Cleaning apps and platforms: their guarantees protect the customer, not you

If you find clients through an app, you've seen the word "guarantee" and may have assumed it covers you. It covers the customer. In Thumbtack's case it can come back on you. And the programs that do pay for damage cap or exclude what cleaners handle every day: stone, water, jewelry, porcelain.

Everything below comes from each company's own pages, as we read them on September 29, 2026.

Who each guarantee protects

Platform	Who it protects	Damage limit	Notable gaps	The catch for cleaners
Handy	Customers who booked and paid on Handy	$2,500 per occurrence; $1,000 for floors and stone; $2,500 for theft	Water damage and mold, cash, jewelry, porcelains, valuable rugs, antique furniture	The customer's own insurance pays first
Thumbtack	Consumers only	$100,000 per incident for property damage	Theft, jewelry, porcelains, mold, sentimental value	Thumbtack takes the customer's right to recover from you
Airbnb	Hosts, and people who help them host, including cleaners	$1,000,000 host liability	The host's own home and belongings; injuries to the host's employees	Only events during a guest's stay
Turno	Hosts, for cleaner no-shows	No damage guarantee	Damage isn't part of it	Insurance and bond badges are optional and paid

Handy

Handy's guarantee page says bookings made and paid for directly on the platform are insured. The details are in its terms, and the guarantee pays the customer, not the pro:

• Up to $2,500 per occurrence for property damage caused by a professional's negligence.
• Up to $1,000 for damage to floors and items containing granite, marble or other stone.
• Up to $2,500, in the aggregate, for theft by a professional.
• The customer has to report the problem within 72 hours of the appointment.

The terms also say the customer's own homeowners, renters, auto or umbrella policy comes first: "your Personal Insurance is primary and the Handy Happiness Guarantee is secondary."

The exclusions are the part that matters to a cleaner. The terms exclude losses from flooding and water damage, including mold; losses of cash and gift cards; items that still work despite cosmetic damage; and "fine arts," which the terms define broadly enough to include jewelry, porcelains, valuable rugs, antique furniture and bric-a-brac.

What that means on the job, as illustrations: etch a marble vanity with the wrong cleaner and the stone cap is $1,000, however much the slab costs. Leave a bathtub tap running and flood the floor below, and water damage is excluded. Chip a client's porcelain figurine while dusting, and it's fine art under the terms. In each case, the customer's next stop is their own insurer. Insureon notes that, without a waiver of subrogation, an insurer that pays a claim is allowed to take legal action against the third party responsible. That third party is you.

The guarantee applies only to bookings paid through Handy. A regular client who starts paying you directly in cash has no Handy guarantee at all. We couldn't confirm what insurance Handy requires its pros to carry, because its pro help center didn't load.

Thumbtack

Thumbtack's pro guide tells pros directly that the guarantee doesn't replace your insurance. Its terms and conditions go further, in capital letters: "THE THUMBTACK GUARANTEE IS NOT INSURANCE." The terms add that no service professional is an insured under them, and that anyone who wants more protection must buy insurance.

How the property damage guarantee works, per the terms:

• It pays consumers, and only when the responsible professional fails to pay for the damage.
• The limit is $100,000 per incident for requests made since May 8, 2020.
• Before Thumbtack pays, the customer must first try to collect from any applicable insurance policy, or certify that none applies.
• If Thumbtack approves a claim, the customer agrees to assign to Thumbtack any rights to recover from the professional.

Read those last two together. The "applicable insurance" a customer tries first can be yours. If you have none and Thumbtack pays, Thumbtack can come after you with the customer's rights.

The exclusions overlap with Handy's. Thumbtack excludes theft and mysterious disappearance, mold, "fine arts" (again including jewelry, porcelains and valuable rugs), and anything beyond straight repair or replacement value for sentimental items like family heirlooms.

The money-back guarantee has its own limit. The pro guide says it covers up to $2,500 if a project wasn't finished as expected, and the terms set $2,500 per incident for requests made since January 1, 2025 ($1,000 before that). An older terms page limited to Georgia requests from 2018 and 2019 still shows $1,000 and $1,000,000 limits; it isn't the current terms.

Airbnb

Airbnb is the only one of the four that names cleaners in its cover. Its host liability insurance provides $1 million in coverage and says people who help you host, "like Co-Hosts and cleaners, are also included." The program summary defines the insured host to include full or part-time domestic staff.

The $1 million headline comes with limits:

• It covers the host's legal liability for injury or property damage to guests or others from an event that happens during a guest's Airbnb stay.
• It doesn't insure the host for damage to their own home or belongings.
• It excludes bodily injury to the insured's own employees, and workers' comp obligations.

A turnover clean happens between one guest's checkout and the next check-in. Whether a between-stays clean counts as "during a guest's Airbnb Stay" is something we couldn't confirm. Assume it doesn't until Airbnb tells you otherwise.

Host damage protection is a separate program: up to $3 million when a guest damages the host's place or belongings. It covers guests and their invitees only, so damage by a cleaner isn't on its list. It excludes cleaning for normal check-out tasks like laundry, dishes and trash, though it does reimburse extra cleaning in certain cases, such as stains left by guests, pet accidents and smoke odor. Airbnb asks hosts to document damage with photos and estimates, so photograph guest damage before you clean it up. Your host will need those pictures to claim.

Take a common turnover accident: you knock a lamp off the host's nightstand while changing the sheets. Host liability doesn't cover the host's own property, and host damage protection only covers guests. Neither pays. That's your general liability, subject to the care, custody or control question covered in the care, custody and control guide. If you're hurt on the job, the program excludes injuries to the host's employees, so that's workers' comp or your own health plan.

Insureon names Airbnb hosts among the owners who only hire cleaners that are bonded and insured.

Turno

Turno connects short-term rental hosts with turnover cleaners. It vets who joins, but insurance is up to you. To join its marketplace, cleaners provide ID, a profile photo, a bio and references. All cleaners operating in the US must pass a background check run by a third-party company, paid for by the cleaner and renewed every year.

Insurance is a badge, not a requirement. Turno's badge page lists three optional badges: Bonding, Liability Insurance and License. The required background check is also sold as a badge, which makes four in all. You pay to apply, and Turno's team checks the documents. What passes and what doesn't:

• Bonding: active surety bonds, or liability documents that include a bond. Bonding proposals and quotes are rejected.
• Liability insurance: documents showing general liability, or workers' comp and employers' liability. Simulations and requests are rejected, and Turno asks for your actual certificate.
• License: LLC articles, business or license tax receipts, a certificate of good standing. EIN documents, DBA filings and driver's licenses are rejected. What each state requires for that paperwork is on the cleaning business license page.

The Turno Cleaner Guarantee protects the host against you not showing up. If a cleaner cancels last minute or no-shows, Turno helps find a replacement and, for US properties, pays the difference if the new cleaner charges more. It isn't a damage guarantee.

Badges help hosts pick you, and a quote won't pass. Buy the policy first, then upload the certificate. The certificate guide covers getting one the same day.

Why you still need your own policy

Every program above is built for the customer or the host.

• Only Airbnb names cleaners in its cover, and only during a guest's stay. Thumbtack's terms say outright that no service professional is an insured.
• The exclusions line up with what cleaners handle: stone and floors (capped at Handy), water damage and mold (excluded at Handy; mold at Thumbtack), jewelry and porcelain (excluded at both as "fine arts").
• The coverage stops at the platform's edge. Handy covers only bookings paid on Handy, and Thumbtack only work requested on Thumbtack. Clients you move to direct booking have no guarantee at all.
• The money can come back to you. Thumbtack takes the customer's right to recover from the pro, and Handy sends the customer to their own insurer first, which can then look to you.
• None of them pays for your own injuries.

Your base is general liability with care, custody or control coverage, described on the general liability page. Add a bond if hosts ask (see bonded and insured) and sort out your own injury cover. The solo cleaner guide puts the pieces in order, with prices.