Building Your STR Dream Clean Team

In this episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, we're diving deep into the world of STR cleaning with Brooks Sparks, Sales Team Manager at Turno, an online platform that helps vacation rental hosts and property managers simplify and automate STR turnover cleanings.

Brooks joins Miles to discuss how to build a reliable cleaning team for your short-term rental and manage it effectively. The conversation covers various topics, from finding vetted, experienced cleaners to streamlining cleaning operations to quality control.

Press Play now to learn how a top-notch cleaning strategy can help you unlock more bookings, get better reviews, and build a more profitable business.

Do you prefer to read the highlights? We've got a summary of the key takeaways below.

Why Building a Great Cleaning Team Is Essential for Your Success

Vacation rental guests have high expectations regarding cleanliness, so hosts and property managers should prioritize keeping their properties spotless. This is essential for attracting guests and winning positive reviews. Brooks points out that you have to find professional cleaners "you can rely on, and that are going to give you five-star cleans every time," this is especially important if you're just getting started.

"If you're getting started for the first time, finding those foundational cleaners at the very beginning is incredibly important because if you get started with some bad reviews, you'll have some trouble. You're going to get hit on the OTAs. You won't be able to generate the business you want to generate, even on your direct booking site. So establishing that quality team early and streamlining the cleaning operations is foundational," he clarifies.

How Turno Can Help

Cleaning management is complex and time-consuming, but Brooks emphasizes that "once you set up a tool like Turno, it becomes hands-off." This allows you to focus more on other aspects of your rental business, such as optimizing revenue management or growing your portfolio.

"Here at Turno, we have the world's largest marketplace of cleaners. It has over 55,000 cleaners. So here in the United States, Canada, and then a few other European countries, you can find cleaners onboarded with us and joined our marketplace. And what's cool about that onboarding process is that those cleaners are vetted, background checked, and have to verify short-term rental cleaning experience."

Maintaining High Standards

Potentially, you may have to hire different cleaners each time, so it's crucial to ensure consistency in cleanliness. Every turnover should be handled with the same level of care and precision. Brooks points out that you should always start with the vetting process and set expectations, whether you use a cleaner from Turno, Facebook, Craigslist, or a referral. He recommends starting with an interview (a phone interview or an in-person walkthrough) to ensure your cleaners are the right fit.

Brooks also recommends creating detailed cleaning checklists that cover every step of the cleaning process. "In a tool like Turno, for example, we have functionality where you can also set photo expectations. So if you want to throw pillows on the bed a certain way, you set that expectation in a photo, and then you can have them reciprocate that photo and upload it, and then also track your inventory."

Brooks reveals that over the last several years, cleaners who use Turno to find cleaning jobs have become more reliable, so they rarely have horror stories. He says that's because Turno is a competitive marketplace, and cleaners want to find clients for their services. "They're trying to compete against other cleaners as well."

Brooks also notes, "For existing hosts and property management companies, inside of Turno, you could also take advantage of all the cleaning management functionality with your existing cleaners." Since Hospitable integrates with Turno, all Hospitable hosts can onboard their existing cleaners through it and use Turno to schedule cleanings automatically for free.

Quality Center for Airbnb Operators

Turno has a new functionality called Quality Center that provides STR operators with targeted, actionable insights to help Airbnb hosts and property managers improve property cleanliness and boost their reviews and ratings. Brooks briefly explains how it works.

"In Turno, you can connect Airbnb directly to your account in addition to your PMS. And that will pull in all the recent cleanliness review scores for the cleaners on your team. That way, you can track their quality, not only for your properties but also for their Airbnb cleanliness reviews in total. So you'll be able to track quality and ensure they're hitting your standards."

Listen to the full episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast to find out how to build a stellar cleaning team for your short-term rental and achieve hassle-free turnovers.