For many of us Airbnb hosts, home-sharing is similar to managing a small business. We strive to give our guests a unique enjoyable experience in all ways possible.
At some point it will become absolutely necessary that we streamline the preparation and turnover processes that earns us 5-star reviews. Doing turnovers from abroad requires even more effort and a ton of planning.
In an ideal world, we could rely on the same cleaning professional to take care of all the hospitality touches we need in our space. Realistically it’s not going to happen if you have busy turnover schedules and last minute bookings.
On-demand cleaning services like Handy address the need for cleaners on short notice, but those cleaners won’t know the idiosyncrasies of our property.
Also note that some cleaning services are not aware of the differences between a standard residential cleaning and a hospitality turnover. A hospitality turnover should be much more detailed and includes tasks such as emptying the fridge, checking drawers for items left behind, refilling soap dispensers, and dimming the lights to make the place feel welcoming for a new arrival.
Being off site also makes it difficult to confirm whether a cleaner arrived at all. Were they able to access the property? Have they begun yet? Will they be done in time? Calling a cleaner from abroad is a pain in neck, not just for us, but for them too.
And tracking inventory or sorting out damage receipts when no one is on site is problematic. If we have two back to back bookings with a cleaning in between and something is broken or ruined, who is to blame? Do we file a claim for an Airbnb damage deposit from the guests or require a check from the cleaning professional?
The solution to your Airbnb turnover problems
Drag and Drop Visual Checklist – For Hosts by Hosts
All of these issues inspired one Airbnb Superhost, Alex Nigg, and a team of developers in San Francisco to tackle the problem by creating Properly — a visual checklist app designed for hosts to convey clear instructions to cleaning professionals in between guest turnovers.
Nigg rents out his house in San Francisco while traveling to his other listing in New Zealand or his hometown in northern Italy. He uses Properly to ensure peace of mind and quality control as a host, and give cleaning professionals — any and all — unparalleled clarity of his expectations for a turnover job. Alex has garnered so much success with his practices that he has been hailed as the official Remote Superhost, and gives webinars on the subject.
Hosts Convey All The Little Details
The purpose of Properly is to simplify our lives as Airbnb hosts. Instead of writing that wordy email to whomever you hire to do a turnover, you can just create a visual checklist and send it through the app. Touch, hold, and drag task pins on photos to make a customized cleaning job.
Airbnb Integration
Properly also has a “Connect with Airbnb” feature that allows hosts to log into Properly with their Airbnb accounts. This seamless integration gives Airbnb hosts a head start on the app by automatically importing Airbnb listing information and property photos to make creating a checklist even easier.
The integration also takes into account new Airbnb bookings and notifies hosts inside the Properly app to schedule cleanings before and after guest stays. The bookings reminders save a host the trouble of logging into Airbnb to see their reservation schedule then back into Properly to send the checklist job to their cleaning professional. Hosts can see and schedule their turnover cleanings all at once.
Here are some screenshots from the Properly App. (Click photo to enlarge)
In the Properly app, “Jobs” is a word to describe a collection of photos of the space and annotated task pins to explain critical details. Within the app hosts can also manage their cleaning schedule and send jobs to any number of cleaning contacts. A benefit to the cleaning pro is that they have the option to preview the job before they accept or decline it. Hosts can be assured that the pro has actually seen and confirmed the cleaning.
Finally, remote Airbnb hosts can achieve that peace of mind we’ve been seeking with all of Properly’s notification features. The app sends messages when the cleaner arrives and finishes, allows hosts full access to track progress of the job, and has a section where cleaners can report damage using the in-app camera.
The ‘Photo Required’ feature on the app makes quality control from anywhere a reality. A host can set it on any frame which prompts the cleaning pro to take a photo of a finished task.
Knowing that all the opened food in the refrigerator was thrown away and a bottle of champagne placed inside is actually possible with proof.
Imagine building a guest turnover job once and never having to prime a new cleaner on your space again!
Cleaning Pros Understand Clients’ Expectations
Properly is great for cleaning professionals and housekeepers too. In a service industry dominated by customer reviews, these professionals want to understand exactly what is expected of them because simple miscommunication can directly affect business.
Cleaning pros very well know how to clean, but they might not know they need to set up an extra bed or check the back porch for remnants of a late night. If a host finds it difficult to express these needs, the pro probably won’t think twice about doing them. Guests arrive and see one less bed, leave a poor review, and the cleaning pro is to blame. Properly helps eliminate these unintended but really big negative consequences.
As intuitive as it is for hosts to navigate, it’s even easier for cleaning professionals. Once the pro shows up, they just tap ‘start job’ to swipe through photos of the property and check off tasks. Visual communication is the core of this app’s usability, but Properly also offers translations into most world languages for text, so language barriers are no longer an issue between cleaning professionals and clients.
Try the app while it’s free
Properly is the ideal tool for a vacation rental owner, home-sharing host, or property manager with a high rate of guest turnovers who:
- works hard to maintain the consistency of their hospitality and turnover processes
- cares about the little details or particular staging settings of their listing
- needs visual proof their hospitality touches were completed
- wants to audit damage and track supplies at their property through their hired pro
Visit the Properly website to download it free and find Properly on Twitter and Facebook for more remote superhosting tips and best practices.