Cleanliness has always been of supreme importance to short-term rental guests. Now, when hygiene so directly impacts safety, that’s truer than ever.
Here, we present invaluable Airbnb cleaning tips for ensuring the safety of your guests and the survival of your business, gathered from three of Guesty’s Marketplace partners: Breezeway, VRScheduler, and Flexkeeping.
1) Apply comprehensive cleaning processes to your entire portfolio of properties
Readying your properties for guests during a pandemic requires a whole lot more than simply instructing your cleaners to be more thorough. Hosts need to implement clear, measurable practices that comply with the standards of leading health authorities such as the World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control.
These practices should include disinfecting and sanitizing all high-touch surfaces, such as keys, door knobs, lightswitches and appliances.
2) Stay organized
As with anything important, the cleanliness of your rentals should be triple checked before new guests arrive. Keep an organized checklist of your cleaning protocols for each property to ensure everything has been properly cleaned and no task was forgotten.
Additionally, you’ll want to keep track of which staff members tended to which properties. In the event that someone on your properties is exposed, knowing who was where and when is crucial for minimizing impact and keeping both your staff and guests safe.
Digitizing your housekeeping operations is a great way to stay on the ball, enabling you and your team to swiftly communicate, verify tasks and analyze processes in order to optimize success.
3) Consider extending turnover time
If your additional cleaning measures require more time than you have between guests, you should consider adjusting your reservation system so that you only accommodate guests when your properties are 100% prepared. This may seem like it can hurt your business in the short-run, but today’s travelers are looking for reliable hosts who value their health and safety, and your commitment to both will serve to earn you trust and, ultimately, more bookings.
4) Maximize efficiency
With so many properties to keep in tip top shape, you’ll want to automate as much of the process as possible in order to keep things running smoothly. Software solutions specifically tailored to organizing staff tasks and schedules can step in to ensure nothing falls to the wayside.
Additionally, rather than allotting time in their busy schedules to train in-person, you can effectively educate your employees about new cleaning protocols with online courses that they can complete when their schedules allow.
5) Put your best people forward
Instead of spreading your top cleaners thin by assigning them non-cleaning related tasks, hire temporary teams to undertake other operations. This way you can rest assured that your most reliable employees are handling cleanings and aren’t rushing the process in order to tackle other jobs.
On a related note, you’ll want to acknowledge work well done. Since you’re upping the expectations of your team, you should make sure to recognize their efforts and ensure they feel appreciated, motivated and heard.
6) Communicate your processes to potential guests
You’re doing all you can to keep your guests safe – why not let them know? Being transparent about your comprehensive cleaning processes can help give potential guests the confidence they need to book your properties. Perhaps specify the measures you have implemented since the outbreak of the pandemic via an automated messaging flow to let them know their health is your priority.
A little help to get you started
We’ve collaborated with our Marketplace partners in the cleaning space to offer the Guesty community a couple of promotions to give you a leg up.
Check them out:
- A 10% discount and waived implementation fee for Guesty users who sign up with Breezeway before 12/31/20.
- A FREE Cleaning Certification course from CleaningCertification.com when you sign up for a demo with VRScheduler here.
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