What to do when the housecleaner doesn’t show up?

[Pat271]

This discussion is obviously for those of you that don’t do the cleaning for your units.

I’ve actually never had this happen, which is probably lucky - but what do you do if your housecleaner, for whatever reason, can’t make it to your STR between bookings?  Do you have “extra” housecleaners to call on?  Or do you use online services like TurnoverBnb, to solve this problem?

[Rowena29]

@Pat271 

I clean my own property but I can envisage a situation where I might need to call on a cleaning service.

Personally I would e guided my recommendations from other hosts in my area.  Do you have a local airbnb  FB page  or something similar?  my local community airbnb FB is full of questions and recommendations such as this.

Hope this helps

Regards

[Lisa723]

@Pat271 For my local listing I have a back-up cleaner, and in the worst case 🙂 I do it myself. For my remote listings I have a local co-host, who has her own roster of cleaners.

[Emilia42]

@Pat271 

I clean my own places but I do imagine that there may be a day where I physically cannot get out of bed (flu, broken leg, hangover, who knows.) So I have a printed cleaning checklist. A step by step guide how to stock and stage the space and reminders of areas that must be cleaned and things that cannot be forgotten. I have a few people who I would call in a cleaning emergency who I suppose would do a good job, but I would still be nervous. 

[Emily487]

@Pat271 

I clean my AirBnB myself and I have the long term tenant above the AirBnB who happens to be a housekeeper on back up (as well as her two sisters who are also housekeepers) Do you know anyone in the neighborhood who is a stay at home mom or someone with a flexible schedule who you could call on in an ER? You might be able to find one through the neighborhood FB page. 

[Tucson0]

Replying to the question what to do when your house cleaner doesn't show up it's very simple I've been doing this for 13 years now before anybody knew what vacation renting was and come on you clean your own rentals guys or gals? get used to that after 13 years and 40 plus renters a year that gets old scrubbing toilets oh unless you like back braking work and to see firsthand how crappy they left your place that you put so much attention time and love into. I pay for a house cleaner and have for a long time unless I stay at the unit myself. I have three vacation rentals one I've been doing for 13 years. The answer is scrambled like hell until you get somebody to come clean the rental and monitor them until it's done. I've had weirdos from Craig's show up and leave halfway through and not even get paid because they felt so overwhelmed by cleaning. There's nothing more than I hate than flakes meaning people like house cleaners who say they will show up and you're depending on them and they don't. and people that use and abuse like the renters on these platforms. People used to love and respect your home and be repeat renters now they just treat it like a trashy hotel and start stealing your your stuff you leave out now after all this time I'm having to contemplate locking my supplies up because people are so low class and backstabbing they'd rather leave you at backstabbing review after you serve them and they steal from you. No one will clean the house to level you will no one cares about your house or your business like you will. That's just the facts here. This industry has gone downhill since this platform has come online. I've caught renters doing the wrong thing at the wrong time including illegal activities and not checking out because this blind reviewing system. Anyways if someone doesn't show up for cleaning you place an ad anywhere you can to find another house cleaner to show up immediately especially if you're in a pinch with the same day renter check out check in and if all else fails you clean it yourself. As you will answer to everything at the end of the day. For some reason some house cleaners think it's okay to say yes they'll show up and not show up and I've called them out before and they'll complain later on the pay wasn't enough when they agreed to the pay and the terms and never said a word. People are squirrely rude and unpredictable. Not only house cleaners but renters. I've had house cleaners steal from me also and you have to determine who's doing what. I've also had house cleaners not wash the sheets and lie to me about it. Because I know how long it takes to wash and dry stuff in these occasions I don't call them out about it I just never have them back. And then I fix the problem. There's also a lot of desperate people out there as house cleaners who are in a time punch and if it serves them they will lie about their services. I felt so alone in this department for so long and now it's like Common Thread out there about the vacation rental business I always felt like house cleaners thought it was fine to flake and it wasn't an emergency that they just flaked and didn't show up for a house cleaning. But in fact it was an emergency for me because it's a business and I'm depending on them for my business and my reviews. And I'm depending on them showing up on time right after check out and cleaning so I can get check in same day and no one ever understood that I've left a lot of emails and voicemails and text these house cleaners reaming the raining them a new rear end. And besides having one house cleaner you should have two and besides having two house cleaners you should have three and so on because once you have a backup you need a backup for the backup. And if they all behave well rotate them during High season so you keep them all busy. And beyond that you have to find a backup service or place to find them online in case all your backups fail. And this has literally happened to me before where I've had two if not three house cleaners and trying to get the house done in one day. I have children to pick up from school and several other businesses to run on top of the point of feeling Disturbed when these renters check out and abuse my place that I built and lived in for 7 years. But don't let anybody ever stop you especially a house cleaner find a good one find another good one and find another good one and repeat the process because they never last long-term. Still to this day it's hard to convert regular house cleaners to vacation rental house cleaners I try to explain it to them that it's like cleaning a hotel you don't leave trash or your trash in the garbage can everything is relined the dishwasher is empty the sheets are washed the beds are made the towels are staged Etc and this was all before the turno app even with the turno app I find house cleaners still aren't doing everything they should be doing and have outlined in an instructional guide. I think it these people literally need to be spot checked and monitored.