Transferring AirBNB Bookings From Management Company After Acquisition

[Josh H.]

We recently purchased a cabin in Tennessee. It has a good amount of bookings throughout the summer. We self manage two other properties in the Outer Banks, where we are AirBNB Super Hosts and VRBO Premier Hosts.

Before acquiring the house in Tennessee, we spoke with the property manager - he agreed to 13% commission, and other terms were acceptable, so we decided to stay with him for the rest of this year so that we didn't lose our in all of the bookings.

Just a week after closing, we get an email stating the property manager sold his company and a new agreement would be sent out from the new company, with new terms. Very frustrating! The owner of the old company was obviously already in talks, he said nothing about this to us.

We had a call yesterday with the new company, as of now, their terms are not acceptable to us. On top of that, for the last several days, they have had our calendar blocked off. There is a week left at the end of June, and a couple of weeks in July that people can't book because they are blocked off, while they sort out getting the transition done. Also very frustrating. They are potentially costing us money since people are booking those weeks at other cabins right now.

Here's the interesting part: the owner of the new company (who manages 250 properties) told us yesterday that the calendars only appear blocked off because they created a new listing and through a "Special Relationship" they have with Airbnb and VRBO, they don't have to cancel and rebook all of the existing bookings. If this is true and we can also do this, it would be great, because we can just slide all of those bookings right over to our new listings instead, and stop dealing with the management company, that would be taking our money.

Questions:

1. Does anyone know how to do this? I've called AirBNB SuperHost Support, they don't know how to help me, as they just read answers from a script and are very limited in what they know and can do.

2. In Tennessee, do we legally own the bookings since they are at our cabin, or are they the property management company's? Our cabin has some amenities that most others in the surrounding area don't, so I'm sure the guests would like to keep their bookings there.

Thanks.

[John Underwood]

I doubt the OTA's will help you. As Ian said I would do what it takes to get control of your new calendar. 

Offer the current company a fee to help facilitate them contacting the current guests and give them your new account so you can start getting bookings under your account and start getting reviews.

Does your place have a name so that guests can find you and know it's the same place? 

I'd copy all their pictures which were from the previous PM. I would use the lead photos or all the photos, so people know it's the same place when they go to rebook. If you get any hassle about the pictures from the current PM I would retake them at similar angles, so they look like theirs, but are taken by you or your photographer.