How to Manage Airbnb: Multiple Accounts

With Airbnb clamping down on duplicate accounts, a common concern among hosts is how to merge Airbnb accounts existing under the same name, and whether managing Airbnb multiple accounts is actually allowed on the site.

The truth is that managing multiple Airbnb accounts can be challenging and, under most circumstances, it’s better to stick to a single account.

Find out if you should manage one or many accounts, and discover some of the best ways to make this process less overwhelming.

Can I Have Multiple Airbnb Accounts?

Before learning how to manage Airbnb multiple accounts, you first need to consider whether you’re allowed to have them. The primary reason for hosts opening more than one Airbnb account for the same property is to achieve greater visibility on the site.

The more listings you have of your property, the more it will show up in Airbnb’s search results, increasing the chance of it being booked. While it seems like a good idea, it is actually banned.

As a company, Airbnb works to identify and ban users who go against its rules and regulations. They’re able to do this by tracking the single IP address or the same contact information that hosts use across multiple accounts they manage.

Yet, you are still able to create more than one active Airbnb account. However, this is not recommended if you only have one or two properties and are marketing to the same target guest.

If you’re looking to improve your property’s exposure by creating multiple Airbnb accounts, it would be better to list it on multiple platforms. Other top-rated Airbnb alternatives you can market it on include Vrbo, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, etc. You can also market your listings on social media channels, such as Facebook, to further your reach.

Instances When Managing Multiple Airbnb Accounts Can Be Beneficial

Although managing duplicated accounts and listings is indeed banned, there are instances where it can be beneficial to make different accounts:

1. If your properties are in different cities or locations. In this case, having separate accounts that showcase each unique address would clarify that your rentals are in different locations, which could prevent potential confusion from guests. Also, if your business has properties with distinctive features (for example, several lakeside cabins as well as a few city-center apartments), it would also be helpful to create different Airbnb accounts to better categorize them.
2. If you own a property management company, it would also be in your interest to set up several Airbnb accounts to make it easier for your team to oversee numerous properties.
3. You can use two separate accounts — one as a guest for booking other properties, the other one as an Airbnb hosting account for your hosting services.
   On other occasions, you might need to make multiple listings under one account. For example, if you have a house but you want to rent out rooms in it separately, you would need to make an individual listing for each room. Each room will have its own booking calendar and listing page, where you can add information relating to the room.

How Can I List Multiple Properties on My Airbnb Account?

If you have a company with several properties that you want to list and they are located in the same destination,  you should create individual listings for each of your rentals under one account.

To do this, simply follow the steps for creating a listing on the Airbnb website, and make one for each property.

How Many Listings Can One Host Have on Airbnb?

Many hosts wonder how many listings they are allowed to have under one Airbnb account. Airbnb’s Terms of Service don’t impose a limit on the number a host can have. In fact, if an Airbnb host has 6 listings or more, they can market them on their Airbnb pro marketing page found on the Host Dashboard.

Having numerous Airbnb accounts is often a logistical nightmare. How many Airbnb accounts do you think you could manage before things started to slip? Having your properties managed under the same account means you can make use of a property management company and a dynamic pricing service, and only pay for one subscription, versus more if they’re managed under multiple Airbnb accounts.

How Do I Merge Two Airbnb Accounts?

If you manage two accounts, and want to merge them, unfortunately, there is no way to do this. You will need to decide which account you want to save and which account you’d like to deactivate. Take a look at your Airbnb host rating and the quality of guests’ reviews on each of the Airbnb accounts.

Once you’ve identified which account is stronger, you’ll need to add the listing from the other account to this, more successful account. Choosing between two Airbnb accounts can be tricky, but keep in mind that it’s easier to manage Airbnb listings in one account rather than two Airbnb accounts.

You’ll want to keep the active account that has the best overall rating. If you have reservations on one of your profiles, log in to access the second account and snooze it. This will prevent any incoming bookings provided that all the previous reservations have been completed already. By doing so, you will prevent receiving double-bookings and save yourself from headaches.

What Challenges Do Airbnb Hosts with Multiple Accounts and Listings Usually Face?

Complete management of multiple Airbnb accounts presents unique challenges such as:

Keeping track of guest communication

For hosts, keeping track of your communication with guests can be a complete chore, depending on the number of profiles managed. However, you should do your best to send answers to guests’ messages and inquiries within 24 hours. If you can do it faster, good for you!

Airbnb keeps an eye on your response time and response rate. Being slow in your answers can hurt your ranking position on Airbnb and affect your listing visibility. This means that your listing will get fewer views from travelers, resulting in a lower occupancy rate and revenue.

Keeping your calendar up to date to prevent double-bookings

Regardless of whether you have Airbnb multiple accounts or manage multiple accounts on other vacation rental sites, keeping your calendars in sync won’t be an easy task. Any time an Airbnb user books your vacation rental listed on several platforms, you will need to log into all your other accounts to block out the corresponding dates to prevent double booking.

This can become tiresome to keep up, especially if you manage all your business accounts by yourself. Likewise, if a person contacts you to cancel their reservation, make sure you double back and unblock those dates across all your other calendars to make them available for other travelers, otherwise, you’ll miss out on bookings.

Allocating time to check multiple accounts

Another difficulty that comes with handling multiple Airbnb accounts is losing time logging in and out of each of them. If you want to check new messages or other reservation details, you will have to remember which account you have used.

Besides trying to remember where you left off with each conversation, you’ll also have to remember passwords for each account. The whole process will take a lot of your time and you may overlook some details and forget important matters.

Making updates to your profile/listings

Things like photos, property descriptions, prices, and special offers need to be updated across your multiple accounts. If you fail to do this, you could lose out on potential reservations. Your photos feature everything your property offers to the hosting community, so it’s important to keep them updated.

If you do any renovations to your rental or provide a new amenity it’s essential to feature these changes in your photos across all your platforms. It’s also necessary to keep all your offers consistent across your platforms to prevent confusion.

Price your listing competitively

As adjusting your pricing regularly in accordance with the changes in demand, supply, seasonality, and other factors are crucial for increasing your profits, you will also need to access multiple listings to apply new rates. Luckily, this task can become much easier if you introduce a dynamic pricing service to your revenue management strategy.

Simplify Your Short-Term Rental Property Management with Vacation Rental Software

As seen above, managing numerous accounts and listing can be a challenge for hosts. This is because there are many aspects of your business that you need to keep under control.

The silver lining is that there are smart tools and software solutions that can help you to streamline your daily property management operations. For example, by using vacation rental management software, you can take an automated approach to manage your Airbnb multiple accounts as well as properties listed on other platforms.

Vacation rental software, such as iGMS, allows you to automate various aspects of your business. By taking advantage of the following features, you can optimize your Airbnb account management processes by:

• Managing multiple accounts and listings on the top short-term rental platforms from a single interface
• Using the unified inbox to organize your messages into a single feed to ensure prompt answers
• Creating your own direct booking website
• Managing direct bookings using a direct booking management toolkit
• Processing payments securely via integration with Stripe.
• Creating essential reports on your business results within minutes
• Adjusting your pricing in a smart way through integrations with PriceLabs, DPGO, and Wheelhouse
• Improving communication with automated templates and triggered messaging
• Creating and coordinating cleaning tasks with live tracking to completion
• Automating the process of guest reviews

Although vacation rental software is an additional cost, it is an investment for the future. In the long run, by automating your tasks, you can significantly reduce your expenses and run your business without a big team in place.

On top of that, vacation rental software solutions have proven to be effective in streamlining management operations. At the end of the day, the better command you have of your multiple accounts, the more bookings you will get.

In Conclusion

Managing several profiles is a logistical headache. Some hosts have six or more listings in the same location (city, state, or country), but spread out over several accounts. Even with the most advanced revenue management plan, the time involved in managing just one Airbnb profile can be overwhelming.

Instead, ascertain which profile is the strongest and move your listings onto that one profile. It’ll simplify pretty much every aspect of your management process. Just be sure to update your contact details on your chosen profile to ensure that your stipulated number and your actual number are the same phone number.