Cashflow Diary™

Five hours. If your guest checks out at eleven and the next one checks in at four, that's the whole window. Somebody has to strip the beds, run the laundry, scrub two bathrooms, restock the coffee, and walk out the door before a stranger walks in.

Welcome back to the Cashflow Diary podcast. I'm J. Massey.

Maybe you don't host yet. Maybe you're looking at a rental because you want money that still shows up in a month when your job cuts the overtime. Whatever got you here, one thing is true of every rental I've ever run. On most turnover days, the person in that five hour window won't be you.

That person is your cleaner. Today I'll make the case that your cleaner is the most important hire you'll make in this business, and then I'll walk you through how to keep a good one once you find them. One quick note before we start. Every dollar figure in this episode is a hypothetical example, so you can follow the math. Run it with your own numbers.

Let's start with why the cleaner matters so much.

Airbnb's own cleaning tips say it plainly. One of the most common reasons guests give hosts fewer than five stars is a lack of cleanliness.

And if you charge a cleaning fee, Airbnb's guide to cleaning fees says guests hold you to a higher standard of cleanliness.

A dirty arrival can also cost you money that day. Airbnb's help page for guests says if the place isn't clean, they should document it with photos or video and tell the host. It gives examples. A partial refund, like the cleaning fee, for minor issues such as unwashed linens. A full refund for severe issues that make a guest leave right away. And if the host can't fix it, the guest has seventy two hours to bring Airbnb in.

So think about who stands between you and all of that. It's the cleaner. On a one or two unit business, your cleaner runs quality control for the whole operation.

So the first mistake I see is shopping for a cleaner on price alone.

Years ago, on one of our live Q and A calls, a host asked about cutting linen costs by having guests do some of the laundry. I told him the biggest challenge I see is quality control. How do you know they cleaned it, or did it well? As soon as quality control goes out the window, the very next guest has a problem, or even worse, you credit them back. Then the cleaners get there and still have to wash everything. So now you've paid twice.

I tend to shy away from asking guests to do anything. And Airbnb backs that up. Its help page on fees says hosts shouldn't impose fees, charges, or penalties for failing to do specific cleaning or checkout tasks.

There's another thing people miss when they compare quotes. On another call, a host was thinking about dropping a cleaning company to save money. I pointed out that part of your cleaning costs have nothing to do with cleaning and everything to do with the organizational structure. With a company, you're paying for someone who schedules the cleaners and covers the sick days. Take that away, and that job lands on you.

Airbnb's cleaning fee guide says to compare rates while still paying a fair wage.

What I look for in a cleaner starts with that five hour window.

Plenty of people can clean a bathroom. A turnover is different. It has a hard deadline, a laundry cycle, restocking, and a guest arriving whether the job is done or not.

Airbnb has a free directory where hosts recommend local service providers, cleaners included. Its vetting list is short. Explain what you need, check that they're qualified for it, confirm licenses, permits, and insurance, and confirm the price. It also suggests talking to them, or meeting them, before you share any personal or financial details.

On top of that, I listen for four things. Can they tell me the latest check in they can hit after an eleven o'clock checkout? Do they name a real person who covers for them when they're sick? Will they send photos at the end of every turnover? And when something's broken or missing, do they tell you, or do they just clean around it?

Airbnb's guide adds one more step before you hire anyone. Run through the cleaning yourself, once, so you know exactly what needs to be done. You can't judge a cleaner's time if you've never timed the job.

Now, the second half of this episode. Keeping a good one.

Keeping a good cleaner starts with making the job easy to do well. Start with what's waiting for them in the unit.

On one diagnostic training, I asked a host, do you have even a spare set of linens, specifically sheets, inside the unit right now? It's a question worth asking yourself. A professional cleaner named Diana Cruz told Airbnb, it's better to have spare sets of clean sheets and towels for same day turnarounds. Big fluffy towels take forever to dry.

Give the supplies a home. Airbnb suggests keeping everything in one place, like a portable caddy or a locked owner's closet, and restocking it regularly. A cleaner who never hunts for paper towels finishes faster.

And be careful what you pile on. I've said this on the podcast about fire and smoke checks. You're like, I'll just tell my cleaner to do it. Cool. That's still money, time, effort, and mental space out of their day that isn't cleaning, and you're paying for it. And what happens when they forget? Because they're human. Every extra job you hand a cleaner makes that five hour window a little shorter.

Next, money and predictability.

Pay on time, every time. I'd pay the same day the turnover passes your photo check. Late pay can move you down a cleaner's list on a busy Saturday.

Airbnb's cleaning fee guide quotes a host in North Carolina named Lorna. She offered her cleaners a monthly guaranteed income during the slow season, even when she only had one or two bookings, and paid slightly less during the busy season.

Now let's run a raise against a bad day, with made up round numbers. Say you pay ninety dollars a turnover and you have eight turnovers a month. A ten dollar raise costs you eighty a month, nine hundred and sixty dollars a year.

Now one failed turnover. Say you refund one night at a hundred and eighty dollars, and you pay a same day replacement cleaner one and a half times the usual rate, a hundred and thirty five dollars. That's three hundred and fifteen dollars, and that's before the review.

Three of those in a year is nine hundred and forty five dollars, about the same as the raise. A fourth puts you at twelve hundred and sixty. If a raise keeps the cleaner who shows up and gets it right, it can pay for itself.

Now, checking the work when you can't be there, without hovering over anyone.

Ask for the same set of photos at the end of every turnover, in the same order. Each made bed. The bathroom. Inside the fridge. The kitchen counters. The trash area. The thermostat and the locks. Look at them before check in, while there's still time to fix something. And because Airbnb tells guests to document a dirty arrival with photos, your cleaner's photos give you a dated record of your own.

Then give feedback that's specific, both kinds. If a guest says the place smelled fresh, pass it along, word for word. If the shower door had spots in two of the last three photos, say that, kindly and early.

And schedule the big jobs separately. Airbnb's cleaning tips suggest a deep clean every two or three months, for the jobs nobody has time for between back to back guests. Book it on a blocked day, and pay for it as its own job. Don't squeeze it into a turnover.

Last piece. Build your backup before you need it.

Airbnb's own guide says it. Find a second cleaner, or another backup plan, in case your cleaner can't make it one day.

Back in twenty twenty, on day four of a masterclass about who you need on your team, I said I have two sets of cleaners, and I was working on a third one, because I don't want a single point of failure. That's how seriously I take this hire.

The best time to line up a backup is right after you hire your first cleaner, while your runner up still remembers you. Pay them for their own trial turnover, with the same checklist and the same photos. Give them a paid turnover or two every few months, so your home and your standards stay fresh for them. Keep the door codes, the checklist, and where the supplies live in one shared document both cleaners can open.

And decide your last resort now, while you're calm. If both cleaners fall through, will you clean it yourself, block the next night, or call a company that does same day work? The worst time to make that call is at ten fifty on a Saturday morning.

Five hours between guests. Your listing, your price, and your reviews all ride on what happens inside that window, and on most days, you're not the one standing in it. That's why I call the cleaner the most important hire in this business.

Now your homework. Ten minutes. Write down the name of your cleaner, or the person you'd call if you hosted next week. Then write down the name of your backup. If that second line is blank, that's your next move.

If you'd like a second set of eyes on your turnover setup and the numbers behind it... that's what our complimentary one-on-one diagnostic call is for. Go to cashflowdiary.com/diagnostic. Bring both names.

A rental business takes work, it takes money, and it can lose money. This is education, not financial, legal, or tax advice.

Okay, that's it for today. I'm J. Massey. And this has been the Cashflow Diary podcast.

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Quick note... this episode was voiced with my licensed AI voice, built from my own recordings.