Buying an existing Airbnb property

[Erik1242]

Hello! I own a vacation rental property that is listed on Airbnb, so I am very familiar with the hosting process. I am currently in the process of buying another property that is currently listed on Airbnb. I plan to continue using it as a vacation rental. 

My understanding is that Airbnb listings are not transferable and that I will need to create an entirely new listing for this property (which I prefer to do). However, the current owner has reservations extending into 2022 and I'm not sure what is standard process. Are those automatically canceled? Automatically transferred to me?

I'm not sure I want these reservations w/o being able to vet the guests, have them sign my rental agreement, etc.

Thanks in advance.

[Kelly149]

they will be cancelled. You will start over

[Sarah977]

@Erik1242  Definitely not automatically transferred- that would be really disrepectful to guests, who have booked on the basis of the reviews the previous host earned. They need to be given a choice as to whether they want to keep the booking or not. In your case , they probably will be fine with keeping it, as you are already a host with hopefully good reviews.

So the previous host has to deal with this- contact the guests and explain the situation, and if they want to keep the bookings, you can contact Airbnb to see if they can assist with transferring them.

If you don't want the bookings, because you can't vet the guests, then the previous host should contact Airbnb to get them all cancelled. 

It would be really rude to guests to just have their bookings cancelled with no explanation.

[Dale711]

Hi @Erik1242,

Welcome to the community!

The host needs to contact Airbnb to cancel the multiple future booking. It wouldn't automatically transfer the bookings to your new listings or your new account.

If I were the guest, the host encourages me to rebook to the new owner, and I wouldn't consider it because the listing is lacking accuracy, even though I had to get back my full refund.