Damage & incident policy

Every booking on DrivewayNights is an agreement between a guest and a host. We handle the payment, host and verify the listing, and provide a channel for messaging and disputes. We do not underwrite the stay itself. Both sides need their own cover for the period of the booking.

If you’re uncomfortable with this model, don’t book and don’t list — this is a clear deliberate choice in how DrivewayNights works, not a gap we plan to close.

You must have a valid motor-insurance policy covering your campervan or vehicle for the whole period of the stay, including while parked on private land. The vast majority of UK comprehensive policies do cover this — but not all, and some exclude “non-public highway” risks. Read your certificate.

• Comprehensive van insurance

  Covers damage, theft, and fire to your vehicle while parked on a private driveway. Third-party-only policies will not.

• Contents / belongings cover

  Anything valuable inside the van (bikes, tech, kit) should be covered under your van policy’s contents extension or a separate contents policy. DrivewayNights does not cover belongings.

• Breakdown cover

  If you need to be recovered from a host’s driveway, that’s on your breakdown provider. Check whether yours covers private-land recovery before you book.

You must have appropriate home and public-liability cover for the period you’re hosting. Most standard UK home-insurance policies do not automatically cover paid hosting activity — you may need to tell your insurer, pay an endorsement, or take out a separate public-liability policy. Confirm it in writing before you accept bookings.

• Home building & contents

  Covers damage to your property caused by a vehicle or guest action. Many policies require disclosure when you host commercially — not disclosing can void your cover.

• Public liability

  Covers you if a guest is injured on your property. This is the single most important cover for hosts. If you don’t have it, don’t list.

• Commercial-use clause

  Hosting via DrivewayNights is likely to be treated as commercial use by your insurer. Ask explicitly; don’t assume.

Whether it’s a scratch, a collapsed drive gate, or something more serious, the steps are the same for both guests and hosts:

• 1. Photograph everything

  Wide shots, close-ups, timestamps. Capture the damage, the surrounding area, and any relevant context. Do this before you move anything.

• 2. Exchange details

  Full name, address, contact number, insurer, policy number. The booking conversation thread already has a paper trail — send the details via message so both sides have a copy.

• 3. Call the police (if serious)

  For theft, assault, significant property damage, or anything involving injury — dial 999 immediately, or 101 for non-emergency reports. A crime reference number is often required by insurers.

• 4. Notify your insurer

  Within the time limit in your policy (often 24–48 hours). Do not delay, and do not admit liability before speaking to them.

• 5. Open a DrivewayNights dispute

  File a dispute from the booking page within 72 hours of stay start. We can hold or refund payment where appropriate, capture a written record, and — if we see evidence of bad faith — suspend the other party’s account. We cannot decide who pays for the damage itself.

The DrivewayNights dispute system exists to resolve payment outcomes — not damage claims.

• What a dispute CAN do

  Hold a pending payout while both sides submit evidence. Issue a full refund, full transfer, or partial split for the booking cost. Suspend or ban accounts that breach the terms. Document the dispute in writing for you to pass to your insurer.

• What a dispute CANNOT do

  Decide who is liable for physical damage. Order one party to pay the other for repairs. Act as a small-claims court. Replace the role of your insurer, the police, or the civil courts.

An admin may rule that the booking cost should be refunded to the guest because the listing was misrepresented, or transferred to the host because the guest was unreasonable. That is a commercial judgement about the booking, not an adjudication of damage.

• Pre-existing damage

  Both parties should photograph the driveway and the van at arrival. If you don’t, it becomes their word against yours — admins cannot adjudicate damage that wasn’t documented.

• Third-party damage

  Another vehicle clips your van, a tree branch falls, a passer-by vandalises the driveway — these are between the affected party, the third party, and the relevant insurers. DrivewayNights has no role beyond acting as a witness to the booking itself.

• Minor wear and tear

  Tyre marks, leaf litter, a bit of oil drip. Normal use of a driveway for the period of the stay. Hosts should expect this; guests should leave the driveway as they found it.

• Damage to someone who wasn’t a party to the booking

  A neighbour, a passer-by, a delivery driver. DrivewayNights has no contractual relationship with them — your public liability cover (host) or van insurance (guest) is the only route.

Platform-backed damage cover sounds friendly on paper but tends to produce one of three bad outcomes: (a) the platform becomes an insurer without the regulatory capital to back it, (b) the cover is so narrow it doesn’t pay out when it matters, or (c) the platform has to increase booking fees or commission to fund a claims pool, making every stay more expensive. We’d rather be honest: your insurer does insurance; we do the marketplace.

This is also consistent with how van storage and parking rentals have always worked in the UK. The friends-of-friends arrangement you might have made without an app involves exactly the same liability model — we’re just adding a verified profile, a payment rail, a messaging channel, and a dispute queue on top.

Report a serious incident (injury, criminal damage, theft, assault) by emailing support@drivewaynights.co.uk with “INCIDENT” in the subject, along with the booking reference, the date of the incident, and any crime reference number. We aim to reply within one working day, faster for anything urgent.

For general questions about cover, please refer to your insurer — we cannot give insurance advice. The Help centre has further FAQs.