How to Clean Your Airbnb (Hacks, Hiring, & Tips)
JG - September 15, 2021
Platforms like Airbnb have made short term rental property investments very popular nowadays. As with any hospitality scenario, a clean, fresh, and organized home provides a great experience for your guests. However, in order to operate a well-run short term rental business, the efficiency of your cleaning and renewal process directly impacts your profitability and time. Read on to learn some hacks, tips, and hiring points on how to clean your Airbnb for guest turnover.
How To Do the Cleaning Yourself
If you aren’t hiring out for the cleaning, here is a general process you can follow.
- First, do a quick inspection. This allows you to determine if anything is damaged or missing and gives you an impression on the guest for their rating. Check drawers, fridge, closets, under beds, cabinets, rooms, etc. For example, condom wrappers are commonly found under beds. You do not want your next guest to find that.
- Gather up linens and anything that needs to be washed and wash them. This is one of the first things you want to do because you can then do other tasks while waiting. Ideally, you should have a washer and dryer on site.
- Collect your cleaning supplies and start cleaning. It’s advised to have the supplies at the property in a locked closest so you have easy access to it. Also, develop a routine for cleaning and make a list of all the steps so you know exactly what needs to be done each time and keeps you thorough. Vacuum the floors, wipe down the surfaces (even things that didn’t look like they were used), clean the fridge, toaster, microwave, and clean the bathroom(s). The bathroom is the most important place to be thorough because no guest wants to be met with random hairs in the sink or stains anywhere.
- After you’re done cleaning, make the beds with clean linen, pillow cases, blankets, etc. Check for any hairs or unwanted stuff in and around the beds. Put effort into making the beds as neat as possible.
- Fold any clean towels for your guests. A tip here is that guests will use what you give them and tend to use a lot if given a lot. In order to minimize usage, provide enough towels for the number of guests arriving and maybe 1-2 more depend on the party size. This way, they can be economical with their usage and it will save you some time and money in the long run.
- Restock items like snacks, water, shampoo, toilet paper, etc.
- Finally, do a final inspection to make sure there is no trash, that you’ve crossed everything off of your cleaning checklist, and that the Airbnb looks like what you’ve provided on the website listing. Always double check the property before you leave.
When working it is advised to work down and then out. For example, for working down, if you are cleaning the ceiling fans, table tops, and the floor, do the fan first, then the table then the floor. And for working out, clean the rooms away from the front entrance first and the rooms closest to the entrance last.
Passive Tips On Making Cleaning Your Airbnb More Efficient
- Invite your guests to take off their shoes when they enter the property. This means having an obvious location and maybe something like a shoe rack to easily place their shoes. Have welcome mats in locations where they enter so that they can have somewhere to wipe their shoes.
- Make sure you have some cleaning supplies available to your guests like in the kitchen. For example, a clean sponge and some dishwashing soap will give them the opportunity to clean the dishes.
- It is advised to use a mattress protector in case a guest pees in the bed. That way you can easily change it out and preserve the mattress since the mattress can be an expensive part of your investment.
- Set expectations with your guests. Kindly ask them to strip the bed linens before they leave, put used towels in a certain location or move furniture back to the original locations if they’ve moved them.
- Have all your cleaning supplies in a locked closet or cabinet at the property for easy access.
- Have extra linens (3 total sets) so you don’t have to wait for the laundry to finish to remake the beds.
- Follow the same cleaning process every single time so that over time, it becomes second nature for you, therefore, saving time.
Hiring an Airbnb Cleaning Service
There are a few ways to find Airbnb cleaning services. Like most things today, one way is through social media. Spend some time on Facebook or forums like Reddit to look for demand or host/cleaner marketplaces. Facebook groups like this one connect house cleaners with Airbnb hosts.
Another option is to post on job listing sites like Indeed.com or SimplyHired.com or Housekeeper.com.
There are short term rental specific businesses like TurnoverBnB that help hosts manage their rentals with software. In this case, with TurnoverBnB, they have a marketplace to connect hosts and cleaners as well. Click here to check it out. Some more apps that match hosts with cleaners are: Properly and Evolve Vacation Rentals.
There’s also always the old fashioned way of word of mouth. Ask around your friend circle to see if they or friends of friends know of any Airbnb cleaning services.
Once you’ve selected a few cleaning company options make sure you vet them thoroughly. Do they have licensing and insurance? Do they conduct themselves professionally? Are they responsive and communicative?
Here are some tips when working with your cleaning company(s).
- Ask them to take pictures after they clean for documentation as well as a check of how they did.
- For scheduling, there is an app called TurnoverBnB . It integrates with your calendar. Through that app, you can hire cleaners per hour or per turn over. The way some people have utilized this service is once the guest leaves, your cleaners can see the open spot in the calendar and claim it.
- If you don’t want to use a service like TurnoverBnB, add your cleaner as a co-host on your account. Then, they can see all the bookings and arrange to be there at checkout each time.
- Also, try widening that gap for turnover time. Give it a time slot of 11am-3pm or even 10am-4pm for large houses. Even though cleaning companies can integrate with your calendar, it is nice to have some buffer time for anything that may go wrong, like your cleaners running late or there is a significant amount of cleaning that needs to be done.
- Do not be afraid to use two cleaning companies. Allowing some competition between the two may improve the results.
Takeaways
When learning how to clean your Airbnb, there are many tips and tricks that will help your business out from keeping your high rating to freeing up time for yourself to make your short term rental a more passive business. I hope you got some value out of this article. Check out this YouTube video for some more tips on how to clean your Airbnb.
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