3 Vacation Rental Cleaning Checklists to Get Your Home Ready for Guests

When running a vacation rental, there’s a lot to juggle with the goal of getting five-star reviews from guests. On top of stocking your home with all the essentials, investing in the most-booked amenities, and providing the perfect welcome book and ‘You made it!’ gift, there’s another thing you must do: make sure the property is clean.

Like, really clean. When we recently surveyed more than 8,000 travelers, they said cleanliness is most important to them when staying in a vacation rental. What’s more: they specifically look for reviews about cleanliness, as it’s one of the biggest decision-makers when booking a home.

That’s why having vacation rental cleaning checklists on hand is crucial. Our deep clean, pre-guest arrival, and post-stay lists are free to download, easy to use, and available in both English and Spanish. In short, they take the guesswork out of how to clean a vacation rental, so you can consistently deliver a five-star experience for guests.

Download Your Free Vacation Rental Cleaning Checklists PDF

In This Article:
Why Checklists Help with Vacation Rental Turnover Cleaning
Cleaning Supplies to Stock Up On
Preview Your Airbnb Cleaning Checklists
Get Your Free Vacation Rental Cleaning Checklists PDF

Why Checklists Help with Vacation Rental Turnover Cleaning

Keeping all the workstreams in your vacation rental business organized is important, but knowing how to clean a vacation rental is one of the top priorities. When you have a clearly outlined cleaning process in place, you’ll spend less time handling mishaps and more time growing your business. You’ll also:

1. Save Time and Minimize Human Error

Even when a cleaning routine is, well, routine, it’s easy to accidentally skip a step in the process — especially if there’s a tight turnaround between stays. With Airbnb cleaning checklists, you can eliminate (or at least reduce) that risk. Having cleaners initial each box along the way is a super easy way to make sure the service is as thorough as it’s supposed to be before your next guest checks in.

Speaking of saving time, grab your free copy of the PDF now so your cleaning routine is far more consistent — with way less hassle.

2. Set Expectations for Cleaning Partners

When you hire a new cleaning service, it’s important to outline expectations from day one. Providing vacation rental cleaning checklists helps teams not only navigate the areas of your home that obviously need attention, but also tackle tasks that may be less obvious to the naked eye (like, say, sanitizing surfaces and handles).

Certain cleaning services may also have different people coming through your home between each guest visit. Requiring every provider to fill out the same short-term rental cleaning checklists limits discrepancies, so you know consistent standards are applied every time. (Just remember to get those completed checklists back for recordkeeping.)

Get access to vetted cleaning partners with Evolve. When you work with us, we give you the freedom to use your preferred local partner or connect you with on-site service providers you can trust.

3. Collect Reviews That Boost Performance

Guests pay a professional cleaning fee when they book your property, so they expect a spotless home. Airbnb cleaning checklists make the turnover process between bookings seamless and can help avoid bad reviews or having to resolve issues later on. 

Plus, if you do receive concerns from guests, you’ll have a record of everything your cleaning services covered before their stay.

All of this makes for a happy guest. Happy guests write great reviews, and great reviews amplify both your marketing efforts and your ability to book more guests and earn more revenue. So really, championing cleanliness is mutually rewarding.

Cleaning Supplies to Stock Up On

First, it’s important to always have tidying-up essentials available for guests during their stay. This helps with quick clean-up of spills or messes that may happen during a stay, so small efforts don’t have to wait until the home is empty. These include:

• Multipurpose spray
• Dish soap
• Dishwasher detergent 
• Microfiber cloths or paper towels
• Sponges
• Broom and dust pan
• Mop (traditional or Swiffer style) 
• Vacuum

From there, the cleaning supplies you provide depend on how much cleaning you plan to do yourself versus delegate to a professional service provider. If  tackling the to-dos yourself, additional must-haves include:

• Floor cleaner
• All-purpose cleaner
• Glass cleaner
• Drain cleaner
• Oven cleaner
• Disinfectant wipes/spray
• Toilet brush and cleaner
• Duster
• Laundry detergent
• Wood polish 

If you’re using a professional service to help with vacation rental turnover cleaning, they may have all the products they’ll need. Just be sure to chat with them about it upfront and set clear expectations on who provides what, and how supplies will be replenished when running low.

Preview Your Airbnb Cleaning Checklists

Maintaining a clean vacation rental demonstrates your commitment to a guest’s entire experience — and safety. That’s why our short-term rental cleaning checklists set you up with a rinse-and-repeat process that you can follow room-by-room. It’s a foolproof way to keep everything documented, and includes essential to-dos like:

Get Your Free Vacation Rental Cleaning Checklists PDF

Vacation rental turnover cleaning should be as easy as working with good teams and ticking off all the right boxes. Download our customizable (and reusable) Airbnb cleaning checklists today — available in both English and Spanish — and get instant access to:

• An organized cleaning routine
• Your pre-stay prep plan
• A post-stay task list

Check out our other free resources that put performance and profit first, like our eco-friendly vacation rental guide and secrets to management success.

If you’re interested in taking all the hard parts of vacation rental off your plate, our vacation rental management services could also be the just-right fit. From mass promoting your listing across top booking sites to creating custom revenue optimization strategies, our experts are here to make your vacation rental business thrive.