selling your Airbnb rental

[Rachael171]

@Huma0 

@Ann72 

@Fred13 

@Sammy35 

...And all my other wonderful, supportive, clever Airbnb community members: I have a new question. 

I just listed my Airbnb condo for sale and after one day on the market, I have multiple offers!! Yay!!

But I also have Airbnb bookings sporadically throughout the end of the year. I'll try to schedule my closing date so as not to inconvenience guests in the near future, but at some point I'll just have to start cancelling reservations from my side I assume.

Or is there a way to transfer these bookings to the new owner? What other advice & watch outs do you guys have? 

Hugs and love to you all. 

[Ann72]

@Rachael171  Congrats, that's fantastic!  You can't transfer your account or the bookings to the new owner, alas.  Do you plan to continue hosting elsewhere?  If so, you might not want to cancel.  Does the new owner want to continue renting the place on Airbnb?  I wonder if the guests who are scheduled after the new owner takes possession would want to cancel and then re-book with the new host.

There are lots of discussions about this scattered around the web (https://www.google.com/search?q=airbnb+selling+to+a+new+owner&oq=airbnb+selling+to+a+new+owner&aqs=c...) - maybe some good info there.

Hope you'll still be a host and that we'll see you around!  My oldest daughter is a proud Guilford grad 🙂

[Rachael171]

@Ann72 Thank you for the link! Well that's how I'm marketing the place - a turnkey, furnished (Airbnb, VRBO) rental property. But we'll see what the offers say.

That's so cool about your daughter. I think that is a beautiful campus. 

[Fred13]

  As usual, sharp @Ann72  asked the most relevant question - 'Is the new owner intending to continue to host and use the property the same way?'. Meaning you are selling the place + the future revenue of its bookings? 

   IF so, then it stands to reason the transition may require your good will and further help making the transition that much smoother for the new owners. Also, the 'value' of anything lies greatly on the personality of its present owner, so I would think the new owners would want some good-will future involvement by the previous owner. IF you want no further participation with hosting or its responsibilities, then the sale should be 'As Is', with no further participation on your part. Airbnb is a whole other matter then, technically.

  I may be facing the same thing myself soon; I have an offer on the table, and have 50+ lucrative reservations from Nov.1st 2020 till 2021. And I am still not ready  mentally to start host back again, so a bit in suspended state. IF I sell,  I am offering to the new owner to stay involved as a matter of good will and good business for a two-year period. 

   Exciting times indeed@Rachael171. I love change, is what keeps us alert.

[Ann72]

@Fred13  Wow!  That's exciting.  Would you stay in Belize?  Continue hosting at another place?

[Fred13]

Stay in Belize for sure, life is peaceful here; quality of life is worth every penny. Still would be involved with hosting via our tour company/office downtown: whatever we do will do it that way; they come to office, we trick them out with the best gear, I still meet them and our assistant  takes them out and does the walk-through.

[Rachael171]

@Fred13 @Ann72 Great questions! I've marketed it as a turnkey, furnished rental property, but I've made no promises to transfer future bookings or any of that. Not that I would be opposed to helping the new owner transition if they want. 

I guess I'm asking more about watch outs with Airbnb, around when it comes time to start cancelling bookings. I mean I don't plan to host again at that property, so I don't think it matters if cancelling people tanks my metrics. I just want to give folks enough notice as to not inconvenience them. 

[Ann72]

@Rachael171  If you put up a new listing, it will be under your host account, so if your hosting metrics are hurt by canceling, they would be tied to the new listing.

If your relationship with the buyers is good, it would seem to make sense to help them put the listing up under their host account, with all your pictures and text, then encourage the guests to cancel and re-book with the new hosts, don't  you think?  That would inconvenience the guests the least.  As you get closer to their travel dates they might find fewer desirable options.

[Rachael171]

@Fred13 Congratulations! "One reason people resist change is because they focus on what they have to give up, instead of what they have to gain."

[Huma0]

@Rachael171 

Congratulations! Are you sure you haven't put it on the market too cheap though? Not sure how the system works there. Do you put an asking price and then see who offers the closest to it, or is it "offers above $XYZ?

Anyway, @Ann72 is right. The stats and reviews are not just tied to the listing but to your profile. The new owners cannot inherit them, they stay with you. So, even if you don't plan to host in the near future, those cancellations will still stay on your page (with no explanation as to why you cancelled). It's therefore best to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

I imagine that most guests will want to keep the bookings and will be happy to book with the new owner, providing the price doesn't go up. When a host cancels a reservation, I assume the guest gets their Airbnb fees back as well?

[Huma0]

@Rachael171 

Once you know for sure you are going ahead and the new owner is willing to take those bookings, it might be worth discussing it with Airbnb (providing you get a useful rep on the line) to explain the situation, i.e. that the guest is still getting their stay, to see if there is any way they will waive the cancellation penalties.

[Ann72]

@Rachael171 @Huma0  And from what I've read elsewhere, Airbnb will waive fees and penalties in this scenario.

[Rachael171]

@Huma0 @Ann72 

Omg, I just typed a whole big thing and then got an "unexpected error has occurred." FFS.

Yes, here you list for an asking price and then take offers until you get the highest/best. I've listed mine, taking into consideration it's a turnkey, furnished rental and has been generating such-and-such revenue consistently.

You're giving me great advice. You're right it's best to explain the situation to Airbnb and try to get penalties and fees waived. I'm just concerned about the customer service turnaround time these days. For example, I have a damage claim case sitting in the queue that is almost 2 weeks old now. Dead, no responses. And anytime you call CS, you get the ole "we'll have to assign a case specialist to you."

[Sammy35]

depends on and is totally contingent upon what your future user status and profile stands to be

not only would i not even bother with CS, i would never ever trust a response of that nature because too many of them have no idea what they are talking about.  especially in these times.  if you are planning to still use ABB as a guest or host i would, as you would expect, do as little as possible to disrupt your future reservations. 

i would NEVER EVER  hand anything of mine and my reputation over to  a "new host"  and in no way shape or form would i consider a cold or warm transfer, even if that were physically and functionally and logistically possible.

if you are leaving the entire platform for good.  keep/maintain what rez you can, cancel what you can't and don't worry about it.  the guests will find alternatives.  do what is best for YOU.

if you have other listing properties or wish to host now or in future, make the most conservative diligent cautious rez cancel decisions possible.  ABB and guests will ding you as much as feasibly possible for creating inconveniences for them and for guests

if you are leaving the only the hosting platform for good and are maintaining guest travel and aren't concerned with the lost revenue, i would personally dump it all and not look back

congrats on the sale.

[Huma0]

@Rachael171 

True, dealing with CS right now can be a painfully slow process. On the other hand, I've found that I get quicker (or at least more) response to less important matters than seemingly trivial ones. Maybe because there are different teams dealing with them?

For example, in terms of COVID related cancellations (or rather the ones that were wrongly refunded outside of the EC) and missing payouts, it took roughly a month of constantly harassing CS in every case. In contrast, when I contacted them about my Superhost bonus, I got a fairly swift response and CS actually chasing me to see if it was all sorted. Not that I was happy with the outcome, but at least they got back to me (repeatedly).

So, you never know. Give it a try and let us know how it goes!