A big part of your expense as a short term property owner is your cleaning and turnover expense. As an owner of a company that does this work for you, I can provide some insight on how to make this process efficient and profitable.
First, a big part of the turnover process is the laundry. Ideally, your company will have a laundry service to bring linens with them when they clean and stage. However you may choose to have a certain style of linens you would like to leave for your guests or your property may be in a remote area where this is not possible. In either case you will want to be able to wash your linens in a timely manner. Today's "smart" appliances are sometimes not so smart. The auto sensing units often fail to sense the load properly and the dryers do not heat up to the same temperature as the older models. The locations that we service that have commercial units make this process faster and work more efficiently for high volume loads. It is highly recommended that you purchase commercial appliances for your linens and preferable two dryers. Having a second dryer will not only speed up the drying process, but can be used to sanitize the blankets, comforters and other items that may not be able to be washed regularly.
Along with providing commercial units, consideration should be given to what kind of blankets and comforters you provide. While duvets are stylish, guests will often pile their blankets in with their wet towels or they will become wet if something is spilled on them. It seems easy to pull off the cover and wash it (which also requires your cleaning team to have extra time to do this ) but when the cover gets stained or wet, the insert also becomes wet. The insert unlike the cover is not easy to wash. It often requires a commercial size washer, and has to be air dried. Comforters fall into the same category. The easiest way to avoid difficult laundry issues is to provide thinner blankets in layers that can be washed easily.
Time is another factor that can affect your cleaning crew. Ample time needs to be given for them to complete the job including washing all blankets. Ideally all linens including comforters, blankets, duvets should be washed between guests for sanitation purposes. They can also be dried at a high temperature if not stained or needing washed or sprayed with a disinfectant. This is not ideal, but can work. Often we aren't given enough time to properly clean and set up a location. Things like washing/ sanitizing of blankets often go undone. Other things get overlooked as well when the timeline is too short.
Supplies can also impact the quality of the turnover process. There is not a true multipurpose cleaner. Make sure the supplies you provide do the best job. Have stainless steel cleaner for stainless. Window cleaner will permanently streak this surface as an example. Please provide quality vacuums. Cheap sweepers often do a cheap job and will not clean as thoroughly as needed to maintain your Airbnb luxury status. Provide multiple sets of sheets, towels, and blankets to make turnover easier if the crew is in a pinch timewise.
Providing these things will make the turnover faster and thereby also more profitable because you will not have to pay the extra time it takes to tackle these tasks with insufficient supplies.
Comments