When a business is sold or taken over, the new owners frequently wish to continue using SuperControl in order to ensure as seamless a transition as possible.
This article explains how a SuperControl account can be transferred from one owner to another, and provides a guide on the various factors to be aware of during this process.
Please note:
The instructions below are not intended to be exhaustive, and the policies and processes of integrated third parties are liable to change at any time.
1. Switching Account Records and Invoicing
Please inform us of the possible account transfer as soon as you are able.
Informing us at the earliest possible stage helps to ensure a smooth transition.
It is essential that the outgoing owner instruct SuperControl to transfer the existing account in writing (we cannot action it based on a request from the new owner, or a purely verbal request from the outgoing owner). This should be sent to: [email protected]
Accounts
The new owner's personal contact details and any of the following that will change after the sale of the business must also be emailed to our accounts department directly or via SuperControl support.
The details which may need to be updated on our system include:
- Business name
- Company Number
- Registered Office
- VAT number
- Business bank details
From the date that the next invoice (annual or quarterly, depending on the account set-up) is issued, the new owners will be responsible for paying for the account going forward.
Previous Owner
The previous owner should ensure that they have downloaded any reports they might require in future for tax and accounting purposes. Most of the Reports in SuperControl can be exported as an Excel or CSV file.
New Owner
Login users: It is recommended that the previous owners login is disabled when the account is handed over, and the new owners set-up new logins with a new email address, in order to preserve past activity logs for the previous owners. If required however, the email used to login by the previous users may be retained as the login.
Admin- General Details: The main contact (usually the business owner) details will need to be updated here, along with any other details that have changed (i.e. registered office or company number).
Terms & Conditions- These may need to be updated to reflect the new business owner and/or business name.
Guest Login- Any reference to the previous owners, and any contact info in the Guest Login welcome text/pages may need to be amended.
Emails/Letters- Edit: Any email templates signed off in the name of the previous owner will need to be amended.
Emails/Letters- Global Documents: Any Terms & Conditions or Policy documents here may need to be amended
Previous Owner
- The previous owner will need to contact their Payment Processor in order to request the shut-down of their account. This typically requires 30 days notice. SuperControl support can disable the integration between the Payment Processor account and SuperControl at any time, and we advise requesting this when payments are no longer to be made into the previous owners account for deposit/balance payments. The existing Payment processor account cannot be transferred to the new owner.
- You should also untick any of the card options in the Payment Options section of Admin- General Details. These should only be re-ticked when the new payment processor integration is complete.
New Owner
- The new owner must apply for a new Payment Processor account. We have created a guide to help make that choice easy.
- Once the integration with the previous Payment Processor has been disabled, no payments by card can be taken until the integration of the new Payment Processor is completed. In the interim, you can, if you wish, temporarily use PayPal as your Payment Processor, this can be added or removed easily, simply by adding a PayPal registered email address in the requisite section under Admin- General Details. You do not need to tick the card options above, and the guest does not need to have a PayPal account for them to make a card payment using Paypal.
- N.B. Clients in the UK or Europe should not use the Percentage Supplement feature. This is in place solely for those clients in jurisdictions where a card supplement may still be explicitly charged.
- You can also email any bookings imminently due balance payments, and request payment by bank transfer instead.
Beyond Pricing: Beyond Pricing are able to transfer the existing account to the new owner. To do this, they would need to assign the agreement to the new owner and change the billing details. Customers can write into [email protected] or their account manager to facilitate this.
UpFront Reviews: The New owner may feel that certain existing UpFront Reviews reflect peculiarities of the previous owner's hosting style, and may not be help future guests to form an accurate impression of the properties under their new management. If this is the case, then these reviews can be flagged for removal, with this given as the stated reason. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.
Channels:
Airbnb- Transferring a listing to a new host is unfortunately not possible. The main reason being that all Airbnb accounts are essentially 'Personal' accounts, and the reviews on a listing belong to you as a host, reflecting not only the quality of your property but also your hosting standards.
During the transfer period, the existing Airbnb listing should be disconnected from SuperControl and the properties snoozed/blocked. The previous owners can add the new owners as co-hosts during the transition period to help honour any existing bookings taken through the previous owners account. As co-hosts the new owners will be able to message guests and control the listing to some degree. You should come up with an agreement with the new owner to keep on managing the existing bookings until the last existing booking is honoured, and, since the payouts will be disbursed to the previous owner's nominated bank account, so any monetary transactions will have to be handled privately between you and the new owner.
During this transition period it is important that the new owners set up their own separate listing, and link this to the SuperControl account in place of the old one.
HomeAway/VRBO
HomeAway/ VRBO Policy: "No listing may be transferred to another party. In the event of a property sale or change in property management, we will provide guidance on options for creating a new listing. Any existing content (photos, description, etc.) will not be transferred over to any new listing created due to a property changing ownership.
If you are selling your property, please contact Customer Support to assist in deactivating your listing. Please be sure to log in to your account and cancel any scheduled payment requests. If the new owner would like to continue advertising the property, they can create a new account and new listing. We recommend that you work with the new owner to gracefully transition future reservations and message those travellers.
For help in setting up a new listing, the new owner is encouraged to contact our Owner Consultants Team at 0845 528 0013 (Outside the UK: + 44 (0)203 514 0016) Monday through Friday between 9:00 and 18.00."
Booking.com
Booking.com policy: If your property is undergoing a change of ownership, follow these steps below:
Step 1 (if you are the existing owner):
You can get in touch with us via the inbox in the extranet. Just make sure you include the following information:
Date the new owners will take over.
Their name and email address.
New owner's telephone contact numbers.
Step 2:
We’ll contact both you and the new owners confirming that we’re aware of the upcoming change.
If you are the new owner:
You’ll get a link to fill out the following information:
Financial details, including invoicing information and your VAT number. IBAN numbers are required if you’re in a SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) country.
Please fill out your details (phone and email address), then read and agree to our terms and conditions.
This will be sent to our Credit Control Team to review. Once you get confirmation of your new contract, you’ll also be sent a copy of our terms and conditions.
A second email will include a link to set up your password so that you can access the Booking.com system.
Please note: The information we’ve highlighted above is essential for our Credit Control Team to be able to set up the new contract. Without this information, we won’t be able to create the new agreement".
TripAdvisor- Please contact TripAdvisor Support directly to advise on this matter.
Other Specialist/Regional/Niche channels- The existing and New owners should contact them directly to be advised on if/how these listings can be transferred to the new owners.
- Some new owners will wish to send an automated email to all of their future bookings advising their guests of the ownership change. Please Follow these instructions, using the optional step of applying your change of ownership email to existing bookings with a future arrival date.
When an account is handed over, the expectation is that the previous owners will provide guidance on using the account to the new owners, since each account is configured in a specific and deliberate way during set-up to suit the needs and specific operating requirements of the business.
In situations where training delivered by the previous owner is not possible, or if additional one-to-one training is required, this can be requested by contacting the SuperControl Support Team. Such training is usually chargeable, and must be scheduled in advance.