Do strawberries need rotating?

You're correct about the replacing bit and suppose that theoretically each time you replace them, you should move them to a different part of the garden so as to avoid the build up of any soil based diseases. However, in practise I think a fair number of people don't bother. When I lived with my parents we had a large strawberry frame split into 3 sections. One section was replaced each year but after the plants had been dug up, the soil was given a good dig over and plenty of nutrients added. We always got a huge crop and never seemed to have any problems. Think this may be a case of the ideal not necessarily being practical for most people but be prepared for alternative views from other grapes!

I am in agreement with Alison on this one. I would only move strawberries if they look like they are struggling.

I started with six different varieties of strawberrry plants to give me a longer cropping season and a variety of flavours. First year I had a reasonable crop and just let the runners root themselves.
2nd year I had a much better crop and some of the previous years runners gave me a small crop as well.
Now I have no-idea of which varieties are which and I would guess I probably have hybrids of all six originals.
If a plant looks a bit past it at the end of the season I split it up and make way for one of it's runners.
I still have the original bed (3rd year) which I mulch and feed with a slow release high potash fertiliser, but I also have another bed comprised of a mixture of runners and split crowns from the original.
Once the new bed is cropping well I may abandon the old bed and grow something else in it.
So in a nutshell, what works for me is a four year bed, then a new bed comprised of runners from the original!

Sorry for the longwinded reply!