Setting up your OTA accounts
A step-by-step guide to creating your own listings on Airbnb, Booking.com, MakeMyTrip / Goibibo, Vrbo, and Agoda. If you already have listings under a previous management company, the second half of this page covers your two real options for getting them under your own login.
Two universal truths about OTA accounts we want you to know up front:
- You must register the account yourself. Every OTA platform legally requires the property owner to provide their own KYC documents (passport / PAN / business registration), their own bank account, and personally accept their Terms & Conditions. Staymulate (and any channel manager) can push your listing content into your account via API once it exists, but cannot create the account itself. This is a platform-side rule, not a Staymulate limitation.
- If a previous manager already listed your property: for some OTAs there's a formal transfer flow (Booking.com, Agoda, MakeMyTrip); for others (Airbnb, Vrbo) there isn't, and the only honest path is to close their listing and open a fresh one under your account. See the FPMC-exit section below.
Per-OTA signup guides
Booking.com Partner Transfer supported
Single largest international source for boutique villas + hotels worldwide. Owner pays no monthly fee; pay-per-booking commission (~15%).
Sign up via the Partner portal. You'll need: property documents, bank account in the property-entity name, VAT / GST number (if applicable), photos, and a postal address.
Register at join.booking.com →
Setup time: ~3-5 business days for Booking.com to verify your property + activate the listing. Help: partner.booking.com/help.
Agoda YCS Transfer supported
Strong inventory presence in South + Southeast Asia. Owner pays no monthly fee; commission per booking.
Sign up via Agoda's YCS (Yield Control System) onboarding flow. Same KYC + bank + photos pattern as Booking.com.
Register at partnerhub.agoda.com →
Help: partnerhub.agoda.com.
MakeMyTrip + Goibibo (Connect by MMT) Partial transfer
Largest Indian-domestic source. One signup covers both MakeMyTrip + Goibibo. Owner pays no monthly fee; pay-per-booking commission.
Sign up via Connect by MakeMyTrip's hotelier registration. You'll need: owner KYC (Aadhaar / PAN / Passport), property ownership or lease proof, bank account, photos, and GSTIN if applicable.
Register at makemytrip.com/hotels/hotelier-register →
Setup: typically 5-10 days for verification. The Connect mobile app handles ongoing inventory + bookings.
Airbnb No transfer — recreate only
Largest global short-stay source. Owner pays no monthly fee; pay-per-booking host service fee. Airbnb Terms of Service Section 16 explicitly prohibits transferring a listing to a different account.
Sign up at airbnb.com → Become a host. You'll need: government ID, payout bank account, property address + photos, and Airbnb's Host Standards acceptance.
Register at airbnb.com/host/homes →
Setup: same-day account creation; listing live within hours after photo upload + price + calendar.
Vrbo (formerly HomeAway) No transfer — recreate only
Strong in vacation rentals + larger groups; owned by Expedia Group. Owner pays per-booking fee or annual subscription. Vrbo policy: no listing can be transferred to another party.
Sign up at vrbo.com → List your property. KYC + bank + photos pattern.
Register at vrbo.com/list →
Vrbo may honour a review-transfer special request under their 2026 Property Sale Policy — see FPMC-exit section below.
If you're leaving a previous management company (FPMC exit)
If a previous property management company already listed your property on OTAs under their account, you have exactly two options for every OTA. There's no third path — the channel manager doesn't change this; the platform policy does.
Option 1 — Account transfer (only for Booking.com, Agoda, MakeMyTrip)
The previous manager contacts the OTA's partner support and initiates an ownership-change. You provide your KYC + bank details to the OTA. The OTA verifies, then transfers the listing — including review history and property profile — to your new account.
- Requires: previous manager's cooperation + their initiating the request
- Preserves: review history, property profile, search ranking, in-flight bookings
- Channel-manager impact: provider connections RESET on transfer; Staymulate re-pairs the channel manager to your new account post-transfer
- Timeline: typically 7-14 business days end-to-end
Option 2 — Close + recreate (the only option for Airbnb + Vrbo, fallback for the rest)
The previous manager closes their listing. You create a fresh listing under your own new OTA account. Photos, descriptions, amenity lists can all be re-uploaded (Staymulate's channel manager pushes them once your account is set up).
- Does not require the previous manager's cooperation beyond closing their listing per their contract
- Lost: all review history under the previous account. On Airbnb this is permanent and irrecoverable; on Vrbo you may file a special request to transfer reviews under their 2026 Property Sale Policy (not guaranteed)
- Plan for: a 60-90 day push to acquire fresh reviews on the new listing through strong early-bookings + guest follow-up
- Search ranking: starts fresh; rebuilt by booking velocity + 5-star reviews + response rate over the first quarter
What this means for Airbnb specifically
Airbnb is the most painful case because (a) it's often the highest-revenue OTA for boutique properties, and (b) it offers no transfer path. If your existing Airbnb listing under a previous manager has a strong review history (say 4.5+ stars × 50+ reviews), closing it means losing that asset.
Some hosts choose to ask the previous manager to keep the Airbnb listing open as a "co-host" arrangement (preserves reviews + URL), but this leaves the previous manager as the legal Airbnb host indefinitely, with payouts going to their account. Most owners prefer a clean break with full ownership: close the previous listing, open a fresh one, and plan a 90-day review-acquisition push. Staymulate's pricing + content engine is designed to help here — strong early bookings + on-property excellence + post-stay review nudges typically rebuild a 4.5+ star average within 60-90 days for a well-run boutique.
What Staymulate will do
- Capture your per-OTA decision (transfer vs recreate) during onboarding via the OTA Handover Wizard in your portal
- Push your property name, photos, descriptions, amenities, rate cards, and calendar to each OTA via channel manager once your accounts exist
- Connect our channel-manager integration to each OTA for real-time two-way sync (prevents booking clashes; activates once the channel-manager master subscription is provisioned)
- For Airbnb + Vrbo recreate cases: prepare a 90-day review-acquisition campaign (post-stay nudges, response-rate optimisation, content for the new listing)
What you (the owner) must do
- Register your own accounts on each OTA using the signup links above
- Provide your own KYC documents + bank account to each OTA (we cannot do this for you)
- For transfer cases: coordinate with the previous manager so they initiate the ownership-change request to the OTA
- For recreate cases: accept the review-history loss as the cost of clean ownership; trust the rebuild plan
- Where applicable, give the previous manager formal notice + a transition date so they can wind down cleanly
Why we are upfront about this
A "we'll handle everything seamlessly" pitch on OTA transfer would be a lie. The OTA platforms have policies we don't control. We tell you the truth so you can plan with eyes open, and so the option you choose is yours — not something a sales pitch obscured.
See also: Feature catalog → Data export for what data you can take with you anytime, and FPMC exit playbook for the broader transition framework.