How to switch holiday let management company without losing bookings

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To switch holiday let management company, read your contract for the notice period and what happens to bookings already taken, find out whose account each listing sits on, then give written notice and agree a handover date. Before that date, list every future booking and agree who hosts it, collect deposits, owner funds, keys, manuals and certificates, and change every access code. Most homes can move cleanly in six to eight weeks.

This guide is general information, correct as of 1 October 2026. It is not legal advice. If your contract is unclear or the parting is not friendly, take advice from a solicitor before you give notice.

Step 1: read the contract before you give notice

Four clauses decide how the switch goes.

• Notice period. How long, from when, and in what form. Some contracts tie notice to the end of a season or a calendar month.
• Bookings already taken. Whether they must be honoured, who hosts them, and whether the old manager keeps commission on them.
• Exit fees. Any charge for leaving, for removing listings or for handing over photos.
• Intellectual property. Who owns the photographs, the listing text and any direct booking website pages.

Unexpected exit charges in standard terms may be open to challenge if you contracted as a consumer, under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but that depends on the facts. Take advice before refusing to pay one.

For comparison, Sea Breeze asks for 45 days' notice. Bookings already taken are honoured, or the owner pays the cancellation cost.

Step 2: find out who owns the listings and the reviews

This is the question that decides how much you keep.

Listing on your own account. If the Airbnb listing was created on your account and the manager is a co-host, the listing, its reviews and its booking history stay with you. Airbnb lets the listing owner add co-hosts and control what they can do. When the switch happens, you remove the old co-host and add the new one. The same idea applies on Booking.com and Vrbo when the property is registered to you.

Listing on the manager's account. If the manager created the listing on its own account, it usually stays there. Airbnb does not generally move a listing with its reviews and future reservations from one host account to another, so the new manager builds a fresh listing and the reviews start again. Ask the old manager to confirm in writing when the old listing will be deactivated, so it cannot take bookings after you leave.

Log in to each platform and check before you give notice. If you do not have a login for a listing of your property, that tells you whose it is.

Step 3: list every booking in the calendar

Ask the old manager for a full schedule of future bookings: dates, guest name, channel, amount paid, amount still due, damage deposit, and any special arrangements. Then agree, booking by booking, who will host each one.

There are three common outcomes:

• The old manager hosts every stay up to the handover date and the new manager takes over everything after. This is the simplest.
• Bookings after the handover move to the new manager. On a listing you own, this is straightforward. On the manager's own listing, the guest may need to rebook or be hosted under the old listing to the end.
• The old manager hosts every booking it took, even after the handover. Common where notice periods are short, but it leaves two companies working on your property at once.

Avoid cancelling guests to clear the calendar. Platforms charge hosts for cancellations, it can cost review standing, and the guest has done nothing wrong.

Step 4: money, deposits and the final statement

Before the handover date, agree in writing:

• the date of the final owner statement and payment
• the treatment of commission on stays that span the handover
• any damage deposits held for future guests, and how they will be returned or transferred
• any float held for repairs, consumables or utilities
• outstanding invoices from cleaners and contractors, and who pays them

If your payouts come straight from the platforms to you, much of this is simpler. If the manager collects booking money and pays you monthly, ask where it is held and when the last payment will arrive.

Step 5: keys, codes, data and documents

Make a handover list and tick it off.

• Every key, fob and remote, and the codes for key safes, smart locks and alarms.
• Wi-Fi details, utility accounts and meter readings.
• The property manual, inventory and photographs of condition.
• Certificates: fire risk assessment, gas safety record, electrical report, PAT records, chimney sweep.
• Your nights log, if you are on business rates. You need 140 nights available and 70 let in the previous 12 months to stay on them, so the record must carry on.
• Contacts for cleaners, linen and contractors, if you want to keep them.

Change every access code the day the new manager starts. On guest data, ask what will be passed to you or the new manager and on what basis. Under UK data protection law, a manager that decides how guest data is used may be a controller in its own right, not just acting for you, so it may be right for it to keep some records. Never ask for guests' card details.

Step 6: a working timeline

For a single property, a typical switch runs like this.

The quieter months make all of this easier. Switching in October to March means fewer bookings to hand over and more time to get the new listings right before Easter.

Choosing who to switch to

Most owners switch because of poor communication, falling bookings, unclear charges or a property that is not looked after. Make sure the new contract fixes those. Ask for the commission rate and what it is calculated on, what is and is not included, the notice period, and how cleaning and repairs are charged. Our guide to agency commission explains how to compare quotes fairly.

Sea Breeze charges a flat 16% commission on booking revenue, with no retainer, and 45 days' notice. Where your listing is on your own account and in good shape, we can co-host it rather than rebuild it, so your reviews come with you. Where a new listing is needed, it is typically live within a week of the photographer's visit. Cleaning, linen and repairs are paid separately, and you can keep your existing cleaner and contractors. See holiday let management or our pricing.