Transferring Accounts?

[InnDeep]

Hello All,
We are down to the last two weeks before we take ownership of our B&B. I’m alternating between total excitement and abject terror. All that and much paperwork/online accounting to transfer accounts over between the old owners and ourselves. They are being wonderfully helpful and will stay on for a few weeks to make sure all goes smoothly for us.

As I said before here, I don’t plan to change much until we have some clue as to what we’re doing as innkeepers. If it’s not broken, we’re not fixing it.
So far we have transferred the major online payment processing systems and reservation systems as well as set up a changeover for Booking.com (the only OTA they currently use).

However, the current owner has done what I’ve seen some of you discuss doing recently and listed all of our 7 rooms individually on Air. She says she’s done quite well with this listing (despite the issues AirB&B can cause that I’ve duly noted from your discussions). Her listings are very comprehensive and well written with good pictures & a few nice reviews.

Does anyone know if these listings can be transferred like other such accounts? I’m having a feeling I’m going to have to rebuild them. So far neither she nor I can reach a real person at Air to ask.
Thanks and sorry for the Novel.

Also, the old owners have canceled their listings in B&B finder and other such listing services, do other innkeepers here suggest we enroll our B&B in these listings - if so, which ones seem to be the most helpful? Again. Thank you.

 

[Morticia]

No. The air accounts cannot be transferred. You have to be approved by air and then relist. Make a copy of the text so you don’t have to write everything from scratch. (The air forums are good for getting these answers.) Basically, the guests are staying because of the owners, not the building. Therefore, new owners have zero standing. So, if they are super hosts, you lose all that traction. (Unlike TripAdvisor where you can keep it if it’s good.)

I’d skip the directories for the time being unless you have google analytics that show you’ve been getting traffic.

What you might look into is google hotel.

 

[InnDeep]

Hmm. Google hotel? Ok. Will look into it. I don’t have analytics, so no clue what directories may have been helpful in the past.

I had a feeling the AirB&B listings followed the host, not the property, but thank you for the confirmation. I’ve already saved off the text and have the photos from the previous owner. Shouldn’t be too hard to recreate, but will have to wait for changeover date to do so.

Good to know that Trip Advisor will transfer over. I just sent an email to the prior owner about that account after reading your message. So many accounts to remember to handle! Eek. Thank you for your response. Makes me feel a little less alone and freaked out.

 

[Morticia]

I keep a running list of everything I’ve listed us on, all the possible people and entities that might make an appearance (FireDepartment, health inspector, AAA, fire extinguisher inspector, fire alarm inspector, etc), and how much everything costs just in case we ever sell! I will change all the passwords to a single one and let the new people figure out what they want to do after that. I’ve got a whole book ready to hand over.

Things you don’t know yet, but definitely will soon enough:

• Everyone who wants something from you, including repeat guests, will tell you the other owners used to do that for them (like the guy who expected me to wash his car),
• You do not have to pay anyone for all the legal employment posters you have to put up for your employees — all available for free on your state’s website,
• Read every bill carefully, a lot of them are scams (yellow pages, as an example),
• Guests who tell you everyone’s name in an email, who want to stay for ten or fourteen days, who don’t care what the price is, who want multiple double rooms are almost 100% of the time scammers.

 

[Arks]

(yellow pages, as an example)

Ha! Remember the yellow pages? I'll bet nobody under 30 even knows what the term means!

Here they are trying to teach people under 30 how to mail in a ballot. Were to put the stamps, for instance. They have no idea. Have never mailed a letter before.

 

[witthuus]

• Guests who tell you everyone’s name in an email, who want to stay for ten or fourteen days, who don’t care what the price is, who want multiple double rooms are almost 100% of the time scammers.

Haha - got this email this morning and my first thought was: SCAM !!

Reservation Inquiries From: james park <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 3:57 am To: undisclosed-recipients
Hello there, Please assist to book 5 single/double rooms male and female in each occupancy as per below details with Breakfast and wifi. Guest Name: Mr . James Park Mr . Calvin Gan Mrs. Janet Mill Mr . Mark Mill Mrs. Low Siau Check in : 14th October 2020 Check out : 20th October 2020

Look where they send it to: undisclosed-recipients LOL. I will send him an email asking for $150 administrative fees in cash before we start working on reservation requests

 

[gillumhouse]

Haha - got this email this morning and my first thought was: SCAM !!

Reservation Inquiries From: james park <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 3:57 am To: undisclosed-recipients
Hello there, Please assist to book 5 single/double rooms male and female in each occupancy as per below details with Breakfast and wifi. Guest Name: Mr . James Park Mr . Calvin Gan Mrs. Janet Mill Mr . Mark Mill Mrs. Low Siau Check in : 14th October 2020 Check out : 20th October 2020

Look where they send it to: undisclosed-recipients LOL. I will send him an email asking for $150 administrative fees in cash before we start working on reservation requests

To the Newbies: NEVER reply to these because it tags your e-mail as a live, GOOD e-mail that they will now add to THEIR list that they sell to other scammers.

FYI - the old Yellow Pages is now YELP. - run from them.

 

[InnDeep]

Haha - got this email this morning and my first thought was: SCAM !!

Reservation Inquiries From: james park <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 3:57 am To: undisclosed-recipients
Hello there, Please assist to book 5 single/double rooms male and female in each occupancy as per below details with Breakfast and wifi. Guest Name: Mr . James Park Mr . Calvin Gan Mrs. Janet Mill Mr . Mark Mill Mrs. Low Siau Check in : 14th October 2020 Check out : 20th October 2020

Look where they send it to: undisclosed-recipients LOL. I will send him an email asking for $150 administrative fees in cash before we start working on reservation requests

Good to know. Sounds like your basic Craigslist scam. Lovely. Can’t wait!

 

[InnDeep]

To the Newbies: NEVER reply to these because it tags your e-mail as a live, GOOD e-mail that they will now add to THEIR list that they sell to other scammers.

FYI - the old Yellow Pages is now YELP. - run from them.

Ahh. Gotcha!

 

[Morticia]

James Park is very busy.

Another way to check is to do a google search on the name, phone number, and address. Most people booking multiple rooms don’t live in a parking lot or abandoned building.

 

[ramonalea]

I keep a running list of everything I’ve listed us on, all the possible people and entities that might make an appearance (FireDepartment, health inspector, AAA, fire extinguisher inspector, fire alarm inspector, etc), and how much everything costs just in case we ever sell! I will change all the passwords to a single one and let the new people figure out what they want to do after that. I’ve got a whole book ready to hand over.

Things you don’t know yet, but definitely will soon enough:

• Everyone who wants something from you, including repeat guests, will tell you the other owners used to do that for them (like the guy who expected me to wash his car),
• You do not have to pay anyone for all the legal employment posters you have to put up for your employees — all available for free on your state’s website,
• Read every bill carefully, a lot of them are scams (yellow pages, as an example),
• Guests who tell you everyone’s name in an email, who want to stay for ten or fourteen days, who don’t care what the price is, who want multiple double rooms are almost 100% of the time scammers.

Guests who tell you everyone’s name in an email, who want to stay for ten or fourteen days, who don’t care what the price is, who want multiple double rooms are almost 100% of the time scammers. LOL
We have all been there and always go What? Pretty easy to spot, if you are not sure ask them to please call you. A lot of these spammers try to tell you they are travel agents working for clients from outside the country coming to visit.

 

[Anon Inn]

The current owner has listed all of our 7 rooms individually on Air. Can they be transferred like other such accounts?

I've thought about this in terms of transferring my own one day. I would be able to change 'my' email, personal details in listing description, login and such to the new folks while maintaining the existing persona on Air. I suspect there is a back door way to change that too. If the sellers are amenable, you can likely figure this out.

 

[Accidental Island]

• Guests who tell you everyone’s name in an email, who want to stay for ten or fourteen days, who don’t care what the price is, who want multiple double rooms are almost 100% of the time scammers.

I'm curious, besides the above mentioned risk of being identified as a "good" live email address, what the scam angle is on this kind of effort? What could they get out of it?

 

[Morticia]

• Guests who tell you everyone’s name in an email, who want to stay for ten or fourteen days, who don’t care what the price is, who want multiple double rooms are almost 100% of the time scammers.

I'm curious, besides the above mentioned risk of being identified as a "good" live email address, what the scam angle is on this kind of effort? What could they get out of it?

Money. It’s always about money.

Generally, the way these scams work is to give you a stolen credit card on which to charge the large room fee. Then, oh dear, they have to cancel and their credit card account has been closed, so could you please refund to their new card number? If you fall for it you just refunded them your own money because the original stolen card number will take the money back from you when they realize the card has been used fraudulently thus leaving you having refunded money you don’t actually have.

 

[witthuus]

• Guests who tell you everyone’s name in an email, who want to stay for ten or fourteen days, who don’t care what the price is, who want multiple double rooms are almost 100% of the time scammers.

I'm curious, besides the above mentioned risk of being identified as a "good" live email address, what the scam angle is on this kind of effort? What could they get out of it?

usually they send a check and way higher $$ then the original booking amount. It is a check from a foreign country. They tell you this is a business trip and their company made out the check higher because it includes their travel expenses like rental car, flights, meals etc. They now ask you to return a check in the amount of what they over payed. As this is a foreign check you received, it will take your bank 30 days to figure out it is fraudulent. By then they cashed your (good) check and you'll never hear from them again. Of course they will be no shows.

 

[Accidental Island]

Thanks everybody... Yuck.

 

[InnDeep]

Exactly. Total yuck - but thank you all for the warnings!