The venue should retain primary ownership of its social profiles, advertising accounts, Google Business Profile, domain, analytics, customer list and creative library. Give providers the access they need through proper user roles. Pay media from the venue’s account and card wherever practical.
It should not quietly become the owner of your business assets.
HospoPro’s current terms state that the venue keeps its photos, posts, followers, pages and data, while Meta and Google spend stays on the venue’s card at cost.
Why ownership matters
The risk often appears only when:
- The provider changes staff
- The relationship ends
- A bill is disputed
- An account is restricted
- The venue is sold
- A second location opens
- Nobody remembers which email created the account
At that point, “the agency handles it” is not a sufficient answer.
The venue should know what it owns and who can access it.
The ownership checklist
Instagram and Facebook
The venue should control:
- The Facebook Page
- The Instagram business account
- The Meta business portfolio where used
- The ad account
- Connected data sources
- Billing access
Meta provides role-based ad-account access so other people can create, edit, view or report on ads without logging in as the account owner.
Do not share one personal password across staff and suppliers.
Google Business Profile
The venue should be the primary owner.
Google allows owners to invite managers, who can handle most daily profile work without receiving primary ownership.
That means an agency can update information, posts and reviews while the venue keeps ultimate control.
Google Ads
The advertising account should sit under a business-controlled login or account structure.
The provider can receive access through its manager account.
The venue should be able to see:
- Campaign history
- Keywords
- Search terms
- Conversion actions
- Billing
- User access
Website and domain
The venue should know:
- Who registered the domain
- Which account holds it
- Who controls DNS
- Where the website is hosted
- Who can publish changes
- Where forms send customer details
- How to export the site or content where relevant
A website is not fully owned when the venue cannot access the domain.
Analytics and tracking
Keep access to:
- Google Analytics
- Google Tag Manager
- Search Console
- Meta datasets or pixels
- Booking-platform analytics
- Call tracking
- Reporting dashboards
These records become more useful over time.
Starting from zero after changing providers wastes history.
Email and customer lists
The venue should own:
- The sending account
- Subscriber list
- Consent records
- Segments
- Templates
- Campaign history
- Unsubscribe data
A spreadsheet export is not enough when the consent and suppression history stay behind.
Photography and creative
Confirm ownership and usage rights for:
- Original phone snaps
- Studio outputs
- On-location photography
- Video
- Design files
- Captions
- Landing pages
- Campaign concepts
The contract should explain what the venue can keep and reuse.
Pay advertising directly where practical
A transparent arrangement separates:
- The provider’s service fee
- Meta spend
- Google spend
- Other media costs
When the venue’s card pays the platform directly, the owner can see the real media cost.
It also reduces confusion about mark-ups and unused balances.
HospoPro states that it does not mark up Meta or Google media spend.
Access is not the same as ownership
A provider needs enough access to do the job.
That may include:
- Publishing content
- Managing campaigns
- Viewing reports
- Editing landing pages
- Responding to reviews
- Configuring tracking
Use the lowest role that still allows the work to happen.
Review access when staff or suppliers change.
Customer data needs more care
Names, email addresses, phone numbers and booking histories can be personal information.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner explains that organisations covered by the Privacy Act must have a privacy policy describing what personal information they collect, why they collect it, how it is used and disclosed, and how people can access or correct it.
Not every small business is covered in the same way, and other rules can still apply. Get advice for your specific situation.
Practical controls include:
- Use individual accounts
- Turn on multi-factor authentication
- Remove former staff promptly
- Limit exports
- Record consent
- Keep unsubscribe records
- Avoid sending customer lists through casual messaging apps
- Confirm where third-party systems store data
The offboarding test
Before signing, ask:
If we stop working together tomorrow, what exactly do we keep and how do we access it?
A good answer should cover:
- Social accounts
- Ad accounts
- Campaign history
- Creative files
- Landing pages
- Domain and website
- Analytics
- Email list
- Consent and unsubscribe records
- Reporting exports
Do not wait until the final invoice to ask.
A clean agency access process
At onboarding
- Confirm the venue as primary owner
- Add the provider through roles or partner access
- Record account IDs
- Confirm billing
- Turn on multi-factor authentication
- Store recovery details securely
- List every connected platform
During the relationship
- Review access quarterly
- Remove departed staff
- Keep billing visible
- Export important creative and reports
- Record major tracking changes
At offboarding
- Export final reports
- Transfer or confirm all files
- Remove provider access after handover
- Rotate any shared credentials
- Test every remaining owner login
- Confirm campaigns are paused or reassigned
Red flags
Be cautious when a provider:
- Insists on creating everything in its own accounts
- Refuses to grant visibility into spend
- Uses personal logins shared across the team
- Cannot explain who owns the domain
- Holds the email list in an inaccessible system
- Makes asset return conditional on staying
- Avoids documenting account IDs and permissions
The simple rule
The venue owns the house.
The provider gets the keys required to work, then returns them when the job ends.
See the HospoPro ownership promise
HospoPro runs campaigns through venue-owned assets, keeps ad spend visible and lets the venue retain the content and audience it builds.
We run the photos, posts, ads, email and reporting for hospitality venues across South East Queensland. Everything in this guide comes from doing the work on live venues, not a textbook.
