Vacation Rental Cleaning and Maintenance: A Complete Guide
Vacation rental cleaning is a crucial logistical consideration for property managers, ensuring your property is ready for guests, maintaining positive reviews, and keeping operations running smoothly.
It comes with specific challenges, including:
- Coordinating cleaning and guest turnarounds efficiently.
- Ensuring professional-grade cleaning standards.
- Managing automated access to maintain security.
- Keeping cleaning materials well-stocked to avoid last-minute shortages.
Table of Contents
1. How to manage your vacation rental housekeeping operations
2. What if you don’t yet have an in-house cleaning team?
3. Vacation rental cleaning: A professional process
4. Frequently Asked Questions
Fortunately, these challenges can be addressed by automating part of your housekeeping operations, increasing the efficiency of your in-house cleaning team and saving valuable time.
You can connect your property management system (PMS) to software such as Operto, which is designed to simplify your vacation rental operations and improve guest experiences.
In this guide, we’ll explain:
- How to automate and coordinate cleaning processes and staff.
- How to document all processes to ensure high standards are met.
- How to remotely manage safety checks, deep cleaning, and stock of cleaning supplies.
- The ideal cleaning checklist for your vacation rental cleaning team.
- How to find a reliable, professional cleaning service if you don’t have an in-house team.
Read on for answers to your most-asked questions about managing your vacation rental cleaning, for maximum efficiency and minimum stress.
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How to manage your vacation rental housekeeping operations
While hiring in-house cleaners is a great first step, maintaining consistency and high standards during turnovers is key to keeping guests happy. Operating several properties adds complexity, but using the right tools and practices can simplify the process.
Use a scheduling tool to automate your workflows and coordinate staff
Leveraging digital tools can transform vacation rental cleaning from a logistical challenge into a streamlined process. Managing tasks such as coordinating staff access, ensuring cleaning quality, restocking supplies, and scheduling deep cleans and maintenance checks can quickly become overwhelming if done manually.
Using tools like Operto Teams helps property managers streamline these operations, allowing easy and automated coordination of staff, tasks, and schedules.
With Operto Teams, property managers can:
- Coordinate staff through a user-friendly drag-and-drop dashboard.
- Auto-generate cleaning tasks based on bookings and scheduled maintenance.
- Enable staff to track their cleaning, upload photos, and report issues in real time.
- Maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in one centralized location.
- Set up alerts for emergency cleaning, last-minute bookings, damage, and more.
- Simplify communication between team members using email and SMS.
- Generate reports on tasks and booking history for easy review.
Operto Teams automates vacation rental cleaning and maintenance for seamless property management.
Combining Operto Teams with Operto’s full suite of solutions also allows you to:
- Connect your cleaning with guest bookings, check-ins, and check-outs.
- Secure your property with digital access using smart locks and keypads.
- Ensure that all aspects of your rental business are connected and streamlined.
- Enhance the guest experience with a white-label web app to facilitate digital check-in, provide guidebooks, and offer upsells.
Establish standard processes and procedures
Establishing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with clear, repeatable processes ensures consistency and efficiency for staff and tasks, saving considerable time. Tools like Operto Teams allow you to document these processes for your cleaning and maintenance teams, ensuring they know exactly what is expected and can reference them as needed.
Your SOPs should cover:
- Check-out cleaning standards: Detailed guidelines for cleaning each area of the property, with photos if possible.
- Other cleaning standards: Instructions for mid-stay cleans, deep cleans, and replenishing supplies.
- Maintenance standards: Outline steps for cleaning HVAC filters, hot tubs, coffee machines, and checking fire alarms.
- Staff hiring: How to onboard, welcome, train, and manage new staff successfully.
- Lost and found procedures: Guidelines for how staff should handle forgotten guest belongings. This may include uploading photos of the missing item.
Documenting and standardizing these processes saves time and reduces stress, ensuring your cleaning and maintenance tasks are carried out thoroughly and consistently.
Schedule regular safety checks, deep cleans, and inspections
Once your SOPs are in place, it’s important to follow through with regular safety checks and deep cleans to maintain the property.
Staying on schedule with deep cleans ensures that your property stays in peak condition despite frequent guest turnover. Beyond routine cleaning, deep cleans should be scheduled periodically to address less obvious areas like carpets, upholstery, and kitchen appliances. Safety inspections, such as checking smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms, and fire extinguishers should also be part of your maintenance routine.
Operto Teams automates the scheduling of these quarterly or seasonal tasks, ensuring nothing is missed. Consistent deep cleaning and inspections can identify wear and tear before it becomes a costly repair, and keeps your property in excellent condition for guests and owners. This ensures your property remains safe, clean, and guest-ready at all times, reducing the risk of last-minute emergencies.
Stay on top property maintenance
In addition to cleaning, property maintenance is an important part of keeping your vacation rental in top condition. Maintenance might include checking the hot tub, inspecting window locks, or fixing loose tiles that may be a safety hazard.
This can all be tracked through Operto Teams, so you don’t have to remember to schedule it manually and can address these tasks promptly.
Keyless entry, using digital PIN codes or mobile keys for access, also means that you can grant and revoke staff access at the right time. This enables you to coordinate repairs and checks while keeping your property safe.
Provide your cleaners with a vacation rental cleaning checklist
A digital vacation rental cleaning checklist helps your team stay organized and ensures every step is completed. Cleaners can check off tasks as they go, and upload photos for accountability. Digital checklists can also be accessed by everyone, and you can see how your team is doing during a tight turnover.
A sample cleaning procedure might include:
- An initial walkthrough of the entire property on entry making sure to:
- Submit any issues (damage, maintenance, lost and found)
- Gather laundry and put it in bags for pickup
- Gather and dispose of garbage
- Check stock of toilet paper, soap, and other supplies
- Open windows
- Load and start the dishwasher
- Check lights and appliances
- Clean each room using standard procedures (top to bottom, room by room, etc.)
- A final walkthrough, checking supplies and thermostats. Upload any photos to the checklist if needed. Check for missing items and take pictures of any additional damage or maintenance requirements found.
- Address outdoor areas, including decks, BBQs, outdoor furniture and other items, referring to relevant SOPs.
You can track cleaning in real-time using platforms such as Operto Teams, and coordinate access for your cleaning team seamlessly if guests check in or check out early or late.
Elevate your guest experience with our FREE Airbnb cleaning checklist.
What if you don’t yet have an in-house cleaning team?
Many vacation rental owners start by cleaning their properties themselves; however, hiring one may become essential as your business grows. Hiring professionals allows you to focus on guest experience and scaling your business while ensuring your property remains in top condition.
How to find a reliable, responsible, and regular vacation rental cleaning service in your area
If you’re not yet at the stage of hiring a proper in-house team, fear not. Here are our top tips for finding professional cleaners who may later become a crucial part of your overall staff.
- Referrals. There’s nothing like a personal recommendation. Reach out to your network of other vacation rental professionals to ask how they found their reliable providers.
- Social media recommendations. You may also be able to network on LinkedIn or in Facebook Groups. Join groups of property managers or owners listing on OTAs such as Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com, and ask who they use.
- Online listings. Searching for a professional cleaning team on your favorite search engine is an obvious but sometimes overlooked idea.
- Cleaning apps. Depending on where you are in the world, platforms like Cleanzy, Handy, AirTasker, MaidThis, Turno, and Properly make it easy to find cleaners.
Before you hire anyone, it’s important to take the time to interview them and ask the right questions, just as you would before taking on any kind of staff or employee.
Key questions might include:
- What are your experience and qualifications?
- Can you provide a background check?
- Are you insured, licensed, and bonded for this area?
- How do you train new staff and ensure high standards?
- How would you report back to me when a property is cleaned or if there is an issue?
- What cleaning products do you use, and how will you communicate when you need more?
- What would you do in the event of a very last-minute cleaning job?
- How would you manage a deep clean versus a standard clean?
- How would you manage a lost item or damaged property?
- Do you have any referrals from previous happy clients?
The more questions you ask, the more likely you are to begin the relationship on a solid footing, find a high-quality, reliable cleaner, and hire a member of your team that you trust.
Vacation rental cleaning: A professional process
Vacation rental cleaning is essential to maintaining the quality of your properties and the guest experience. A responsible vacation rental property manager not only needs to hire an excellent cleaning team, but they also need to manage staff, establish standardized processes, and ensure all aspects of the rental are checked consistently.
Coordinating it to be as automated, digital, and remote as possible — using software like Operto Teams — makes it quicker and easier, removing the stress of complicated logistics and the hassles of manually keeping track of cleaning and maintenance.
With less time spent managing logistics, you can focus on growing your business, and ensuring guests have an excellent stay in a well-maintained, safe, and sparkling space.
Frequently asked questions about vacation rental cleaning
1. Why is vacation rental cleaning so important for property managers
Cleanliness is crucial for guest satisfaction, positive reviews, and repeat bookings. A clean property ensures that guests feel comfortable and safe, while also helping to maintain the property’s condition over time.
2. What are the common challenges with vacation rental cleaning?
Managing tight turnarounds between guests, ensuring consistent cleaning standards, handling last-minute bookings, and keeping supplies fully stocked are some of the most common challenges property managers face.
3. What should be included in a vacation rental cleaning checklist?
A cleaning checklist should cover step-by-step tasks for every room, including living spaces, bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. Tasks like dusting, vacuuming, sanitizing surfaces, restocking supplies, and checking for damages should all be included to ensure a thorough clean.
4. What safety checks should be part of regular vacation rental cleaning?
Regular safety checks should include testing smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms, fire extinguishers, and ensuring that all locks, windows, and keyless entry systems are functioning properly.
5. How often should deep cleaning be scheduled for vacation rentals?
Deep cleaning should be scheduled at least quarterly or seasonally, depending on guest traffic, to ensure areas like carpets, upholstery, and appliances are thoroughly cleaned.
6. How can I monitor cleaning quality and staff performance remotely?
With Operto Teams, you can track cleaning tasks in real-time, allowing staff to upload photos and report any issues. This provides oversight and accountability even if you’re not on-site.
7. What are the benefits of automating vacation rental cleaning?
Tools like Operto Teams improve efficiency by auto-scheduling tasks and cleaning schedules, assigning tasks, tracking progress, scheduling maintenance, and managing payroll reporting to reduce human error and ensure consistent cleaning standards, even during busy seasons.
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