Downtown Luxury Slum

Every time someone has asked if I planned to manage my own Airbnb or hire someone, I’ve always ways said I would hire it out. But now I’m waffling. I mean I think that long-term, I’ll probably hire it out, and I’ll definitely have to hire out the cleaning because I can’t very well drive 4 hours every time the house needs cleaning (it’s a 2-hour drive away from where I live). But I have done the cleaning for the first few guests, just to help me get a better understanding of what all needs to get done and how long it takes, so I can make sure that any cleaners I do hire can do the best job possible.

So here’s the outline for the cleaning checklist I put together.

• Areas to be tidied, dusted, swept, mopped, and vacuumed
• Bins to be emptied
• Bathroom components to be cleaned
• Kitchen components to be cleaned
• Inventory (and spot cleaning) of kitchen items
• Change bedding, towels, bathmats
• Re-stock consumables
• Check functioning of all appliances, lights, smoke detectors – monthly
• Final touches – I’m thinking of leaving chocolates on each bedside table or something?

Here’s the PDF of my actual cleaning checklist!

I’m still tweaking it but it seems to be a good start. It’s taken about 3-4 hours the first few times I’ve done it aside from washing all of the linens, but I think it’ll get quicker once I get a groove. I have extras of all the linens so I can just replace whatever I don’t have time to wash and dry while I’m cleaning, and then take the rest home to wash.