By buying a holiday property, you gain a valuable piece of quality of life. Whether it’s a beach house or an apartment in the mountains, these places promise relaxing vacations. However, the variety of holiday resorts also poses various dangers for your holiday home. Especially properties that are not normally inhabited all year round need comprehensive protection. Especially if you rent out your property to friends, acquaintances or on the open market, it is crucial to protect yourself from possible damage during use. In this article, you will learn how you can comprehensively insure your holiday property.

Choosing the right insurance for the right protection

The insurance of holiday homes is based on two pillars: residential building insurance and household contents insurance. Both insurances protect against fire, lightning, storm, hail, tap water and cover different areas of the property. Residential building insurance offers protection for the building itself and permanently installed inventory. Household contents insurance, on the other hand, protects movable objects within the house. This includes furniture, electronics, clothing, and other personal possessions.

To ensure that you as a homeowner receive comprehensive protection, it is often advisable to have both residential and household contents insurance. In a holiday home insurance, you can take out both together. This ensures that the building itself and all your household contents are adequately secured.

Residential building insurance protects the building and helps in the event of loss of rent

Since holiday homes are usually not inhabited all year round, damage can often go unnoticed. As a result, important measures to limit the damage are delayed or even omitted altogether.

Consequential damage in particular, such as that which occurs after a cable fire or a burst pipe, can represent considerable financial burdens. With residential building insurance, it is possible to protect yourself against these damages.

Holiday home insurance is also optimal if the property is rented out externally via booking portals for holiday homes. In this case, many insurance providers make it possible to protect yourself against loss of rent.

Household contents insurance protects the inventory

Especially in holiday areas with short seasons, the risk of burglaries increases considerably. Household contents insurance offers comprehensive protection for the inventory of your holiday home or holiday home in the event of damage.

This means that items that have been stolen after a burglary or damaged by vandalism will be replaced by your home insurance. In addition, this insurance also protects your facility from damage that can be caused, for example, by fire or burst water pipes.

When it comes to insurance, also think about the garden

The idea of owning a holiday home on the Rhine or the Baltic Sea is undoubtedly appealing. But for many homeowners, the uncertainty remains as to whether their household insurance covers their garden furniture and who bears financial responsibility in the event of damage. Typical damage, such as the theft of garden furniture, damage caused by barbecue embers or storm and hail damage, raise many questions.

As a rule, balconies and terraces adjacent to the house are protected by household contents insurance, as they are considered part of the place of insurance. However, outdoor items, such as garden furniture or barbecues, must also be insured against storm damage and theft.

The garden itself is usually not part of the place of insurance for household contents insurance, unless this has been separately agreed. However, items in garden sheds or garages on the property are covered in most cases, often with a specific cap on reimbursement.

Garden furniture is generally insured against simple theft through household contents insurance, as long as it does not have to be placed in the house or garage every evening. However, this must be agreed as an additional coverage option.

Household contents insurance also offers protection against damage caused by storm, hail, lightning, fire and explosion, provided that these covers have been taken out additionally. This applies to garden furniture, parasols and permanently installed playground equipment. However, it is important to know that in the insurance sense, a storm event only exists from wind force 8.

Vacant holiday home: How to protect your property during your absence

If you own a vacation home and are away for an extended period of time, there are some important precautions to take to protect your property and investment.

Turn off electrical appliances that are not needed to save energy and check that taps are tightly closed to prevent water damage.

Install reliable security devices such as alarm systems, motion detectors and surveillance cameras. These measures can deter potential burglars and alert you to suspicious activity.

Hire someone to inspect your holiday home regularly. This could be a neighbor, a friend, or even a professional property manager. They can respond to potential problems before they get bigger. Have someone pick up your mail regularly. Avoid piling up letters and parcels, as this can attract burglars.

In regions with extreme weather conditions, such as the storm-swept Halligen , it is important to prepare your holiday home for storms, floods or other natural disasters. Make sure that windows and doors are well locked and that you have appropriate insurance policies that also cover this type of damage.

No one doubts that smoking is harmful to health. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to get rid of the health-threatening habit overnight. It becomes particularly embarrassing when you go on a trip as a smoker. Because more and more destinations have become smoke-free and you have to come to terms with the local rules somehow.

Of course, there are also alternatives to the glow stick that can be especially useful in foreign countries. For example, you can reach for the so-called nicotine pouches, which convince not only with the nicotine kick but also with interesting flavors. If you are interested in this option, which is particularly beneficial to travelers, you can check it here. By the way, the pouches are available in different strengths, so you can choose them according to your own nicotine consumption.

With or without nicotine pouches, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the local restrictions regarding smoking. This way you make sure that you don’t violate local laws and thus save yourself a lot of problems.

Spain

If you want to travel to the “Land of the Rabbits”, as the name of the country translates in the language of the indigenous people, the Phoenicians, then you should definitely know that there is a complete ban on smoking in Spain . In the outdoor areas of public facilities, on playgrounds and even if you want to experience the famous bullfights up close, lighting a cigarette is a taboo.

So-called smoking clubs are an exception. You can also smoke in the outdoor areas of some bars, but you have to accept that these places are quickly overcrowded.

What will not particularly please friends of the Spanish sun: a nationwide law is currently being discussed that will turn all beaches into smoke-free zones.

Austria

Until recently, Austria could be described as a Mecca for smokers. Because here the annoying habit was dealt with quite liberally. Smoking was allowed in most places in the land of mountains and lakes. For this purpose, special smoking rooms had been set up, whereby the only requirement for the enjoyment of the cigarette was that no smoke penetrated into non-smoking areas.

However, since November 1, 2019, the liberal approach to smoking has come to an end. A complete ban on smoking has been introduced in all bars and restaurants. So if you want to admire the Austrian sights and try out the local cuisine at the same time, you have to rely on alternatives to cigarettes.

Germany

If you want to linger over beer and sausages in the land of the Oktoberfest, you have to thoroughly study the regulations of the individual federal states beforehand. Believe it or not, it is up to the authorities in the 16 countries to introduce smoking bans on their own.

In general, smoking is prohibited in all public buildings, offices, hospitals, theatres and universities. The same applies to all train stations and airports. In the states of Bavaria, Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia, the absolute smoking ban also extends to pubs and restaurants. However, there are exceptions that make the life of smokers easier in the other 13 federal states. Here you can light a cigarette in the specially marked side rooms of restaurants without making yourself liable to prosecution.

Ireland

In the land of fairies and goblins, people have long been uncompromising against smokers. The country was the first in the world to introduce an absolute ban on smoking in 2004. Anyone who dares to follow their bad habit in closed rooms must expect a fine of up to 3,000 euros. The strict measures have found support among governments worldwide and the smoking bans in other countries were not long in coming.

United States

In the United States, it is often decided at the local level whether and where you can smoke. Since smoking regulations can therefore vary not only from state to state, but from city to city, it is advisable to always inform yourself locally before reaching for a cigarette.

The measures against smokers are particularly strict in California and New York. Here, there is an absolute ban on smoking in many parks and not only inside buildings, but even within a radius of several meters around the building itself. Smoking is also prohibited in swimming pools and also on promenades and beaches. Also, you can’t buy cigarettes in these states if you’re younger than 21.

However, this is not the case everywhere in the United States. Especially in the south of the country, people have a somewhat milder attitude towards smokers. In some places you can even experience scenes known from westerns, where someone goes smoking into the bar.