Best way to transition an active Airbnb from current manager to me?

[Youngwan Ko]

Hi everyone,

I’m on a process of closing on an active Airbnb. It’s currently being run by a property manager(not a company), but I’m planning to manage it by myself.

I understand that future reservations can’t be directly transferred to me. My thought is to keep the manager for a couple of months while I join as a co-host, then eventually remove her and run it fully under my account, if it’s even possible.

Has anyone here done a transition like this? Is the co-hosting approach the best/cleanest way to handle existing reservations?

Another big question will be what’s a fair compensation amount for the outgoing manager during this short transition. I won’t ask her to do anything but maybe one day, 2-3 hour of final go through at the property to get some tips and property exploration.

Appreciate any advice from folks who’ve navigated this before!

[Josh Ball]

You cannot transfer ownership of that current AirBNB listing or VRBO listing. Even if they add you as a co-host for a few months & when you remove them in a couple months, you'll need to start fresh with no reviews. Whoever created that listing originally will always be the owner.

Buy the property, start fresh from the beginning & reach out to AirBNB & VRBO to ask them to cancel the previous bookings with the link to your new listing if the guests want to rebook.

Good Luck.