, which can create a coverage gap that affects an injured guest's recovery. A standard homeowner's or renter's insurance policy is written for personal, residential use. Such policies may exclude or limit coverage for business activities conducted on the property.
Renting a home to paying guests through a platform is a commercial use. A host relying on an ordinary homeowner's policy may find that the insurer denies a guest injury claim on the ground that the harm arose from a business activity the policy did not cover.
This gap is one reason the platforms' own liability coverage programs matter so much to injured guests. When a host's personal insurance will not respond, the platform's host liability coverage may be the primary source of recovery available.
It is also a reason that identifying every potentially responsible party and applicable policy is important. A guest injured by a host's negligence should not be left without recourse simply because the host failed to obtain proper coverage. To ensure an injured guest is not left to bear the cost of a host's negligence and inadequate insurance, it’s necessary to know where the coverage gaps lie and which sources will actually respond to the claim
Usually the host, as the property owner who owed you a duty of reasonable care, though a management company, a contractor, or others may share responsibility depending on what caused the injury.
The platforms maintain host liability coverage programs that can respond to guest injury claims, subject to their terms and limits. Accessing that coverage requires presenting the claim properly.
You can still pursue a claim for an injury at a Tennessee rental. Documenting the hazard and your injury while the details are fresh is especially important when you may return home before the case develops.
Unsafe stairways and decks, loose railings, pools and hot tubs without proper safety measures, and faulty heating or appliances are common, particularly because guests are unfamiliar with the property.
You have one year from the date of the injury under Tennessee Code Annotated section 28-3-104. If an injury isn't discovered right away, or if a rental incident is fatal, the timing can differ.
As short-term rentals have become a larger part of how people travel to and stay in the Kingsport area and the broader Tri-Cities, injuries at these properties have become a more common concern. The legal questions they raise are still less familiar than those surrounding hotels.
The growth of the rental market means more visitors are staying in properties operated by individual hosts rather than professional hospitality companies, and the safety practices at these properties vary widely. A guest injured at a rental encounters a situation that neither they nor the host fully anticipated, with responsibility and coverage spread across parties in ways that are not obvious.
This unfamiliarity is precisely why these cases benefit from careful handling. A guest who would know to look to a hotel's insurance after a hotel injury may not realize that a rental injury implicates the host's coverage, the platform's liability program, a management company's policy, and potentially others.
The legal principles are established, but applying them to the short-term rental context requires understanding how these arrangements work and where responsibility and coverage actually lie. As these cases grow more common, the value of approaching them with that understanding, rather than treating them as ordinary premises claims, grows as well. An injured guest deserves to have the full picture of responsibility and coverage sorted out on their behalf.
Fox and Farmer has represented injured people across East Tennessee since 1986, and our personal injury firm approaches a short-term rental injury as the layered case it is. Our lawyers can help injured guests with:
A Kingsport rental injury is generally filed in Sullivan County Circuit Court, 2nd Judicial District, in Blountville (with a Circuit office in Kingsport at 225 W. Center St.). If the property sits on Kingsport's Hawkins County side, the case belongs in Hawkins County Circuit Court in Rogersville. Because rentals are scattered across the county lines, the property's location has to be checked before filing.
At our firm, we focus on sorting out the responsibility so an injured guest is not left to navigate it alone. An injury at a short-term rental is a hard claim to pursue from a distance, because the host's insurance, the platform's coverage, and the on-site evidence all have to be identified while you may already be home. We handle that distance.
Call our office at 423-390-0000 for a free consultation. Our lawyers work quickly to keep the proof and the coverage from slipping away. And no fee unless we recover.
