| What actually transfers | Nothing automatically. Reservations are contracts between the guest and the seller, and they do not ride along with the deed unless the purchase contract says so |
|---|---|
| Where the money usually sits | Largely already paid — to the platform, the seller, or the management company, often months in advance |
| The three workable options | Buyer assumes the bookings · seller cancels them · seller keeps the revenue and credits the buyer |
| The usual deal | Buyer honours the stays and receives a credit at closing for the advance payments the seller already holds |
| What breaks it | Discovering the calendar at the walkthrough. This belongs in the offer, not in the closing week |
| Cancellations cost more than money | Platform penalties, lost Superhost status and ranking damage all fall on whoever cancels |
Why this is not automatic
A confirmed reservation is a contract between the guest and whoever took the booking. It is personal to that host. It does not attach to the property, it does not transfer with the deed, and a buyer who closes on Tuesday has no obligation to a family arriving Thursday — and no right to their money either.
That sounds like a clean answer until you look at the calendar. A well-run Orlando vacation home can be booked six to twelve months out, with deposits and in many cases the full stay already paid. The seller is holding money for stays that will happen after they no longer own the house. Somebody has to resolve that, and the only place to do it is the purchase contract.
Handled early it is straightforward and it is a selling point: a buyer acquiring a property with $40,000 of confirmed forward revenue is buying a running business rather than a house. Handled late it turns into a re-trade three days before closing.
The three ways it gets resolved
The buyer assumes the bookings. The most common and usually the best outcome. The buyer honours every confirmed stay at the agreed rate, and at closing receives a credit for all advance payments the seller has already collected for stays after the closing date. The guests notice nothing. The calendar keeps its momentum, which matters more than owners realise — a listing that goes dark for two months loses ranking that takes a season to rebuild.
The seller cancels everything. Clean in principle, expensive in practice. Host cancellations on the major platforms carry financial penalties, automatic calendar blocking, a public note on the listing, and loss of Superhost status. It also strands guests who booked flights. Sometimes it is genuinely the only option — a buyer who intends to move in cannot honour a full summer of stays — but it should be a decision, not an accident.
The seller keeps the revenue and the buyer is compensated another way. Occasionally used where the numbers are small or the timing is awkward. It is the least tidy of the three and tends to leave one side feeling hard done by, because somebody is still hosting guests in a house they no longer own.
What the contract actually has to say
Whichever route you choose, the contract needs to name it explicitly. At minimum it should identify the reservations being conveyed — usually as a dated schedule attached as an exhibit, because “all current bookings” is meaningless by the time you close.
It should state who holds the advance payments until closing and how they are credited at closing. It should say what happens to a reservation that cancels between contract and closing, and to one that is newly made in that window — which is a real question, since most sellers keep taking bookings while under contract.
It should address security deposits and damage claims for stays that straddle the closing date. And it should say who is responsible for notifying the platform and transferring or relisting, because platform accounts are personal and the listing itself cannot simply be handed over like a set of keys.
None of this is exotic, but it is not in a standard residential purchase contract either. It belongs in an addendum drafted for the transaction.
The platform account problem
This is the part that surprises nearly everyone. You cannot sell your Airbnb listing. The account belongs to the host, the reviews belong to the host, and the Superhost status belongs to the host. A buyer taking over a property is starting a new listing with no history, no reviews and no ranking, even though the house is identical.
That is a genuine loss of value and it should be reflected somewhere in the price conversation. It is also an argument for the buyer assuming the existing bookings: arriving with a calendar that already has confirmed stays partially offsets starting from zero on the platform.
There are structures that preserve listing history — most obviously selling the entity that holds the property and the accounts rather than the property itself — but those are materially more complex transactions with tax and liability consequences well beyond a normal sale. If the listing history is genuinely the main asset, that is a conversation for an attorney and a CPA before you list.
Practical sequencing
Pull the full forward calendar before you list, with dates, gross amounts, amounts already collected and the cancellation terms on each reservation. That schedule is what a serious buyer will want and it is what the addendum will reference.
Decide in advance what you will do about new bookings while under contract. The usual answer is to keep accepting them up to a cutoff date agreed with the buyer, then stop, so the schedule attached to the contract does not drift.
Tell the buyer early. A buyer who learns during due diligence that they are inheriting eleven confirmed stays reacts very differently from one who learns it at the walkthrough, even when the economics are identical.
And keep the management company in the loop. If the property is professionally managed, the management agreement has its own termination terms, and a buyer who wants to keep the same manager is a much simpler transaction than one who does not.
This is general information about how these transactions are usually structured, not legal advice. Reservation conveyance belongs in a contract addendum drafted for the specific deal, and platform policies change — confirm the current cancellation and transfer rules before relying on any of it.