With its access to the Appalachian Trail and scenic parks along Boone Lake and the Watauga River, Johnson City attracts visitors looking to experience the best of Northeast Tennessee. Airbnbs and short-term rentals, from downtown lofts to family-friendly homes, offer these travelers a place to stay. But when a relaxing getaway is disrupted by a serious injury caused by unsafe property conditions, the consequences can be overwhelming.
Short-term rentals through Airbnb, Vrbo, and similar platforms have brought a new kind of premises liability case to Johnson City, 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 other individuals hurt at short-term rental properties across Washington County and the Tri-Cities, helping them handle the complexities that come with these cases.
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 typically owned by an individual host who rents it out through a platform like Airbnb or Vrbo.
That arrangement disperses responsibility across parties whose roles and insurance coverage are not always clear. A guest injured by a hazard at a rental faces a more complicated question: 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 questions about responsibility and coverage that require careful analysis. Treating a rental injury like a hotel injury misses the features that make these cases distinct from other claims.
More than one party may share the blame in a 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 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.
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. If the property is part of a larger complex or association, that entity may have responsibility for common areas.
Sorting out which parties had control over the hazard that caused the injury, and what insurance each carries, is what determines where the recovery will come from in a rental injury case.
The major short-term rental platforms have structured their businesses to limit their own liability while offering insurance programs that can be a source of recovery. Platforms like Airbnb position themselves as intermediaries that connect hosts and guests rather than as operators of the properties, a structure intended to keep liability with the host rather than the platform. The terms guests agree to when booking are designed to reinforce that arrangement.
Airbnb and Vrbo maintain host liability insurance that can pay a guest’s injury claim once the host’s legal responsibility is established. It supplements, not replaces, proof of the host’s negligence. These programs have their own terms, conditions, and limits, and accessing them requires understanding how they operate and how a claim must be presented.
Short-term rentals have grown throughout the Johnson City area and the broader Tri-Cities, drawing visitors who come for the region's attractions, its proximity to the mountains and outdoor recreation, the events and festivals the city hosts, business and medical travel tied to the area's major institutions, and visits connected to East Tennessee State University.
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 unfamiliar with the property. Identifying the specific hazard that caused an injury is the starting point for a rental injury claim.
The most common injuries at short-term rentals in Johnson City include fractures, head injuries, sprains, burns, cuts, and drowning-related injuries caused by unsafe property conditions.
Falls on stairways, decks, uneven walkways, or slippery floors can result in broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, and soft tissue damage. Defective railings, poorly maintained balconies, and inadequate lighting increase the risk of serious falls, particularly in cabins and hillside properties common throughout the Tri-Cities region.
Guests may also suffer burns from fireplaces, grills, hot tubs, or malfunctioning appliances, while carbon monoxide exposure can cause severe illness if heating equipment is not properly maintained. Near lakes, pools, and hot tubs, drowning and near-drowning incidents remain significant hazards, especially where safety barriers or warning signs are missing.
Many visitors choose short-term rentals near Boone Lake and the Watauga Lake area to enjoy fishing, boating, and waterfront recreation during their stay in Northeast Tennessee. While these properties offer unique access to the region's lakes, they can also present safety concerns that are less common at traditional vacation rentals.
Lakefront properties commonly feature private docks, elevated walkways, retaining walls, shoreline access paths, and outdoor gathering areas built into sloped terrain. These features are exposed to weather, moisture, and changing water conditions throughout the year.
A deteriorated dock surface, an unstable shoreline stairway, a damaged retaining wall, or a poorly maintained access path can pose risks that may not be immediately obvious to guests unfamiliar with the property.
Many lakefront rentals also receive heavy seasonal use during the warmer months, increasing wear on outdoor structures and recreational amenities. Properties located along steep hillsides overlooking Boone Lake may require guests to navigate multiple levels, exterior staircases, or narrow pathways to reach the water. When these features are not properly maintained, serious injuries can occur far from the areas most guests would expect to encounter danger.
Many short-term rental owners do not reside in Johnson City. Even if the host lives in another state, a claim may still be pursued if the injury occurred on Tennessee property. Jurisdiction, insurance coverage, and service of legal papers can become more complicated, making it important to identify all responsible parties early.
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 Johnson City-area rental brings the injured to Johnson City Medical Center, the region's only Level I trauma center, where the most severe injuries from across Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia are treated by trauma surgeons available around the clock.
For a guest visiting from elsewhere, an injury at a rental property 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, both of which are essential to the claim.
Because a visiting guest may return home before fully understanding the case, preserving evidence at the property and documenting the injury thoroughly while the details are fresh are particularly important. Building that record supports a claim that may have to be pursued from a distance.
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 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 (Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-102), or $1 million for catastrophic injuries, and lifts the cap when the at-fault party was intoxicated or committed a felony. Economic losses are never capped.
What makes the recovery in a rental case distinctive 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 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, creating a coverage gap that can affect an injured guest's recovery.
A standard homeowner's or renter's insurance policy is written for personal, residential use, and many such policies exclude or limit coverage for business activities conducted on the property. Renting a home to paying guests through a platform is a commercial use, and 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 why identifying every potentially responsible party and every 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. It's important to identify coverage gaps and determine which insurance policies may respond to a claim, so an injured guest is not left to bear the financial burden resulting from a host's negligence or insufficient insurance coverage.
The evidence in a short-term rental injury case can be challenging because the property remains under the host's control and continues to be rented to other guests after the injury. The hazard that caused the injury, a loose railing, a broken step, an unsafe pool feature, or a faulty appliance, may be repaired, replaced, or altered before it can be documented, removing the proof of the dangerous condition.
Unlike a commercial property with established procedures, a private host may simply fix the problem and move on, leaving no record of the condition at the time of the injury. This makes prompt documentation essential.
Photographs of the hazard taken at the time of the injury, before the host addresses it, can be the most important evidence in the case. The rental listing itself, including its photographs and descriptions, can establish what the property was represented to be. Communications with the host through the platform create a record that may be relevant.
For a guest who was visiting and has since returned home, capturing this evidence before leaving the property can help, since returning later is rarely possible. Acting quickly to preserve evidence of the hazard before the host alters the property for the next guest is one of the most important steps in protecting a short-term rental injury 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.
One year from the injury under Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104, extending to two years if criminal charges arise from the same conduct (§ 28-3-104(a)(2)).
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.
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, as returning 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 been taken over by its next guests.
As short-term rentals have become a larger part of how people travel to and stay in the Johnson City 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 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.
Fox and Farmer has represented injured people across East Tennessee since 1986. Our personal injury firm approaches a short-term rental injury as the layered case it is. With an office serving the Tri-Cities, we help with:
We file in the correct court where your injury happened. Most of Johnson City is in the Washington County Circuit Court in Jonesborough, but the Carter County side is filed in Elizabethton and the Sullivan County side in Blountville.
A short-term rental injury can involve the host's coverage, the platform's policy, and the evidence at the property simultaneously, and a guest is often home and far away before the full weight of the injury becomes clear.
We handle that distance for you, free to start and no fee unless we recover. Reach out early to keep the proof and the coverage intact. Call our office at 423-390-0000 today.
