Should I Hire a Cleaning Service?
Kids, we call this....the lynch pin.
A rug and a housekeeper have one
thing in common: they both really bring a room together.
Unlike a rug, if a housekeeper get stolen, it's not petty theft; it's kidnapping.
But seriously, getting this right is really important.
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As discussed in How Much Will I Make?, a housekeeper can add significant recurring cost to running your operation, eating into your profits. That being said, done properly, employing a house cleaner can also add significantly to your bottom line, AND help you keep your sanity.
The first several weeks that I hosted, I tried to “do it all”, meaning I would come home at night and “turn beds” for the next night’s guests. Not only was this exhausting, it also meant that I was leaving money on the table as a result of requiring one day of buffer between guests. In my opinion, with another full time job, “doing it all” is not sustainable. This is particularly true if you’re hoping to be booked as frequently possible, and you’re independently renting out more than one room in your home.
The most important decision I made early on was to take my time finding the right “house keeper”. I interviewed a half-dozen independent workers and two large cleaning operations before finding the right fit. Oddly, the perfect fit ended up being my Uber driver one evening. After some short conversation I found out she was hoping to start a cleaning business, but needed a critical mass of clients first.
Requirements for a **STELLAR** housekeeper
Tech-savvy enough to plug in to the Airbnb / Vrbo calendar and stay on top of it when it came to being ready for guests. You should aim to be so hands-off with coordinating schedule that you don’t have to give a second thought related to the person showing up at the needed times.
Flexible enough schedule to accommodate a somewhat erratic cleaning schedule. Many cleaners expect to rotate to a home every two week or every month. This routine simple doesn’t work with short-term rentals.
Thorough with an eye for detail. Nothing will sink your business faster than not keeping an extremely tidy space.
Friendly personality. Your guests will likely run into the person turning rooms, so their demeanor will impact the quality of a guest’s stay.
Affordable. Though you’ll need to pay a solid worker well, in my search I found that cleaning businesses that were built around cleaning vacation rentals were so expensive that it was clearly untenable; the “middle man” just took too large of a cut.
As you probably noticed when setting up your listing, cleaning charges are listed separately when clients book a stay. Clients expect that there will be some cleaning fee associated with their stay, so even if you end up doing the cleaning yourself, don’t shy away from charging a separate cleaning fee.
How much should I charge for cleaning and how do I keep the price low?
Like many things, it depends. I charged a $25 cleaning fee, and 100% of this got passed along to the person doing the work (and I stocked all necessary materials). There are a number of ways you can keep the cleaning costs down, mostly relating to helping your cleaning person work efficiently to maximize their hourly earnings: Part of the reason I could charge a relatively low cleaning fee was due to economy of scale. I was renting out three room independently, so on a day where all three rooms needed to get turned, the cleaning person made a very good wage (~$50/hour). On the days that only one room needed to get turned, they made much less (~ $25/hour). If you are renting out an entire 1,000 sqft home, a cleaning fee of $100 – $150 is reasonable.
Provide the cleaning supplies. If they don’t have to lug supplies to/from a vehicle, they can get in and out faster.
Buy at least three sets of sheets for each room, and get ones that dry fast. Having multiple sets of sheets and towels allows the cleaner to through one set in the washer as soon as they get to the home, put the new sheets on and generally clean up, then transfer the sheets to the dryer before they leave.
Be organized. Keep everything they need to access in a well-organized way. This minimizes the time they waste looking for supplies, items for the welcome baskets, etc, and makes it obvious when items are running low.
Pay them on time. This one may seem obvious, but keep a written record of the cleanings per week and pay them promptly what they earn.
Show gratitude for their help! Even though this is their job, expressing gratitude for good work helps keep everyone happy and productive. Plus, working is just more fun when people feel appreciated. At the end of a high-revenue month, I would occasionally give the cleaning person a bonus.