Goose Creek hosts a growing number of short-term rentals. When a guest is hurt at an Airbnb or vacation rental because of an unsafe condition, South Carolina law may allow a claim against the host. However, these cases add a layer most premises claims do not: platform insurance and the question of which coverage applies.
The Arndt Law Firm represents guests injured at short-term rentals across Goose Creek and Berkeley County. If you wonder whether you are owed compensation, contact us. The first consultation is free.
A paying guest at a short-term rental occupies a position that South Carolina premises law treats favorably. The guest is on the property for the host's financial benefit, so they can be considered an invitee, the category owed the greatest protection under South Carolina premises law.
It means the host must exercise reasonable or ordinary care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition for the use the guest was invited to make of it, which includes inspecting for hazards, fixing dangerous conditions, and warning of dangers that cannot be immediately corrected.
Under South Carolina Code section 27-50-250(B), no action may be brought against an owner or rental management company by a tenant for injuries resulting from property defects of which the owner or rental management company had no actual knowledge.
Because a rental of fewer than ninety days is a vacation rental under section 27-50-230, this provision can reach a short-term rental injury claim, which makes proving what the host actually knew central.
This duty has real content in the short-term rental setting. A host who rents a property to strangers is responsible for ensuring that the stairs are sound, the railings secure, the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors functional, the walkways clear, and any amenities like pools, hot tubs, decks, and grills reasonably safe.
A host cannot simply hand over the keys and disclaim responsibility for the condition of the property; the duty to provide reasonably safe premises runs with the rental. A waiver in the rental agreement does not automatically end the claim, but it is not meaningless either.
South Carolina courts will enforce a clear and unambiguous exculpatory agreement as to ordinary negligence, while disfavoring such clauses and construing them strictly against the party who drafted them. A waiver will not shield gross negligence or willful misconduct, and one drafted so broadly that it would absolve the host of any injury for any reason contravenes public policy.
The host's duty is heightened by the nature of short-term rentals. Guests are unfamiliar with the property, do not know where hazards lie, and rely entirely on the host to have addressed them, which makes the host's duty to inspect and warn particularly important.
A loose step that a long-term resident would learn to avoid is a genuine danger to a guest who has never seen it, and the law accounts for that reliance in measuring what the host owed.
This reliance cuts against the defense that a guest should have noticed and avoided a hazard, since a guest arriving at an unfamiliar property, navigating rooms and stairs they have never seen, is not in the same position as someone who knows the space.
This is why a host's duty to inspect before each guest arrives matters so much. Between rentals, a host has the opportunity and the responsibility to check that the property remains safe, to identify any hazard that has developed, and to address it or warn about it before a new guest, who has no way of knowing the property, takes occupancy.
A host who skips that inspection, or who knows of a hazard and rents the property anyway without warning the guest, has failed in exactly the duty the law imposes. Since the guest's reliance on the host is so complete, the host's diligence in keeping the property safe between bookings is central to whether a short-term rental injury was preventable.
Short-term rental injuries arise from a recognizable set of hazards, many tied to the features that make these properties appealing. Falls are the most common, from defective or poorly lit stairs, slippery surfaces, uneven flooring, and unsecured rugs. A fall on a defective stairway can cause serious injury, particularly to a guest unfamiliar with the layout.
Water features and amenities are a frequent source of serious injuries. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, between 2021 and 2023, more than 70 percent of fatal drownings among children younger than 15 occurred in residential settings, such as a home, the house of a family member or friend, or a neighbor's residence, the very setting a vacation rental recreates for a family staying for a weekend.
Swimming pools and hot tubs carry drowning and slip risks, particularly when they lack required safeguards or are poorly maintained, and decks, balconies, and porches can fail when they are not properly built or maintained. Grills, fire pits, and outdoor features add burn and injury risks that a host is expected to manage.
Other hazards round out the picture. Carbon monoxide from faulty heating or appliances is a hidden and potentially fatal danger when detectors are absent or non-functional, and defective furniture, inadequate lighting, and unmarked hazards around the property cause injuries to guests who do not know the space.
Negligent security can also be an issue at a rental in an area where foreseeable criminal activity was not reasonably addressed. Each of these turns on whether the host met the duty to provide a reasonably safe property.
A seriously injured guest is most often transported to MUSC Health in Charleston, the Lowcountry's Level I trauma center, or to Trident Medical Center in North Charleston, a Level II center; Roper St. Francis Berkeley Hospital in Summerville also has a twenty-four-hour emergency department.
What sets short-term rental injury claims apart from ordinary premises cases is the platform insurance that may apply.
Airbnb provides host liability coverage, part of its AirCover for Hosts program, that offers up to one million dollars in coverage when a host is found legally responsible for a guest's injury during a stay booked on the platform. This coverage applies automatically to bookings made through Airbnb and can be a significant source of recovery for an injured guest. Other platforms such as Vrbo offer comparable liability coverage for bookings made through their systems.
This platform coverage has important limits, which is why understanding it matters. The coverage generally applies only to stays booked through the platform, not to direct bookings arranged outside it, and it applies during the booking period rather than before or after.
It also contains exclusions, such as for intentional harm and certain other categories, and because the policy is the platform's rather than the host's own.
Beyond the platform coverage, the host may carry other insurance. Many hosts hold short-term rental policies or homeowner's coverage, though standard homeowner's policies often exclude short-term rental activity, which can create disputes about whether the host's personal insurance responds.
Identifying every potentially applicable policy, the platform coverage, the host's short-term rental or homeowner's policy, and any others, is central to a short-term rental injury claim, because the available coverage determines what the injury can actually recover.
A serious injury can exceed the platform's coverage limit, leaving a gap that the host's own insurance, or another responsible party's, must fill. This coordination of multiple coverage sources is one of the features that most distinguishes a short-term rental injury claim from an ordinary premises case, where a single commercial policy is usually the whole picture.
Airbnb offers host liability coverage up to a million dollars for covered guest-injury claims, part of what the company calls AirCover for Hosts, and Vrbo offers similar protection. Whether it applies depends on the program's terms and the facts, which is why these claims should be evaluated carefully.
Goose Creek's place in the Charleston metro and its proximity to a major military installation shape the short-term rental landscape and the injuries that arise within it.
The area draws visitors connected to the Charleston region's tourism and business travel, and it serves a steady stream of travel related to Joint Base Lindsey Graham (previously Joint Base Charleston) and the Naval Weapons Station, including families visiting service members and personnel arriving for assignments.
This demand has filled neighborhoods and the area's communities with short-term rentals, and the guests who fill them are often unfamiliar with both the property and the area.
The visitor patterns concentrate rental use in ways that bear on these claims. Much of the traffic is out-of-town, whether tourists using Goose Creek as a quieter base from which to visit Charleston and the Lowcountry or families and personnel connected to the military community, and this out-of-town character adds a practical wrinkle to a short-term rental injury claim.
A visitor injured at a rental may return home before addressing the claim, which makes prompt documentation of the hazard and the injury especially important before the guest leaves the area and the property is turned over to the next booking.
A guest injured at a Goose Creek rental faces the same questions of host duty and platform coverage as any other short-term rental guest, but the distance many guests have traveled makes early action all the more valuable.
After an injury at an Airbnb in Goose Creek, you may be owed economic damages and non-economic damages. There is no statutory cap for these types of damages in South Carolina.
South Carolina's modified comparative negligence rule applies to short-term rental injury claims, allowing recovery as long as the injured guest was 50 percent or less at fault, reducing the recovery by their percentage, and barring it at 51 percent or more. The rule comes from Nelson v. Concrete Supply Company (1991).
As in any premises case, the open-and-obvious defense is common, with the insurer arguing the guest should have seen and avoided the hazard. South Carolina courts consider whether a condition was open and obvious, but visibility does not automatically defeat the claim, particularly when the host created the hazard or the layout made avoidance impractical.
A guest unfamiliar with the property is in a different position than someone who knows the space, which bears on what the guest could reasonably have been expected to notice.
Because partial fault reduces the recovery and majority fault defeats it, establishing the host's failure while minimizing any share attributed to the guest is central to the case.
The guest's unfamiliarity with the property, the host's duty to warn of hazards, and the specific condition that caused the injury all bear on the fault analysis, and developing those facts is what protects the recovery from an inflated fault assignment.
The host is the primary defendant in most short-term rental injury claims, as the party responsible for the condition of the property and for meeting the duty owed to guests. But the host is not always the only responsible party, and identifying every potential defendant is part of building the case.
When the property is managed by a property management company, that company may share responsibility for maintenance and safety depending on its role.
Other parties can bear responsibility depending on the circumstances. A contractor whose defective work created a hazard, such as a poorly built deck or faulty wiring, can be liable, and a manufacturer can answer for a defective product like a heater that produced carbon monoxide.
Under South Carolina Code section 15-3-640, no action arising out of the defective or unsafe condition of an improvement to real property may be brought more than eight years after substantial completion of that improvement. That clock runs from construction, so establishing when the building was completed is key in deciding whether a contractor is a realistic defendant.
If the rental is part of a larger building or community, the entity responsible for common areas may be a defendant when the injury occurred in a shared space.
Sorting out these relationships matters because it determines which insurance is available. A serious injury at a short-term rental can exceed the platform's coverage, and identifying every responsible party and every applicable policy is what allows the claim to reach the full coverage the injury requires.
The investigation that maps the host, any management company, contractors, and the relevant insurance is the foundation of a complete claim, and it is often what separates a recovery that addresses the full harm from one limited to the first source that comes to hand.
After being injured because of a hazard at a short-term rental injury you can recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover medical expenses from emergency treatment through future care, lost wages during recovery, and reduced earning capacity. Non-economic damages compensate for the harm that does not appear on a bill: pain and suffering, emotional distress, and the loss of enjoyment of life.
The steps a guest takes after an injury at a short-term rental can determine whether a claim succeeds, and some are specific to the rental setting.
The priority is medical care, both for health and to document the injury at its origin, which matters especially for a visitor who may be far from home and tempted to delay treatment until returning. Getting evaluated at a Goose Creek-area facility creates the medical record the claim depends on and protects against an argument that the injury was minor.
Documentation is urgent because the property does not stay still. If you are able, photograph the hazard, the surrounding area, the lighting, and any missing safety features such as detectors or railings before anything is changed, because the host may repair or alter the condition before the next guest arrives.
Report the injury to the host and through the booking platform, which creates a dated record and preserves the booking information that bears on which insurance applies. Note the names and contact information of anyone who witnessed the incident, including other guests.
In the days that follow, preserve the digital trail and be careful about communications. Keep the reservation confirmation, the listing as it appeared when you booked, and any messages with the host, all of which can establish the host's representations and what they knew.
Avoid giving a recorded statement to the host's insurer or the platform's representatives before understanding your rights, and keep a file of medical records and expenses. Because the property and its online listing can change quickly, seeking advice from an Airbnb injury lawyer in Goose Creek early allows the evidence to be preserved before it is altered or removed.
| Coverage source | When it may apply | Notes |
| Platform host liability (e.g., AirCover) | Injury during a platform-booked stay where host is liable | Up to $1M; excludes intentional harm; platform administers |
| Host's STR or homeowner's policy | Depends on policy terms and rental activity | Standard homeowner's policies often exclude short-term rentals |
| Property manager's coverage | When a management company shared responsibility | Depends on the manager's role and contract |
| Contractor or manufacturer coverage | When defective work or a product caused the hazard | Adds another potential source of recovery |
Yes, if an unsafe condition caused your injury and the host failed in the duty to keep the property reasonably safe. A paying guest is generally owed the greatest protection under South Carolina premises law: reasonable or ordinary care.
Airbnb's host liability coverage can provide up to one million dollars when the host is found legally responsible for a guest's injury during a platform-booked stay, subject to its terms and exclusions.
Platform coverage generally applies only to bookings made through the platform, so a direct booking may fall outside it, making the host's own insurance the relevant source.
Three years from the injury under South Carolina Code section 15-3-530(5).
Yes, as long as you were 50 percent or less at fault. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage, and barred at 51 percent or more.
The Arndt Law Firm approaches every Goose Creek short-term rental injury by establishing the host's duty under South Carolina premises law, documenting the hazard before the property is altered for the next guest, and identifying every applicable source of coverage, from the platform's host liability insurance to the host's own and any property manager's policy.
Because attorney Arndt previously defended insurers, the firm understands how these claims are evaluated and contested and builds them to reach the coverage the injury requires.
If you were hurt at a vacation rental in Goose Creek or anywhere in Berkeley County, acting early protects the evidence, because the property keeps being rented and a hazard can be repaired or hidden before the next guest arrives. The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we recover for you. Contact our personal injury lawyer in Goose Creek or call (843) 287-9802 to discuss what happened.
Last reviewed: June 2026
This page was reviewed by Jonathan S. Arndt, licensed in South Carolina since 2018.
