Selling home

[Simone325]

I am selling my Air BNB. How do I cancel with future reservations? Will I be penalized?

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

@Simone325 The simple answer is yes. Youll want to Contact Airbnb directly to have them process the cancellations in the least damaging way possible. 

[Matthew285]

@Simone325, maybe you could ask the new owner if they would be interested in taking over and servicing the existing bookings?

Or you could service the listing until the already-booked reservations are done?

(I am assuming you have snoozed the listing.)

[Steve_Karen0]

Matthew, I'm facing the same issue with selling our AirBNB and have a question about whether the buyer might be interested in "taking over and servicing the existing bookings" . . . If they are interested in becoming an AirBNB host like me, is it possible I can simply turn over my current listing to the new homeowner (which would require transferring it to them as a new host & they would set up their bank account, etc.), or do they need to set up a new listing from scratch?

[Alexandra316]

@Steve_Karen0 if you don't tag someone, the chances of them ever seeing your post is minimal.

To answer your question, you cannot transfer your listing to another person: the profile and reviews belong to you as an individual, not the property. The new owner would need to set up a new listing from scratch. If you want to try and transfer bookings from one host to another, you would need to get the guests' permission and get Airbnb to do the transfer.

[Steve_Karen0]

@Alexandra316, thanks for the heads up about tagging! 

And thank you for the explanation about not being able to transfer a listing to the new homeowner, which makes perfect sense.

[April3]

@Simone325 I was a co-host for someone who sold their home. We contacted Airbnb and they helped us through the process seemlessly. When we were reasonably sure the accepted offer would go through we turned off instant book and blocked the calendar. We kept all reservations through the inspection & financing process, and Airbnb was able to cancel the remaining bookings, and assist those guests in finding new ones. Neither the host nor I were penalized and were able to retain our superhost status. 

[Kathy259]

Hi April,

I am just now meeting with a realtor and am at the beginning of the process of selling my home and the studio that I rent via Airbnb.  I have already blocked booking for a year and am opening up each month so I avoid bookings far in the future.  It is possible that a new owner might continue with Airbnb, but that won't be known for some time so I want to take care not to book into the future.  Any advice you have on that would be most helpful.

There is one booking for April that was made before I blocked future months.  April is a busy tourist time in Skagit Valley with the tulips in bloom, so I would like to notifiy the guest soon about this uncertain status.  How should I proceed?

Thanks for your help,

Kathy