Purchasing Existing Air BNB

[Shelley319]

We are narrowing our search on a second property that we intend to list also as an AirBNB.  One of the properties is an existing listing.  Can you answer a few questions?   I understand that we will need to start our own listing.  That the existing profile is not transferrable and neither are the ratings, superhost status, etc.  There are currently bookings June  - September.

1. What happens with the existing reservations that were booked under the existing listing?  Does the person who owns the listing in Feb receive the payments for these future bookings?

2.  This is a listing that the owner lives next door.  We will be out of town.  So I think it is reasonable to expect that our cleaning fees will be higher.  I would think, in good faith, we would honor the rates on existing reservations.  I understand that maybe there is the ability to work out some transition plan for cleaning.  How has this worked in the past?  Does she cancel her reservations and rebook under ours?  I would think it would not be wise to have her responsible for bookings that take place after she is no longer the owner.

3. This is a listing that is for sale by owner.  Would it be reasonable to ask her to pause the listing after we go under contract?  For a number of reasons including: how would payment be made for listings after she is not the owner (mentioned above) as well as we would like to stay in the house and identify any quirks (heating, parking, etc) before we start renting it out and being responsible for the guest experience.  This was great advice from a previous question I posted and I would like to heed their advice!

The timing could be well suited for our needs since there are no bookings currently for the next 90 days.  That will allow us to close on the house.  Any guidance you can provide would be much appreciated.

[Gary-And-Rose0]

I personally wouldn’t take listing from previous owners. They should cancel abd talk to Airbnb explaining they just sold property. 

keep as simple as possible and start with a clean slate. It sounds like you won’t have any trouble renting the place. 

[Shelley319]

@Gary-And-Rose0  I thought that would be the cleanest way to handle it as well.

[Sarah977]

@Shelley319 When a listing is under new ownership, neither the present owner or you can just keep all the reservations- guests booked presumably after reading reviews and it would be unethical not to apprise them of the situation and give them a choice whether to keep the reservation or have it cancelled. They have no past reviews to go on with a new owner, who may or may not be a responsible host. Guests aren't like furnishings which can just be passed on.

As for honoring the cleaning fee that booked guests paid "in good faith", it isn't a matter of being nice- you can't change fees, cancellation policies or anything else on a confirmed reservation- whatever was in place when the guest booked must be honored.

I guess you'll have to talk to the present owner as to how to handle the booked reservations, but as I said, guests need to be informed and given a choice.

I'm not sure if Airbnb will assist in changing over reservations to your new listing for the guests who want to keep the booking so they don't have to rebook and pay a service fee again. 

And the present owner should not be accepting more bookings at this point.

I don't quite understand why you think the cleaning fee should go up just because you won't be living nearby- presumably it would take the same amount of time to clean after the place is yours as it does now. But if course you can set any new fees you want.

I should think that if anything goes up, it would be the nightly booking cost, as you will have the expense of hiring a local co-host to manage things.

[Shelley319]

Thank you for your insight.