How are you going to clean your STRs now?

Question

Today, 4-5 of my units will become vacant.  The tenants are going back home since their job is projected to be done.  How are you, or your cleaning crew, going to clean your places for the next renters?  Or are you going to leave them as is (but take out the trash) because you don't anticipate anyone renting them in the near future?

Carolyn Fuller · Answer

We are following the Airbnb guidelines as if we were renting to visiting nurses (which we hopefully will be). That means no one enters the unit for 24 hours. Then either my husband and I or our cleaning crew will disinfect the unit according to Airbnb's recommendations. We will leave 72 hours between guests (actually tenants because we've turned our STR into a 32 day minimum). In other words, we will treat our units as if they have been exposed to this virus and the units will be used to house people who are part of the solution not part of the problem.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

@Cliff H.  Thanks, I think we'll just detrash the properties and wait a few days for the next process in the cleaning procedure.

Cliff H. · Answer

Hey @Paul Sandhu granted we don’t have any pinup magazines or suggestive wall decor to clean up, I have always had our cleaners do the standard turnover the same day or day after tenants check out, even if we know there are no future bookings on the schedule for several days (or weeks in this case) ahead.

While it may make more economic sense to wait until just before the next guest arrives for “freshness,” there’s just no way of knowing what folks left in the fridge, if they took out the garbage, etc so better to have to send them back in to do a quick 30m once-over than dealing with an EHS apocalypse because we waited several weeks.

Additionally, I’ve heard a lot of chatter on this forum and AirHostsForum around cleaning procedure, recommended chemicals, etc. Given the slow anticipated rate of bookings the weeks/month ahead we’re actually just skipping the guesswork and instituting a minimum 2-3 day delay on cleanings after a guests checks out, since the prevailing wisdom seems to indicate that COVID-19’s “shelf life” on most surfaces is somewhere between several hours to 3 days. Since most of our bookings are weekends, that gives plenty of time to have guests check out on Sunday AM, cleaners come in for a safe turnover on Wednesday, while keeping both our cleaners and future guests out of harm’s way from any probability of picking up the virus.

Ironically, even given these procedures, a really good team, and ridiculously OCD turnover checklist, we’ve already had the last guest request extra paper towels in < 24 hours from check-in, which I suspect means they either spilled something they did not want to tell me about or were doing their own wipe-down procedure as soon as they arrived.

John Underwood · Answer

We normally clean promptly to remove trash and know if we can refund the security deposit. This would normally allow for a last monute reservation if not already booked.

Now we are blocking time between stays to allow for cleaning time frame mentioned above.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I would cleaning them right away. You don't want to wait a week or two and the discover they left a turkey in the unplugged freezer or an opened can of tuna on the counter.

How are you going to clean your STRs now?

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