Issues with transferring AirBnB Listing Ownership

[Nicholas Utesch]

Hello,

I was curious if anyone in this forum could provide feedback about an issue we're encountering with a 4 plex that we have done AirBnB on for around 5 years.  I am a co-owner of the property (50/50) and my business partner had one of his employees initially set up our listing for the 4 plex.  She is the listing admin contact and is in Oklahoma City, where my business partner lives.  The property is in Fort Lauderdale and we have a co-host in Fort Lauderdale that has been our boots on the ground, handled all guest communications, guest check ins, etc. since we started.

The person that works for my business partner is no longer working with our LLC and she is refusing to transfer ownership of the listing to us--That AirBnB account has our LLC EIN, the property is owned by our LLC, The bank account is our LLC and she has zero ownership of the LLC, EIN, business account the AirBnB revenues are deposited into, etc. We are getting conflicting information from AirBnB.

Logically, I would think we could keep all 500ish of our 4.92 star average reviews we've worked hard for over the past 5 or so years on all 4 units by proving that nothing is changing with ownership of the LLC, Bank Account, EIN and that we basically just have a rogue former employee that doesn't want to release the listing that was set up under her personal account with her credentials. I'm also hearing that we may be able to retain all of those listings by filing a suspicious activity report with AirBnB indicating her non compliance in transerring the listing with us and prove our ownership of that LLC, bank account, EIN, etc.

We are very concerned about losing those great reviews--nothing will be changing on our end (bank account remains the same, EIN remains the same, boots on the ground host thats done all communication remains the same, etc.).  If anyone can share any feedback on whether or not its possible to keep those reviews, I would appreciate any input.  I'm not well versed in AirBnB rules as most of my rental units are long term so this is a bit of uncharted waters for me.  Thank you!

[Frank Barletta]

Seems strictly to be an Airbnb support issue. I would contact their phone support and escalate.

As long as your Airbnb login account isn’t being changed, you technically don’t lose any of the data.

I believe you can update business and banking information on it at any time via setting.

[Nicholas Utesch]

The challenge we have is she set the log in up with her personal credentials and not our company credentials (even though it is our company bank account, EIN, etc.).  I wonder if they'd be able to update that if we prove ownership?

[Sarah Kensinger]

I'm sorry to say this but I think you have lost the account unless you can entice her to change it over to the business. It should have always been under business credentials since you had all the other business info on the account. Maybe someone else has some suggestions that I don't know about, but this seems to be a true bummer situation!

[John Underwood]

Airbnb support is going to have to help solve this. 

Since you can prove ownership they should be able to help you. If necessary keep calling until you get someone that can help or ask to speak to a supervisor if the first is unable to fix the issue.

[Luke Carl]

My guess is you’re going to lose it and have to start another one but as others have said just keep calling and escalating 

[Michael Baum]

Hey @Nicholas Utesch, why is she refusing to give you the info?

If she is adamant and she was an employee, I would go to court. That account has value and essentially she has stolen it. This really chaps my hide...

[Brooklyn McCarty]

TLDR; you can’t transfer listings on Airbnb. Just VRBO.