How to switch from another manager

Start with your current agreement

Before you tell your manager you’re leaving, read the management agreement you signed with them. It decides how much notice you owe, what leaving costs and who keeps what.

Check whether notice has to be given in writing or to a particular address, and when it starts to run. Look for any termination fee, including charges for ‘handing over’ bookings. Some let the manager take a fee on stays booked before you leave but taking place afterwards, which is fair if they still host those guests. Some also stop you hiring the manager’s cleaners or contractors directly for a period after you leave.

If anything is unclear, ask the manager to confirm it in writing before you give notice.

Who owns the listing, the reviews and the photos

Owners usually worry most about the listing, because of its reviews. On Airbnb, reviews belong to the listing, and the listing sits on whichever account created it. Airbnb says it can’t transfer an account to a different host or merge two accounts, and that reservations can’t be moved to a new host or account. Moving a home to another account means creating a new listing there, so in practice the reviews stay behind.

That makes one question decisive: whose account is the listing on? If the old manager created it on their own account, the listing, its reviews and its bookings are theirs to close. If it’s on your own Airbnb account and the manager was added as a co-host, removing them as co-host keeps the listing, the reviews and future bookings with you.

The general position. Your agreement can say something different, and if it does, the agreement decides.

Booking.com works differently. It has a formal change of ownership process, started by the current account holder through the Booking.com extranet inbox, after which the new party signs its own contract and sets up its own payment details. Ask Booking.com Partner Support what carries over before you fix a date, and ask whether the page will be offline at any point while the new contract is set up.

Photos catch owners out. Under UK copyright law the person who takes a photo owns it, unless they took it as part of their job, in which case their employer does. So photos taken by the old manager’s photographer usually belong to the photographer or the manager, even though they show your home, unless your agreement says otherwise. The same goes for listing text they wrote. Get written permission to reuse them, or plan for new photos and copy.

Bookings already taken

Future bookings are where switching goes wrong if nobody plans them. A booking lives on the account that took it, and the guest’s payment, less the platform’s commission, is paid out to that account. Neither can be moved to your new manager’s account, so each booking is either hosted by the old manager or cancelled. Work through them one by one.

Honouring a booking is usually the better route: guests keep their plans and nobody pays a penalty. Set the switch date after the last stay the old manager will host, or let them host a few later stays while the new listing keeps those dates blocked. Cancelling costs money, and on Airbnb the fee rises sharply as check-in gets closer.

Those percentages are of the reservation amount, which includes the nightly rate, the cleaning fee and any pet fee (but not taxes or guest fees), with a minimum of US$50, and Airbnb usually takes them from the host’s next payouts. It can also block the dates on that listing and, for cancellations without a valid reason, suspend the listing or account. Airbnb tells hosts to cancel promptly if they can’t honour a booking and not to push guests into cancelling themselves. Other platforms set their own penalties.

Whoever cancels, the guest should hear early and plainly what is happening and who to contact, and should never be asked to pay outside the platform to keep a stay.

Money, deposits and the final statement

When you leave, the old manager should account for everything they hold for you. That means income from finished stays not yet paid to you, any float or advance you gave them for repairs, and any damage deposits taken from guests. A deposit belongs to the guest until their stay is over and checked, so it stays with whoever hosts that stay.

Watch two loose ends. Any damage claim still open with a platform runs through the account that holds the booking, so agree that the old manager will see it through and pass on what is recovered. And any bills or contractor invoices they paid on your behalf should be on the final statement with receipts, not arriving months later.

Keys, codes, suppliers and contents

On the switch date the new manager needs to get in, run the home and know what is in it. Ask for everything below in one handover, ideally at the property.

Once the keys are back, change every code: lock boxes, smart locks, the alarm and the Wi-Fi password, because former staff and past guests may know the old ones. If not every key comes back, change the locks. Agree who owns the kit around the home, such as smart locks, key safes and noise monitors, because a manager may have supplied items you assumed were yours.

Then look for accounts in the manager’s name and recharged to you, such as broadband, energy, a smart-lock app or linen hire. Move each one on the switch date, and photograph the meters so the final bills split cleanly.

Cleaning and linen need a decision too. The cleaner may work for the manager, and the linen may be theirs or hired. If you want to keep a good cleaner, check the agreement for a clause that stops you and talk to them early. If the linen leaves with the manager, the home needs a full set before the first new stay.

Safety records and guest data

Safety records belong with the home, and you need them whoever runs it. The gas safety rules cover homes let under a licence, which includes short lets, and each gas safety record must be kept until two further checks have been done. Ask for copies of everything, not just the latest.

• Gas safety records, and the date the next check is due
• Electrical reports, such as an electrical installation condition report (EICR), and any portable appliance testing
• The fire risk assessment, and logs of smoke and carbon monoxide alarm tests
• Any registration, licence or certificate for the home, and whose name it is in
• Records of repairs, insurance claims and anything still under warranty

If a registration or licence names the old manager, for example a Scottish short-term let licence that lists them as the day-to-day manager, ask your council whether the change has to be reported. Our guides to fire safety and gas and electrical checks explain what each record should show.

Guest details need care. The old manager collected guests’ names, contact details and often ID, and is responsible for that data under UK data protection law. This mostly matters for direct bookings taken through the old manager’s own website, since platform bookings stay on the platform. If those guests’ details have to move, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) advises sharing only what is needed, sending it securely and making sure people know how their data will be used. That means names, contact details and dates for the stays being handed over, not passport copies or a list of past guests for marketing.

Setting the switch date

Up to the switch date the old manager hosts; from it the new manager does. The old listings close and the new ones open on the same day, with the new calendar already blocked for any stays the old manager is still hosting. Two listings live for the same dates is how double bookings happen.

1. Before notice
   Read the agreementNotice period, fees, who owns the listing and who holds future bookings.
2. Giving notice
   Put it in writingAsk for a list of future bookings and everything held for the home.
3. During notice
   Agree the switch dateName a host for every booking either side of it.
4. Before the switch
   Collect and checkKeys, codes, records, the inventory and supplier details.
5. Switch date
   Old closes, new opensChange the codes, read the meters and check the home.
6. Afterwards
   Final statementCheck every booking, deposit and cost is accounted for.

When owners move to us, the old manager closes their listing on a date we agree and our listing starts from that date, so there are no double bookings. New listings are usually live within about three days of signing, which makes it straightforward to line the date up with your notice period.

Read any new manager’s notice terms as closely as the old ones. Ours are 30 days in the first three months and 90 days after that, with no long lock-in. Our guide to what management costs sets out the rest.

Questions owners ask