Every homeowners policy excludes business activity. Not limits — excludes. That single clause is what separates a home-based travel agency from a covered one, and most agents find out about it the first time they need something.
Three exposures live in a home office, and the homeowners policy handles none of them well.
A client at your front door
If a client comes to your house to plan a trip and falls on the porch step, the injury happened during a business activity on your property. That is the exact scenario the exclusion was written for, and it is the first thing the adjuster will look at.
General liability responds instead. It covers third-party bodily injury and property damage arising out of your business, whether that business happens at a rented office, a trade show booth, or your dining room table. The same policy is what produces a certificate when a venue or convention center asks for one.
The equipment in the spare room
Homeowners policies cap business property at a low sublimit — often $2,500, sometimes less, and frequently lower still for property away from the home.
Count what you actually have. A laptop, a second monitor, a printer, a phone, a tablet for showing clients options, brochure and giveaway stock in the closet, and a display banner for shows. Then add what it would cost to replace all of it the week before your busiest month.
A business owners policy packages general liability with business property on one form, usually for less than buying them separately, and it covers equipment you take to shows and fam trips.
The part nobody photographs
The largest exposure in a home office has no physical form at all.
You are booking travel, and the mistake that costs money is a keystroke — the wrong return date, the name that does not match the passport, the deadline that passed. Errors and omissions is the coverage for that, and neither a homeowners policy nor a business owners policy includes it. It is bought separately, every time.
Alongside it sits the data problem. Passport scans, dates of birth, home addresses, and card numbers sit in the inbox of a laptop that travels. Every state has a breach notification law and none of them exempt small businesses working from home. Cyber coverage funds the response: forensics, notification, and credit monitoring for the people affected.
What a home-based agent typically ends up carrying
- Errors and omissions — the booking mistake, and defense costs from the first demand letter
- General liability, or a business owners policy — visitors, trade shows, and the certificate requests that come with both
- Cyber liability — breach response and notification for the client data you hold
- Workers compensation — only once you put someone on payroll, and then usually required by state law
Two things to do this week
Call your homeowners carrier and tell them you run a travel business from the house. Some will add a small business endorsement. Most will not extend it far enough to matter, but the conversation tells you exactly where you stand instead of leaving it to an adjuster later.
Then delete what you no longer need. Passport scans and card numbers that stay in your inbox after the trip is over are the difference between a breach that affects four people and one that affects four hundred. Data you do not hold cannot be exposed.