hostile owners

[Marianne526]

NEED advise- HOSTILE owners are disgruntled because I gave 60 days notice to terminate.  They are threatening to have guests arrested for trespassing if I don't allow them access to the sites that they signed an agreement to - All my listings are the property of my company for liability issues and to avoid disgruntled owners from causing bad reviews and affecting the rest of the listings and my status.  

What do I do with all their future guests that under the agreement they are supposed to be honored.   AIRBNB IS NOT HELPING at all

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Marianne526 I am somewhat confused by the situation. It sounds as though you want to terminate a lease but expect the property owner to honour reservations into the future. If this is the case how did you expect the owners to be able to do this? Also why did you take bookings beyond the date you rented the property for?

Airbnb does not allow bookings to be passed between people so setting up your listings the way you have seems to be the cause of the problem.

[Mark116]

@Marianne526  I'm confused.  Are you saying that you, the tenant, have been subletting property on airbnb, and that now, you, the tenant are ending the relationship w/in 60 days, but that you have reservations for after the 60 days that the owner does not want to honor?  

[Marianne526]

no I am the Property Manager who obtained a substantial amount of short term rentals and the owner is upset that I am terminating after 60 days 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Marianne526 As the property manager did you place the properties on Airbnb in your name? If so then was this, in retrospect, a mistake? 

[Marianne526]

No not a mistake at all. 

[Mark116]

I still don't see the problem, you the property manager are leaving the business, so the owner can either hire another property manager or close the listings, correct?

[Helen350]

I would have thought that hiring another property manager was only an option if they had originally been marketed with @Marianne526 as the CO-HOST, and the owner as the host? - Had that been the case, it would be easy for Marianne to jump ship, and have the owner(s) manage their own properties, including outstanding reservations... - or get another co-host.

Is the problem that Marianne did not understand the host/co-host system for properties owned by one person but managed by another????????????

[Linda108]

@Marianne526  As I understand, you are a property manager who opened a profile on Air BNB and used the platform to market the 11 listings you manage.  Now you are leaving this property management operation and under the Air BNB terms, you must cancel all reservations after your 60 days and thus you will deactivate your profile.  Perhaps what was not understood by you, is that the Air BNB reservations are under your profile only and cannot be transferred.  So go ahead and cancel all reservations beyond your termination date.  You will incur host penalty of course, but it is the only way to exit.  If there are applicable extenuating circumstances you can request Air BNB to cancel these without penalty.

I can understand that the owners would not want to be responsible for the reservations depending on what their circumstances are.  Perhaps you could develop a transition plan in which you notify the guest of the change, offer the option for the guest to cancel and guarantee reimbursement of the Air BNB fees.  For the owners, your plan could provide a communication to the new property manager for each property if they want to save the reservation.  Hope this helps.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mark116 I don't see the problem either but its good fun guessing so here goes.

@Marianne526 had an agreement with property owners to market their properties for STR. 

She put their properties on Airbnb under her account.

She has now given notice to stop marketing the properties in 60 days

The owners want to take over the listing - not clear if this is their contractual right.

How am I doing Marianne?

[Helen213]

I think I got it.  Marianne is a propery manager of Airbnb listings that are rentals from an "Owner".  Business is very slow so she is terminating the leases in 60 days.  Before that 60 days period is over, she still has reservations to honor.  The owner is angry she is terminating the lease and is threatening to harass and guests within that 60 day period.

I would first speak to the owner and state that  if "they" choose to harass guest you will report him to the police and withhold rent. I would give them a set of dates that work can be done or the space shown because there are no guests staying as a gesture of good faith.

Otherwise there is not much you can do beyond cancel the reservations or explain the situation to the guests. That way they can choose to cancel if they want.  If he does harass guests, call the police.

[Sarah977]

@Marianne526  When you post looking for advice, it's a good idea to make the situation clear- as you can see, the responders here, all of whom are experienced hosts, are just playing a guessing game as to what you actually meant. 

And "What do I do with all their future guests that under the agreement they are supposed to be honored'" - If the accounts are under your name, the future guests with standing bookings aren't "their" guests, they are yours. You can't just pass on guests to a new manager or back to the owner, who hasn't been dealing with guests at all, as if they are a piece of furniture. You wanted the listings in your name so that you received the reviews and had control of things, guests book based on the reviews, which are more of the host than the property itself, so it is you who are abandoning those guests. The owners are not responsible for the bookings you accepted, you are.