Should you need to sell your property while it has future bookings, you need to take appropriate steps:
Ensure your buyer is contractually obligated to meet the future bookings on the same terms and conditions as those currently agreed with future guests. The benefit of contracting the new owner to honour the future bookings is it can remove any concerns of the future guests and mitigate cash flow issues. The downside is it could reduce the level of interest in the sale. You should offer your future guests a full refund immediately that your property goes on the market or the option to leave the booking in place with the new owner, assuring them that their holiday will be under the same terms and conditions as those already agreed. Communication is vital in this respect.
If you are selling a property outright, in an ideal situation you would not have any future bookings. If you have the unfortunate circumstance that you must sell your property and cannot honour future bookings, you must contact and refund future guests immediately. Guests could have organised travel arrangements and could incur significant costs finding alternative accommodation and may well be able to claim back not only the cost of their holiday but any legal costs and compensation.
Owners should never sell their property and attempt to defraud or deceive holidaymakers. Simply Owners take pride in being a trusted platform and we will put considerable resources behind legal efforts and tracing agents against any owner trying to defraud holidaymakers. Ultimately, we will ensure owners end up paying all costs incurred by holidaymakers and Simply Owners if they have behaved inappropriately when selling their property. These costs could include court costs, travel arrangements, alternative accommodation, finder fees etc. This can amount to several thousands of pounds.
Any owners behaving in this way would also be in breach of contract with Simply Owners for bringing the company into disrepute and we would pursue this through the courts.
In Summary the best way to sell your property is with no future bookings. The second-best option is to maintain trust with any holidaymakers that have future bookings and offer them a full refund in the first instance and contract the new owner into honouring the holidays on the same terms.