Why we made every booking insurance-backed — for free
In April 2026, we added ₹50,000 insurance to every booking at no cost to customers or pros. Here's the economics behind that decision and why it's worth it.
On April 5, 2026, we did something no Indian service marketplace had done before: we added free insurance to every single booking. Up to ₹50,000 coverage against property damage, theft, personal injury, and no-show — at zero additional cost to the customer or the professional. People asked us: how can you afford that? Here's the answer.
Insurance is not a cost center for us; it's a trust multiplier. Before we added insurance, our biggest customer complaint was 'what if something goes wrong?' That fear stopped people from booking. We measured it — in a survey of 10,000 non-users, 47% said fear of property damage was the reason they hadn't tried VanHub. That's nearly half of our potential market, blocked by fear.
We worked with our insurance partner to negotiate a bulk policy. Because we have 120,000+ verified pros and a 0.3% complaint rate, our risk profile is excellent. The premium works out to ₹16 per booking — which is exactly the amount we allocate from our 12% platform fee. So insurance isn't an extra cost; it's a reallocation of existing revenue toward something that removes the biggest barrier to booking.
The results have been dramatic. In the three months since launch, booking conversion is up 23%. Customer complaints about 'what if' scenarios have dropped to near zero — because the answer is now 'you're covered up to ₹50,000.' The claim rate is 0.08% (8 claims per 10,000 bookings), and the average claim is ₹7,200 — well within our risk model.
But the real impact is trust. When a customer sees 'insurance-backed' on a booking, they're not just seeing a feature; they're seeing a company that puts its money where its mouth is. We're saying: we believe in our verification process so strongly that we'll insure every job. If something goes wrong, we'll pay. That's not marketing; that's accountability.
If you need to file a claim, it's simple: report through your booking dashboard within 48 hours, upload photos, and our team responds within 24 hours. Payouts happen within 7 working days of approval. No fine print, no runaround. Read our full Insurance Terms page for the details — we published everything.
