Let's talk Turnovers! Best Cleaning Models for your STR Business?

Question

STR arbitrage business owner here! Turnovers/Cleanings are the biggest pain point in my business. Consistent attention to detail is rare. I have found many cleaners that do an excellent job sometimes. But few that do excellent work all of the time. I have gone through many cleaners in the past 3 years. Some attrition is a result of disruptions from the pandemic and some are gone due to quality issues.

I believe that I have pretty solid systems to make things efficient for my cleaners:

• - well-organized supply closets with printed shelf labels and cubbies.
• - detailed bilingual checklists with staging photos.
• - 3 sets of all linens, enough for 3 turnovers to be completed without needing to wash.
• - laundry handled separately by a wash-and-fold delivery service. My cleaners simply bag the dirty and place the clean in the supply closets.
• - shared google doc where I put cleaning notes, reminders, updates, and feedback for all turnovers. Cleaners/Cleaning Company managers can open it any time to see last cleanings tip, as well as today's notes. I try to have this completed the day before a turnover but I could improve on this as I often have it is done the morning of a cleaning.
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Yet with all of these things in place and more, I still get inconsistent results from my cleaners. I do not believe many of them use the checklists I have had great cleaners before, don't get me wrong. But if I am going to scale my business cannot rely on an exceptional person. It needs to be consistent with an average person.

Post-pandemic it seems much harder to find good cleaners than before and it seems guests are especially critical. So I am now stepping back and rethinking this aspect of the business entirely. Perhaps there are different business models out there for handling Turnovers that will better achieve consistent cleaning standards.

Below are the Turnover/Cleaning Models that I can think of. I am curious if any of you have other approaches! And what your thoughts are on the best way to handle this?

1. Sub-contract/Pay-Per-Service a cleaning companyHire a cleaning company that has multiple teams of cleaners.Advantages: They can almost always cover a cleaning because they have so much staff. They can often push their staff to the highest standards because they are fully employing them (especially the one’s that offer benefits).Drawback: Some owners do not ensure quality control. Cleaners are often inconsistent. Often there will be mistakes and oversights. Typically, you will receive less communication from cleaners on damage, supply inventory levels, and problems within the property. They often go really fast (to serve as many clients per day as possible) and with that there is less opportunity for your feedback/oversight before they leave the unit(if they send you pictures) because they leave the property so fast.

2. Sub-contract/Pay-Per-Service an individual cleanerHire an individual person as a cleaner. That person cleans themselves and may have 1 or 2 helpers at times.Benefits: If you can find a good one, they can be very consistently good. They value each client because you are their direct boss. They will often be very communicative of issues they see (damage, inventory low, problems, etc). You will normally be able to check/approve the cleaning before they depart.Drawbacks: They can’t always provide coverage, especially if you have multiple listings that require turnovers on the same day or get last-minute bookings, or they are prioritizing their other clients. They often don’t do holidays.

3. Hire (part-time/full-time) cleanerYou directly employ a cleaner. (I have not done this one. So I am speculating on these advantages and drawbacks. I am curious those who have what your experience and thoughts are)Advantages: You can select who you hire, how they are trained/on-boarded. They may have greater attention to detail, communication, and duty to you as their actual direct W-2 employer.Drawbacks: Must navigate the accounting and legal requirements of becoming an employer. Once you hire, it may be less easy to get rid of them if they are not performing well.

4. Hire (part-time/full-time) manager & Sub-contract a cleaning companyYou directly hire an operations manager, in addition to a cleaning team. (I have not done this one but I think this is the best option. I am speculating on these advantages and drawbacks. I am curious those who have what your experience and thoughts are)Advantage: You can ensure quality control by having the manager check behind the cleaning team and fix any cleaning issues before the guests arrive. They can also help manage other functions as laundry service, guest support, or any other aspect of operations. So you could eliminate another service provider. Free your time to focus on growing and managing the business. Allow your business to grow faster.Drawbacks: Expensive. You must either have the scale to generate enough cashlfow to pay a cleaner and a manager, or you be willing to take on debt to hire the staff needed to grow and expand. You also have to manage the manager.

If I have left something out, please share. If you have tips on how to improve the advantages or drawbacks to any of these Cleaning Models please share your tips!!

Ken Boone · Answer

@Lauren Pitts I don't have an answer for you but I have a perspective to share. Cleaners are humans and humans are not perfect. You will never get a cleaner or cleaning company to do everything you want every time. If you cleaned the place yourself, you too, would miss things occasionally. Things happen.

The worst service I had was with a large cleaning company. Met the owners, very nice people, I felt like they wanted to run an outstanding business. However, hiring cleaners is not always easy. These companies hire cleaners directly. The cleaners they use depend on the work force available. Yes it is true they have more cleaners which means they have more coverage. However, it doesn't make it better. As this cleaning company grew, they went through cleaners, every time you get new cleaners, you have a learning curve. They also have to cycle through so many customers that they heard complaints from all the time, they stop listening.. Even if they are legit complaints. I finally dumped this cleaning company after several issues that popped up with various service work they had performed or supposedly performed but definitely over charged me for. I brought this to their attention, and they stood up for their employees. I gave them time to research the issues, and they came back and told me if this person said they did it then they did it. So I then took them proof of two different incidents, via actually things that were supposed to be swapped but weren't as well as video evidence. I dropped them as my cleaner. And I went through a lot before I dropped them too, because at that time I was afraid that if I went to a smaller cleaner I would have issues such as availability, coverage if they were sick, holidays all that stuff.

However, I went to a smaller cleaner who hires a few people to work for them. I consider them to be my friends at this point. They are definitely our business partners. They do a great job, but they are not perfect - goes back to being human, just as if I was cleaning. It is not going to perfect 100% of the time. Too many factors in human lives. But they work with us and do the best they can and are willing to help any time I need them, whether it is to correct something they missed, or perhaps to correct something I missed. We have a great working relationship and that is what you need most. Your cleaner needs to be part of your team, not just someone you hire.

Now here is a thought. Why don't you keep doing what you are doing, but hire a teenager or a college student part time to go in and inspect each property after cleaning. Now the point here is not to go back to the cleaner every time they missed something. You will just ruin your cleaner if you do that every time. If it is the same thing consistently, sure, but the point here is for this part time person to go in and check the property and go through a list and to fix anything that is not the way you want it. Maybe pay them $20 an inspection or more if they have to fix things. That is a cheap way to help ensure a better service.

Sean Delisle · Answer

First off, I love the way you think! I can tell I's like to stay at one of your places, because you have things dialed in!

I have the one person model and she has a few employees. Overall she's great. We also have a "Care Taker". She's a retired realtor. Realtors understand staging and how a home should look. She goes through the houses after the cleanings, she makes sure the dishes are where they are supposed to be, decorative pillows are placed correctly, she will bring trash barrels in and out, pick up laundry, supplies etc... The Cleaners clean and she makes sure everything else is in order. It's a team effort. She's $200 a month (per home) and worth every penny! She loves the extra money and feels important. She's awesome!

Speaking of awesome. I'm a perfectionist, but to combat my perfectionism. I rely on guest feedback. I don't expect my cleaners to be perfect, I just expect them to be awesome. There's a difference. Perfect is hard to achieve, but your guests will tell you if your home is clean and looks awesome. If the guest feedback is the place was really clean, then it's a win. They do not clean it as well as we cleaned it, but the guest feedback is what counts.

Good luck with your quest!

Lauren Pitts · Answer

@Ken Boone Thank you for such a very thoughtful response, Ken. Your experiences are very consistent with mine. I agree it is very off-putting to work with a company that defends their employees even in the face of evidence of mistakes. I just had that happen to me last week and it was most irritating. Especially because I had to go fix their cleaning oversights at 10:00 PM on a Friday night after I was all dressed for my evening plans. Not fun to be told by the manager, that it was not their fault and they did a great cleaning. Like you, my best cleaner was a one-woman operation. She recruited a helper but it was often just her and she was amazing--she really became a friend. Unfortunately I lost her during the pandemic. She moved on. In any case, I do like your idea of cheap labor to do the finishing touches because I have also come to the same conclusion that there will always be something off. You need a third-party to pick-up the slack. This is where having kids or little cousins or nephews/neices comes in handy, I think. lol

I came across one person who came up with a suggestion of a position called something like "Quality Control Manager" or "Hospitality Quality Controller." To combine it with your idea perhaps it could be marketed as a hosplitality internship or a Short Term Rental Internship. Maybe I could attract a young person with the right mindset who sees this an opportunity to learn the business by showing great oversight and initiative. I can definitely beat the pay of an unpaid internship!

Ken Boone · Answer

@John Underwood The problem I have found is that these companies don't scale well. At least in my market. Company grows, services gets worse, QA person, shows up in the middle of the clean and checks it off, cleaners finished an hour later and forgot to clean one of the bathrooms - QA already came and went, etc... The other problem in my market is the labor pool. Not a good labor pool, and nobody wants to work so that really impacts the cleaning companies trying to scale, and then a fast food chain pops up and gives a $750 incentive to work there, bye bye cleaner, now they need to find another employee in a poor labor pool. In my market, what I have found, and heard from others as well is that its better to have an individual cleaner with some backups, or a cleaner who hires just a handful of helpers and doesn't take on more work than they can handle. Might not be an issue in a different market but in my market it definitely is an issue.

Lauren Pitts · Answer

Now that is interesting! I have not seen this before

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

@Lauren Pitts You left out one option - clean them yourself (if you are local)

Marc Rice · Answer

I like control over my business from a management standpoint and cost standpoint and found having a cleaning manager who can hire and train new cleaners is the best way I've been able to scale to 10+ cleaners.

Lauren Pitts · Answer

Also, I would like to add to the topic to continuously evaluate your own operations and streamline and simplify the turnover process for your cleaners. A friend of mine that owns hostels always shares great tips for tools, products, and supplies that streamline operations. I have come a long way since I first started but there are always more gains to be made in efficiency and organization.

These are just a few:

wrinkle-resistant sheets (microfiber are the cheapest, most durable, and wrinkle-resistant)

High-capacity automatic hand-soap and lotion dispensers

robot vacuums

Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash dispensers

Shower curtains with snap-off liners

Ken Boone · Answer

Yes there is definitely room for that as a business model. Here is one such company that does that in my market.

https://vacationpropertymonito...

Paul Sandhu · Answer

I'll let someone else answer for me. Maybe @Luke Carl

Let's talk Turnovers! Best Cleaning Models for your STR Business?

Let's talk Turnovers! Best Cleaning Models for your STR Business?

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