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Airbnb cleaning checklist for cleaners
A turnover runs from the last guest’s mess to the next guest’s arrival: photograph each room as you find it, strip the beds and start the laundry, clean the kitchen and bathrooms, remake the beds, restock, stage every room to match the listing photos and mop your way out. The rule that matters most is telling the host the moment you find damage or a left item, with a photo, so they can deal with it before check-in.
Edit the turnover list
Check-out to check-in in working order. Add the host’s own staging notes and take off anything this listing does not have.
Airbnb turnover cleaning checklist
- Walk in and photograph every room as the guests left it
- Photograph damage and missing items; message the host right away
- Search drawers, closets, under beds and sofa cushions for left items
- Strip every bed, check protectors and pillows, start the first wash
- Trash and recycling out; guest food out of the fridge and pantry
- Kitchen: dishes washed and put away, dishwasher and sink emptied
- Kitchen: counters, stovetop, microwave, coffee maker, fridge shelves
- Bathrooms: toilet, shower, sink and mirror; no hair on any surface
- Every room: dust, then wipe switches, handles, remotes and tables
- Beds made with fresh linens, checked for stains and hair
- Fresh towels, bath mats and dish towels laid out the host’s way
- Restock toilet paper, soap, shampoo, coffee, trash bags, dish tabs
- Patio, grill or hot tub checked and wiped if the listing has them
- Stage each room to the listing photos: pillows, chairs, blinds, lamps
- Thermostat and lights set the way the host wants for arrival
- Vacuum and mop every floor, backing out toward the door
- After photos of every room from the same angles as the listing
- Send the host the after photos, left items and what is running low
- Lock up; dirty linens bagged to go or drying, as the host arranged
What does an Airbnb turnover include that a regular clean does not?
Four jobs a house cleaner never does on a weekly visit. Linens and towels come off and go back on every time. Consumables get restocked from the host’s supply closet. Every room is checked for damage and left items, and the host hears about both. Then the unit is staged: pillows, throws, chairs and blinds placed the way they look in the listing, because the next guest compares the place to those photos as they walk in.
What should a turnover cleaner photograph for the host?
Every room as you found it, before you move anything. Then close-ups of whatever the host may want to charge for or fix: stained or torn linens, burns, broken glasses, wall marks, signs of a pet or a party, a missing remote. Photograph left items where you found them. When you finish, take after photos from the same spots as the listing, so the host can see the unit is ready without driving over.
Send damage photos as you find them, not in one message at the end. The host may need to contact the guest, find a repair person or warn the next guest before check-in, and the sooner they know, the more of those options they still have. Keep the message short: what it is, which room, one clear photo, and whether the unit can still be booked tonight.
How do you finish a turnover between check-out and check-in?
Start the laundry first, because the dryer sets the pace of the whole turnover. Keep at least one spare set of sheets and towels per bed in the unit, so you can make the beds while the first load washes. Clean the kitchen and bathrooms before the bedrooms, so you are never standing around waiting on a machine. Stage and mop last, backing toward the door, so nothing gets walked on after it is done.
The turnover that goes wrong is usually one the cleaner did not know had changed: the host agreed to a late check-out or an early check-in and forgot to pass it on. Ask hosts to send calendar changes as they happen, and agree what you do when a guest is still inside when you arrive. Waiting in the car is billable time, and knocking on a guest’s door is the host’s call.
Frequently asked questions
Who buys the supplies a turnover cleaner restocks?
Usually the host buys them and keeps a locked owner’s closet; you restock from it and send a list when anything runs low. Some cleaners buy the consumables themselves and bill them at cost plus a handling charge. Either works if it is written down. The arrangement that fails is the unspoken one, where the closet runs dry and the next guest has no toilet paper.
Should I wash the linens on site or take them away?
On site is simpler when the unit has a good washer and dryer and the gap between guests is long. Taking linens away to your own machines gets you out sooner on back-to-back days, but needs a second full set per bed and a return trip. Price laundry as its own line either way, since it often takes more of the turnover than the cleaning does.
What if the guests left the place trashed?
Photograph everything before you clean any of it: the piles, the stains, the broken things, the sofa bed someone slept on. Send it to the host and say how much extra time it needs before you start on the extra work. Hosts can often ask the guest to cover cleaning beyond normal use, and your photos and your note of the extra hours are what that request rests on.