What Transfers When You Buy an Operating Rental Business
9 October 2026 · The Invest-Me team — owners of a working rental business in Žabljak
When you buy an operating rental business in Montenegro, you get what the contract names: the real estate, furniture and equipment by inventory and, under a separate agreement within the same deal, the brand, the Booking account with its rating and reviews, and the guest base. The walls are bought with a notarised contract. Reputation cannot be picked off a shelf, so it has to be secured on paper.
We already published a general due-diligence list in our guide to buying a turnkey rental business in Montenegro. This piece covers one question: what are you paying for beyond square metres, and how do you make sure it passes to you?
What belongs to the business, and what belongs only to the property?
The property is the plots and houses, conveyed by a contract before a notary. Everything else that makes the place earn money is documented separately, and if it is not written down it has not been handed over. It helps to split the assets into tangible and intangible.
| Asset | How it passes | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Plots and houses | Notarised contract, cadastre registration | Fresh property certificate (list nepokretnosti) |
| Furniture and equipment | Inventory attached to the contract | Walk-through with the list |
| Brand (property name) | Separate clause in the agreement | Name on the Booking page and on signage |
| Booking account, reviews, rating | Through the platform's procedure, confirmed in writing | Property page, statistics export |
| Guest base | Agreement that respects data-protection rules | Size and legal basis for the contacts |
| Processes and contractors | Knowledge transfer, post-sale support period | Contractor list and instructions |
Take this table to the negotiation as an agenda. Every row needs the answer "yes, here is the document".
How do you secure the transfer of the Booking account?
A contract cannot simply gift an account: the platform sets its own change-of-owner rules. We will not recite the procedure from memory, because it can change and a mistake here is expensive. The workable order is this: before signing, ask the seller how they plan to re-register the account, and contact Booking support yourself for a written answer.
The second safeguard is the payment structure. If the account transfer is critical to the price, tie part of the payment, or a post-sale support period, to it. We build in a support period covering keys, accounts and processes, so income does not stop when the owner changes.
Also check that the account belongs to this specific property. The Family House Pleme page on Booking is public and shows the rating and reviews. For any seller, that is the first thing to compare.
Why are the rating and reviews worth money?
A 9.2 rating across 56 reviews cannot be bought separately, and it cannot be built in one season. That is the Booking page reading as of 6 August 2026; Booking hides reviews older than 36 months, so the count drifts (58, 57, 56). We run four houses in Žabljak and see how the score feeds rates and occupancy: New Year peak 80–100%, summer 75–80%, nightly rates €65–130.
A new listing without history must cut its price to win the first bookings, or wait. The buyer of an operating business skips that stage. We explain how a score forms and why it cannot be rushed in our article on the Booking rating of a guest house.
Still, a rating is guest opinion, not an income guarantee. Ask for a statistics export covering 12–24 months. Our complex grosses €48–56k a year, with a net yield around 10–11% after the Booking commission (~15%) and running costs.
What about future bookings and the guest base?
This is where disputes start. A guest who paid for December in August does not know the owner changed. The contract has to answer three questions: who honours accepted bookings, who receives the prepayments, and how guests are told.
Our advice: attach a list of reservations 6–12 months ahead, with dates and amounts, and agree that prepayments either pass to the buyer or are credited in the price. That way you do not buy a house whose New Year dates are already promised to guests with the money gone.
Be more careful with the guest base. Guest contacts are personal data, and platform rules may restrict how they are used. In our offer the base is part of the deal, but we agree the handover legally. In your own deal, ask a lawyer to check on what basis the seller holds those contacts at all. This is not legal advice: settle it with a Montenegrin lawyer.
How does this tie to the asset deal?
All of the above works because we sell the property as an asset deal: you buy the houses and assets themselves, not a company with its history. That gives a clean list of what passes, which can be written line by line. We compare the asset deal with buying shares, and explain why we chose the former, in asset deal vs share deal.
See what the list looks like on a real example
The Family House Pleme page shows what is in the sale: four furnished houses, the brand, the Booking account and the guest base. The price is €280,000 for everything, or €140,000 for two houses. We will send the inventory, the Booking export and the document list so you can hold them against any other offer on the market.