We are trying to create a Booking.com listing from our existing Airbnb property using Hospitable Essentials.
The registration repeatedly fails with “Could not create legal entity”, even after correcting the contact details and trying both Individual and Company.
Smarty could not resolve the problem and advised us to use the Community.
Could someone from the Hospitable technical team please investigate this error and explain how we can complete the listing creation?
We would prefer not to create duplicate Booking.com accounts.
Thank you, James Patterson
Best answer by Ethan Brown
Hi @Jimbo,
Thanks for posting.
In similar cases we’ve investigated, “Could not create legal entity” almost always means Booking.com already has a partner account registered to the email address you entered. Booking.com rejects a second account on the same email, but at the moment our screen only shows the generic error rather than their reason. That’s why changing contact details or switching between Individual and Company doesn’t help.
The good news is that the fix also avoids the duplicate account you’re worried about:
Start the Booking.com listing creation again from your property in Hospitable.
At the account step, choose “I already have a Booking.com account” rather than creating a new one.
Enter the same email address you used before. Hospitable will then take you through requesting partner access, which connects your existing Booking.com account.
Once that’s connected, continue the listing creation as normal.
One thing to check: if that Booking.com account is currently connected to another channel manager, you’ll need to disconnect it there first.
If you’re certain there’s no existing Booking.com account on that email (no extranet sign-up, nothing from another tool) and it still fails, send us a message in-app and ask for a human. That way the team can check the logs for your exact attempt.
In similar cases we’ve investigated, “Could not create legal entity” almost always means Booking.com already has a partner account registered to the email address you entered. Booking.com rejects a second account on the same email, but at the moment our screen only shows the generic error rather than their reason. That’s why changing contact details or switching between Individual and Company doesn’t help.
The good news is that the fix also avoids the duplicate account you’re worried about:
Start the Booking.com listing creation again from your property in Hospitable.
At the account step, choose “I already have a Booking.com account” rather than creating a new one.
Enter the same email address you used before. Hospitable will then take you through requesting partner access, which connects your existing Booking.com account.
Once that’s connected, continue the listing creation as normal.
One thing to check: if that Booking.com account is currently connected to another channel manager, you’ll need to disconnect it there first.
If you’re certain there’s no existing Booking.com account on that email (no extranet sign-up, nothing from another tool) and it still fails, send us a message in-app and ask for a human. That way the team can check the logs for your exact attempt.
