Introducing Hospitable Marketplace Featuring Cleanster

In this special episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, Hospitable’s CEO, Pierre-Camille Hamana, interviews Derrick Agyiri, Co-Founder and CFO of Cleanster, introducing Hospitable Marketplace. We are starting with cleaning services powered by Cleanster because cleaning has always been a critical challenge for short-term rental hosts and property managers, and it’s the most challenging part of STR operations to scale.

Pierre-Camille and Derrick discuss how Cleanster makes property care effortless for STR hosts by connecting them with vetted, experienced professional cleaners and automating workflows, facilitating quality control, and streamlining payments. They explore the marketplace model, the importance of a customer-centric approach, the onboarding process, recruitment strategies, accountability in cleaning, managing high-risk jobs, and the integration with property management software. Derrick also shares his entrepreneurial journey, lessons from previous ventures, and the most rewarding moments since he started Cleanster.

Press Play now to discover how technology can help hosts and property managers take control of vacation rental cleanings and scale with confidence.

If you prefer to read the highlights, we’ve got a summary of the key takeaways below.

What Makes Cleanster Special?

Cleanster is a marketplace that connects professional cleaners with hosts and property managers. Its primary focus is on automating quality control services, ensuring the availability of cleaners, and facilitating easy payment to them. Derrick underlines that the core idea was to automate cleaning operations and “have a professional workforce at the click of a button.”

“We wanted to be the Uber model for cleaning,” Derrick says. “No other platform has been able to do that except Cleanster. What we focus on is speed and ensuring that it happens, especially when we have more than 300 cleaners in a specific location. It always comes with the supply constraints as well, so we are very particular when we launch in every city.”

Hosts and property managers can use the Cleanster marketplace to hire cleaners and pay them through the platform; then they are charged a commission that ranges from 15% to 20%. They can also choose the SaaS model and invite their own cleaners. Then they pay a subscription fee of $2.99 per unit per month.

Cleanster operates in the USA and Canada, providing access to a vast network of vetted professional cleaners, and you can easily book their cleaning services. Then, a cleaner claims the job, comes to your property, and cleans it based on your checklist. You rate them based on their performance.

“If they are great, they become your favorite,” Derrick points out. “If you don’t want them, you notify us. We always have a standard, and we have a video to prove how the process works. We'll discuss this in our quality or selection process before the cleaner arrives at your unit. And that’s different from our competitors.”

Integrating Cleanster into the Hospitable Marketplace

“Currently, we have over 150,000 cleaners on our platform, but we don't have that many bookings. So that’s why we actually partner with Hospitable to get that number, to get the cleanings coming in because the core idea here is to get to a hundred million in bookings per day,” Derrick explains.

“As a marketplace, you need to have the supply, but you need to have the demand rewarded,” Pierre-Camille underlines. “So this is where we are coming into play because we’re now going to be launching our Hospitable marketplace integrating with the supply provided by Cleanster.”

“The idea here is really leveraging the best supply that we could gather and feed it as much information as we could have as a property management software,” Pierre-Camille further explains. “So it’s not just about recruiting a cleaner, it’s actually making sure that we have an end-to-end cycle to ensure the quality of a great turnover experience for the host, for the guests, and ultimately with Cleanster, for the cleaning people themselves.”

Streamlining the Onboarding Process

“One thing we understood during our research was the speed of onboarding, and that was the biggest constraint,” Derrick notes. When users wanted to book a cleaning, they had to manually create their checklist or connect their PMS, and it took some time.

“When everybody signs up for the first step, we see their journey, and it tells us a lot. What we learned was that the more they wait, the more they churn. We had people who had the need. And the need was, I need a cleaner now. At what price? And do I need to do anything apart from connecting my PMS system? Those are the three things that we needed to give answers to.”

Now Cleanster users can take advantage of default customized checklists that really work. “We took data from big companies that have scaled and brought it to you, the little one who is starting with one property. And that’s what Cleanster wanted to do from the beginning. Learn from the enterprise level, because eventually you will get there,” Derrick underlines.

Cleanster provides hosts with recommended hours or a recommended price for cleaning, based on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in their properties, but you can modify these recommendations. “We go out and find the person who can suit your needs at the price that you’re looking for and lock them into a signed contract or lock them into your job. If you connect your PMS, they become your primary cleaner until you remove them,” Derrick explains.

The Cleaner’s Workflow, Accountability, and Quality Control

Derrick says that when a host books a service, they send a message to the cleaner telling them about the project cost and attach the checklist, so the cleaner knows what to expect. “When the cleaner comes on the app, they will see the job, they will see how much you are paying for it, and they will automatically accept it if that price and availability match their expectations. Cleaners accept jobs that they want to do, so they are passionate about doing them.”

On the day of the cleaning, when the cleaner taps 'On My Way', you start to see them on the map, and when they arrive at the property, they tap 'Arrived'. First, they take a photo of the door to make sure it’s the right unit. When they go in, they take videos or photos of the property based on a checklist, and then they upload the videos and photos. Cleanster allows up to 10 minutes of video or 50 images of before and after.

“It's essential to know how bad the place is. So, as the manager, you can also plan and say, 'OK, do I need to give the guest a gift card to wait for an hour before they come in?' Or do I need to call Airbnb and tell them that I’ve had a bad guest who just messed up my unit?” Derrick underlines.

When the cleaner completes the job and logs into the app, the Cleanster AI bot reviews their past work for previous customers and asks them to verify some critical details to ensure that everything has been set up to the standard. The cleaner receives payment after completing their job, and the host receives a unique link with before-and-after photos and videos, a checklist, and information about any property issues. Finally, the host can rate the cleaner. If your cleaner has done a great job and you want to tip them, you can do so directly in the app (up to 100% of their booking value), and Cleanster won’t take a commission on it.

Tune in to the full episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast to learn more about the smart way to manage short-term rental cleanings and ensure that every property is cleaned to 5-star standard.