Airbnb cleaning: a complete turnover checklist

Airbnb cleaning is judged in about ninety seconds, by somebody who has just carried a bag up a flight of stairs.

They form a view from four things: whether the bed looks crisp, whether the bathroom smells clean, whether the kitchen bin is empty, and whether any hair is visible anywhere.

A turnover that gets those four right reads as spotless, even in a property that is not new. One that misses them reads as dirty, even if everything else was done.

That is not how a home is assessed, and it is why a good domestic cleaner is not automatically a good turnover cleaner.

Stripping, laundering and restaging beds takes longer than everything else in a turnover combined.

Two sets of linen per bed is the arrangement that makes same-day changeovers possible. One set on the bed, one ready to go, and the used set laundered before the next stay.

Three sets is better again for properties with back-to-back bookings, because it survives a machine breaking down without cancelling anybody.

White linen is worth the trouble. It can be washed hot and bleached, it shows that it is clean, and mismatched greys are the most common way a good property looks tired.

A full changeover covers the following, in this order. The order is not arbitrary — laundry starts first because it is the only task with a fixed duration.

1. Strip all beds and towels, and start the first load immediately.

2. Bins emptied throughout, including bathroom and bedroom bins.

3. Dishwasher emptied, and anything left in the sink washed and put away.

4. Fridge cleared of guest food, wiped, and checked for anything at the back.

5. Bathrooms cleaned, with the shower screen and mirror finished streak-free.

6. Kitchen surfaces, appliance fronts, cooktop, and the inside of the microwave.

7. Floors vacuumed and mopped, edges included.

8. Beds made and staged, cushions and throws returned to position.

9. Consumables restocked to the par level.

10. A final walk-through from the front door, looking at the property as a guest.

Toilet paper, hand soap, shampoo, tea, coffee, sugar, bin liners, dishwasher tablets and laundry powder.

A missing consumable is one of the most common complaints in short-stay reviews, and it is entirely preventable with a fixed list and a par level for each item.

Agree who buys them, then leave the list in the property. This one lives inside the cupboard door of every property we turn over.

RESTOCK — check every turnover

Bathroom      toilet paper      2 rolls out, 4 spare
              hand soap         full
              shampoo / body    full
              bath mat          fresh

Kitchen       dishwasher tabs   6 minimum
              dish soap         full
              tea / coffee      4 serves each
              sugar, salt       topped up
              bin liners        5 spare under the bin

Laundry       laundry powder    2 serves

Anything below par -> message the host, do not wait

Keep a small reserve in a locked cupboard. A cleaner who runs out mid-turnover has to choose between leaving a gap and leaving late.

Laundry adds to every row above if it is done on site rather than sent out.

The window between an 10am checkout and a 3pm check-in is five hours, and it is tighter than it sounds once travel and a late departure are in it.

Back-to-back bookings are the reason turnover cleaners are booked as a standing arrangement rather than job by job. Availability on the day is the service.

If your property is remote or parking is difficult, say so when you arrange it. Both change the real length of the visit more than the cleaning does.

Most providers price per turnover rather than by the hour, because the scope is fixed and the schedule is not.

A one-bedroom apartment is commonly $80 to $130 a turnover. A three-bedroom house is $150 to $250. Laundry done off site is usually charged per load or per set.

Our Airbnb turnover service is quoted per property, with linen changes and consumable restocking as named extras.

Most hosts pass the fee through as a cleaning charge. Guests accept it when the property is genuinely clean, and resent it when it is not, which is most of the pricing strategy.

Your cleaner is the only person who sees the property between guests. That makes them the only chance you have to document damage while it is still attributable.

Ask for photographs of anything unusual before the next check-in, with the time stamp intact.

Platform claims have short windows and depend almost entirely on evidence. A photograph taken during the turnover is worth more than a description written three days later.

Agree a threshold so you are not sent a picture of every scuff. Anything that would cost more than the cleaning fee to fix is a reasonable line.

Hair, anywhere. It is the single most mentioned item in negative short-stay reviews, and it is found in the shower, on the bathroom floor and in the bed.

Smell, which guests notice before they notice anything visual. A property that smells of the last guest fails before the door is fully open.

The bin under the kitchen sink, which is easy to forget and unpleasant to find.

And the shower screen, because a guest stands in front of it for ten minutes at eye level. It gets more attention than any other surface in the property.

A changeover is a reset, not a deep clean, and a property that only ever gets turnovers slowly falls behind.

Grout, oven, rangehood filter, inside the cupboards, skirtings, window tracks and the tops of everything need a separate visit two to four times a year.

Carpets and upholstery wear faster in a short-stay property than in a home, because they are used harder and cleaned less. Budget for steam cleaning twice a year rather than annually.

Book the periodic work into a gap in the calendar deliberately. A property that waits for a natural gap will wait until a bad review creates one.

Airbnb cleaning that ends with a made bed is finished. One that ends with a staged property is marketed.

Cushions squared, throw folded at the foot, towels rolled or fanned, curtains open, and the remote left somewhere obvious.

It costs ten minutes and it is the difference between a property that looks cleaned and one that looks cared for.

Leave a photograph of the finished staging with the cleaner so it is identical every time. Consistency is what guests are actually paying the cleaning fee for.

Everything above scales badly if it lives in your head, and the second property is where that becomes obvious.

Write a property sheet for each one and give it to the cleaner: access, parking, where the linen is kept, where the vacuum lives, and the staging photograph.

Standardise what you can across the portfolio. The same linen size, the same consumables, the same coffee. It turns four properties into one shopping list and one set of instructions.

Stagger the check-in times if the same cleaner covers several. A 3pm check-in at three properties is a schedule that only works when nothing goes wrong.

And build in one buffer day a month. Something will need a repair, a deep clean or a linen replacement, and a calendar with no gaps has nowhere to put it.

Share the calendar rather than sending dates. A cleaner who can see the bookings can plan the week and absorb a late change without a phone call.

Agree what happens when a guest leaves late, or leaves the property in an unusual state. Both happen, and both need a rate rather than a negotiation.

Give them access that does not depend on you being reachable. A keybox or a code removes the most common single point of failure in a turnover.

And treat reliability as the product you are buying. A slightly cheaper cleaner who misses one changeover costs more than a year of the difference.

Good Airbnb cleaning is invisible. Nobody reviews a property for being clean, but every guest notices the moment it is not, and that asymmetry is the whole job.

Get the turnover right and the rest of hosting gets easier. Get it wrong once and the review outlasts the booking by a year.