Adding new owner as co-host

[Sharyn51]

Hi, We are purchasing a property which includes four self-contained units which are currently let through Airbnb (business profile).

I have been told that in order to keep the Superhost rating and bookings the existing owners could add us as co-hosts, and then remove themselves from the account after settlement day.  

Does anyone know if this is correct, and how we can set up a profile before we own the property?

Many thanks,

Sharyn

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sharyn51 This is a way to try to get around the rules that say Airbnb's cannot be transferred to a new owner. It will fail however in that co-hosts do not have full access privileges to the account.

Another way around the rules would be to add yourselves as co-hosts and then get the existing owner to change the payout details to your account, the email to your email and then continue to operate under their name. Even this is likely to go wrong if you ever have to prove identity (because it won't be your name on the account.

If I were you I would just set up a new listing basically copying all the current text and make this go live at completion. Can you trust the existing host to move money to you as you work through the current bookings post completion? If not then it is a real mess and the current host will have to cancel existing bookings and they may or may not book with you.

[Helen3]

If you are buying a property you can't transfer the Airbnb listing into your name @Sharyn51 .

The host who is selling should have blocked out their calendar so they haven't accepted booking after your exchange date.

You need to set up the listing under your own profile. This is done so the guests can be confident that the reviews given previously are of the host who is actually hosting, rather than how a previous host operated the listing.

If you are added as a co-host you have limited access and payments go to the main host.