Property Sale and Transition Policy

Summary

This policy sets requirements for hosts that are selling their listed holiday rental property or transitioning their management of a property to a new host. Read on to find out more.

What hosts must do

Upon agreeing to sell a property or transition management of a property to new host or property manager, hosts must take the following actions to ensure a smooth transition and support any affected guests:

Notify affected guests if their stay will be cancelled or honoured by the new owner or property manager.
Where a new owner or property manager has agreed to honour upcoming bookings, guests must be offered the option to cancel their booking without penalty (regardless of cancellation policy).
Provide timely refunds for bookings that are cancelled. Where only part of a booking is cancelled, hosts must provide a refund for the remaining nights that are not honoured.

Future Bookings

To continue accepting bookings after the property’s expected closing or management change date, hosts must have an agreement with the new owner or property manager to honour all reservations after the sale or property management change. When hosts have such an agreement:

New hosts can relax the reservation terms but cannot add new terms or fees.
The original host must notify guests of the change in ownership or management and offer them the option to cancel and receive a full refund (regardless of cancellation policy).
Remaining guest payments must be paid through Bookabach to the original host, with any transfer of funds to be negotiated and handled between original host and the new one.

If hosts do not have such an agreement, then they must block calendars in their account for dates after the property’s expected closing date or property management change date.

The sale of a property or change of management to a new host or property manager does not qualify for a cancellation waiver. Hosts will be subject to the Host Cancellation Policy if bookings are cancelled either by the host or a guest due to a property sale or property management change.

If an expected property sale or property management change does not go ahead, hosts can remove calendar blocks. Any reservations that were modified will not be reverted.

Listing Transfers

Listings cannot be transferred to another party. In the event of a property sale or change in property management, the new host must create a new listing for the property.
Existing content such as photos and descriptions will not be transferred to the new listing by Bookabach. New owners may request that reviews be transferred. Where this happens, the new listing will note that those reviews were received under previous ownership or management.