Planning ahead for your Airbnb accounts

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Verified Jul 2026

Airbnb, Inc. does not guarantee transfer of accounts after death. Lifetime planning provides options for managing accounts and controlling who has access to them.

How to protect your Airbnb accounts

6 lifetime planning steps for your Airbnb accounts:

Add a full-access co-host to every listing. This is the only published mechanism that lets someone else operate a listing if the primary host cannot. A full-access co-host works through their own Airbnb account and can manage reservations, pricing, messaging, and Resolution Center claims, and can designate themselves as the listing's primary host. Up to 10 co-hosts can be added per listing.

Record that the Airbnb account exists and which email address it uses, so the executor can identify it. The account cannot be transferred to an heir, so the executor's work is operational: reach the calendar, collect the money, and preserve the records.

Review where payouts land. Airbnb sends payouts to the payout method on file, and only the listing owner (never a co-host) can set up or edit that payout method. A payout account that is frozen at death holds up funds the estate is owed.

Document the hosting operation in one place: cleaning schedules, key and lockbox locations, house rules, and local contacts for cleaning and maintenance. A co-host or executor managing active reservations works from this information.

Address Airbnb income in the estate plan. Record average monthly revenue, the property addresses, and whether each property is owned or leased, since the underlying real property and the lease obligations pass through the estate even though the Airbnb account does not.

Keep the calendar accurate. An accurate calendar is what tells an executor which bookings need attention and which are already complete.

Family sharing

Airbnb has no family-sharing or account-pooling feature. The account itself is non-transferable, and the help center confirms there is no way to transfer ownership of an Airbnb account to another host. The one published continuity mechanism for hosts is co-hosting. A host can add up to 10 co-hosts per listing, across three permission tiers. Co-hosts with full access can message guests and update the calendar, manage the listing including pricing and other details, manage reservations including accepting and declining trip requests and cancellations, manage damage and Resolution Center requests and host damage protection reimbursement requests, access the earnings dashboard and view previous and upcoming payouts, add or remove or update permissions for co-hosts other than full-access co-hosts, and designate themselves or another co-host as the listing's primary host. Co-hosts with calendar and messaging access can message guests and view but not edit the calendar. Co-hosts with calendar access can view the calendar only. No co-host, at any tier, can view or change the listing owner's payout method or taxpayer information; only the listing owner can set up or edit payouts. Co-hosts operate through their own Airbnb accounts, so a full-access co-host retains operational control of the listing when the primary host is unavailable, and the primary-host designation gives that co-host a documented path to becoming the listing's primary host. Co-hosts added before May 3, 2023 have full access by default. Use of co-host tools is governed by the Co-Host Additional Terms of Service.

Should you save your passwords for your family?

Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:

Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).

Frequently asked questions

Airbnb offers three co-host permission tiers, with up to 10 co-hosts per listing. Full-access co-hosts can message guests and update the calendar, manage the listing including pricing, manage reservations including cancellations, manage damage and Resolution Center requests, access the earnings dashboard to view previous and upcoming payouts, manage the permissions of co-hosts other than full-access co-hosts, and designate themselves or another co-host as the listing's primary host. Calendar and messaging access co-hosts can message guests and view but not edit the calendar. Calendar access co-hosts can only view the calendar. No co-host at any tier can view or change the listing owner's payout method or taxpayer information.

Adding a full-access co-host to every listing is the only published mechanism that lets someone else operate a listing when the primary host cannot, and that co-host can designate themselves as the listing's primary host. Recording that the account exists and which email it uses lets the executor identify it. Reviewing where payouts land matters because only the listing owner can edit the payout method, and a frozen bank account holds up funds the estate is owed. Documenting the hosting operation and keeping the calendar accurate give a co-host or executor what they need to manage reservations already on the books.

Listing the Airbnb account in an estate inventory identifies it for a fiduciary, who works through the operator's official channels to manage or close it.

There is no beneficiary designation option for Airbnb. This account type does not support naming a recipient the way bank or investment accounts do.

SimplyTrust Editorial·Updated July 13, 2026

Sources

airbnb.com

Data sourced from Airbnb, Inc. primary sources (13 pages reviewed). How we research.

Airbnb, Inc.

Marketplaces & Resale

airbnb.com→

Airbnb Support

WebsiteVisit website→

Airbnb Support (no dedicated estate or bereavement channel; handled case by case)

WebsiteLearn more →

Verified Jul 2026

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