Switching holiday rental manager in Marbella is mostly a planning job. Before you give notice, check how much notice your current agreement asks for, find out whose account your Airbnb and Booking.com listings sit in, list every booking already on the calendar, and confirm that the tourist licence is in your own name. Get those four things clear first and the handover rarely costs you a booking.
Owners usually start looking when the monthly report stops answering their questions, when the home comes back from a busy summer in worse shape than it left, or when nobody picks up the phone in August. Whatever the reason, the steps below keep your guests, your reviews and your income safe while the keys change hands.
What should you check before you give notice?
Start with your current agreement, not with the new manager. Three points matter most.
- The notice period. Find the exact period and how notice must be given (email, letter or a form). If your agreement asks for two months' notice, notice given on 31 October ends it on 31 December, and the new manager can plan from 1 January.
- Stays booked before the end date. Some agreements say the outgoing manager still hosts, or still earns on, stays that were booked before notice was given. Know this before you choose a handover date.
- Photos and listing text. Ask who owns the photos and descriptions. If the manager paid for the shoot, the photos may not leave with you.
Read the agreement once, write the dates down, and only then send your notice.
Who owns your Airbnb listing and its reviews?
This is the question that catches most owners out. Airbnb's help centre is clear that an account cannot be transferred to a different host, and that reservations cannot be moved to a new host or account. If your listing sits in your manager's account, it stays there: the new manager builds a fresh listing, and the reviews stay behind with the old one.
If the listing sits in your own account, with the manager added as a co-host, the picture is much better. You remove the old co-host and add the new one, and the listing keeps its reviews and its history.
Booking.com works on a similar principle. The property belongs to the partner account that registered it, and a change of account holder is requested through the Extranet. Ask your current manager in writing which accounts both listings are in, before you give notice.
One more trap: if the old listing stays live while a new one is published for the same home, Airbnb can treat the new one as a duplicate. Agree a date on which the old listing is closed.
What happens to bookings already on the calendar?
Because reservations cannot move between Airbnb accounts, every future stay booked on the old manager's listing belongs to that listing. In practice there are three ways to handle them:
- The outgoing manager hosts the stays already booked, and the new manager takes over from the first free night after the last of them.
- The old listing stays open only for those stays, with its calendar closed to new bookings, while the new listing takes everything after the handover date.
- For one or two stays, the guests are contacted and, if they agree, rebooked on the new listing on the same terms. This needs care, because a guest is free to say no.
Whichever route you choose, make a written list of every booking: dates, channel, guest name and the amount paid. That list is the backbone of the handover, and it is the first thing a good new manager asks for.
When is the best time to switch in Marbella?
The quietest window on the Costa del Sol runs from November to February, outside the Christmas and New Year weeks. Fewer stays are on the calendar, so fewer bookings need handing over, and the new manager has time to reshoot photos, sort small repairs and set prices before Easter and the summer fill the calendar. Switching in July or August is possible, but every changeover day carries more risk when the home turns around guests back to back.
Plan backwards from the date you want the new manager live. Allow for your notice period, then a few weeks for the new listing, the photos and the pricing to settle.
What does a good handover include?
The licence comes first. Your tourist registration, the Vivienda con Fines TurĂsticos (VFT), should be in your own name, and it stays with you when you change manager. Check that the registration number shown on the listing is your own. Our Marbella tourist licence guide explains how the registration works.
Guest registration comes second. Guest data goes to the Ministry of the Interior via SES.Hospedajes within 24 hours, so the new manager needs their own access set up before the first arrival.
Then the physical side: every key counted and labelled, codes on smart locks and key boxes changed, an inventory with condition photos agreed by both sides, and the cleaners, gardener or pool service told who they report to from the handover date. Utilities, wifi and the community of owners should be in your own name. If any of them sit with the manager, move them now.
How does Premavista take over a home?
We have hosted on Airbnb for about five years, as a Superhost, and we plan every switch together with the owner. The steps are set out on our holiday rental management page. You tell us your notice period and the bookings already taken, and we plan the switch around them. We record every booking already on the calendar and plan how each one is handled. We verify your tourist licence, which stays in your name, and set up guest registration with SES.Hospedajes. Your listing goes on Airbnb and Booking.com with new professional photos where needed, and pricing connected to PriceLabs. Keys are counted and labelled, with a smart lock or key box where it works, a walkthrough with inventory and condition photos, and our cleaner briefed on your home. Before the first guest arrives we sync the calendars across channels and do a final check.
Premavista is an established boutique agency with a curated portfolio and limited capacity, led by husband and wife Roderick and Anastasia with their own team. We are taking on a few new homes for the 2027 season in Marbella, Nueva AndalucĂa, BenahavĂs and Estepona.
Thinking about a change? Send us your current listing through our contact page or on WhatsApp at +34 600 543 173, and we will walk you through the switch for your home.
