How To Succeed As An Airbnb Vacation Rental Host

To succeed as an Airbnb host, clean your property to hospitality standard between every guest — not just changing the linens and vacuuming, but cleaning everything as if it’s never been used. Work top-down and strip the beds first so linens wash while you clean, hit the spots guests notice most (under the bed, high-touch surfaces, shower glass), and keep furnishings simple so turnovers go faster. Cleanliness is one of the biggest drivers of reviews, and reviews drive bookings. Here’s how to do it.

If you’re one of the roughly 5 million hosts letting property through Airbnb or another short-term rental marketplace, you know how important it is to keep guests happy. Good reviews are critical — there’s a direct link between positive reviews and high occupancy rates — and poor cleanliness shows up in a significant share of bad reviews.

Some hosts are dismayed when, after spending hours between turnovers changing beds and scrubbing floors, guests still leave poor reviews because they felt the property wasn’t clean enough. It can feel unfair, but a 2016 study by Morgan Stanley offers a likely explanation: even then, over half of guests were using home-sharing services as an alternative to hotels — and that share has only grown since.

Gone are the days when Airbnb was a couch-surfer’s best friend. Today many guests pay hundreds or thousands of dollars expecting a homely atmosphere kept to the same standard as large chain hotels and vacation resorts. The takeaway: to run a successful short-term rental, it needs to be cleaned to hospitality standard.

What is “hospitality standard” anyway?

When you let your property to paying guests, you need to do more than change the linens and vacuum. Nobody wants to stay somewhere and think about all the people who used the bathroom and slept in the bed before them — the same holds true for a room in your house or apartment.

A space cleaned to hospitality standard isn’t just clean, it’s hygienically clean, as if nothing has been used before. That’s a tall order in the few hours between turnovers — hotel rooms are designed to clean quickly and efficiently, while your home probably wasn’t, yet guests expect the same result.

To reach that standard, everything has to be cleaned before and after every guest. Scrubbing the tub or mopping once a week won’t cut it. You might not think twice about hard-water marks on the shower door or dust on a TV screen, but anything less than immaculate reminds guests of the people who stayed before them.

Think about how hotel cleaners work: they don’t just change the sheets, they wipe down every surface, sweep, mop, and vacuum, thoroughly clean the bath, shower, and toilet, wash the windows, and more. When replicating a hospitality clean at home, pay particular attention to the tasks you’d normally tackle only weekly or less often — those are frequently the areas that matter most to guests.

How do I clean my property to hospitality standard?

The good news is that with some planning you can get your Airbnb property cleaned to hotel standard without spending hours on it. Start by making a checklist of everything that needs cleaning before each guest — every item in the room, from bookshelves to the TV remote.

Then think about the best order. Change the bedding first so you can clean the rest of the space while the sheets are in the wash. Work top-down so you’re not creating mess in places you just cleaned: dust the ceiling corners and light fittings before the shelves, and leave the floor until last.

Get into all the nooks and crannies, however awkward. Clean under and around the bed between guests unless you want complaints about dust bunnies — these are the first places guests inspect for signs of poor cleanliness.

If your space takes forever to clean, it may be time to rethink the furnishings. Laminate or hardwood floors clean far faster than carpet and attract less hair and dust. Ornaments and knickknacks personalize a space but are also dust magnets that slow you down. Notice how simply standard hotel rooms are furnished — once you’ve done a hospitality clean, you’ll understand why.

Top tips for a truly clean Airbnb property

There’s no substitute for elbow grease, but these steps make a turnover clean faster and more efficient:

• Buy non-streak dishwasher tablets so crockery, cutlery, and glassware always come out gleaming
• Use disposable toilet brushes so guests aren’t confronted with a stained brush others have used
• Don’t forget to clean under the toilet seat and rim, and around the base and hinges
• Use a squeegee on glass shower doors, or dry them with crumpled newspaper, for a streak-free finish
• Keep switch plates and door handles clean — greasy fingerprints love them
• Always wipe down phones, clocks, and TV remotes
• When you change the bed, mist the made bed with a little plain tap water and pull the linens straight for hotel-quality corners
• Dust bulbs and replace any starting to dim, so the room always feels bright and airy
• Save your white sheets by buying black or gray washcloths for makeup removal

Call in the professionals

Running a business from home, it makes sense to keep costs low, and many hosts are reluctant to hire outside cleaners for turnovers. But they often don’t count their own time as a valuable commodity or weigh the return on how they spend it. For many hosts, a professional cleaning service is the smart choice — saving time and turning over rentals efficiently between guests.

Pro cleaners frequently have hospitality experience too, so they know the standard your property needs to meet and how to achieve it.

If you’re struggling to keep on top of turnovers or get your life back from the endless cycle of cleaning between guests, Pro Housekeepers can help. Our services are available in major cities across the U.S., and we understand the needs of home-share hosts — efficient, hospitality-standard cleaning on schedule and at an affordable price.

We have customer service agents available seven days a week, so get in touch to discuss how Pro Housekeepers can help you take charge of your Airbnb rental, streamline turnovers, and stop worrying about cleanliness complaints.