The cleanliness of your Airbnb home features very high on the list of things that determine how much guests enjoy their stay and the kind of review they give you. Because Airbnb recognizes the value guests place on cleanliness, they promote rentals that commit to the “Airbnb Enhanced Clean” standard, ahead of others.
That means the way you clean your vacation rental plays an enormous role in the number of guests you attract and the success of your business. In the words of Airbnb, you must go “beyond your basic clean to sanitize your space according to industry-leading standards.” You are expected to clean the home to the standard approved by global health and hospitality experts.
The fact that the standards were developed in collaboration with a former U.S. Surgeon General explains a lot. To reach this expected level of cleanliness, Airbnb hosts are expected to:
- Use disinfectants approved by the regulatory agencies for use against COVID-19.
- Study the warnings and instructions on cleaning products before using them.
- Spray all high-touch surfaces in every room of the home with an approved disinfectant.
- Leave the disinfectant on for a prescribed period.
- Air-dry the sprayed surfaces.
- Understand and follow the best-practices checklist for every area they clean.
- Always wash their hands before replacing guests’ supplies.
- Dispose of cleaning supplies and personal protective gear in the recommended way.
- And a lot more.
Bluntly speaking, the rental should be neat to almost the same standard expected in a hospital. Although this standard is not mandatory, not meeting it could limit the success of your business, warns Amera Management. But if you want the best of what the Airbnb platform offers, the standard is recommended. The question is; what can you do to make sure your vacation rental is cleaned to this level?
How to organize cleaning for your Airbnb
You have three options for cleaning your Airbnb; cleaning it yourself, hiring an individual cleaner, or hiring a professional Airbnb cleaning service. Each of these options has its specific pros and cons. Based on your ultimate objective of making your Airbnb attractive to the highest number of guests, which option is the best for you?
1. Cleaning the rental yourself
Cleaning the rental by yourself is the worst way to approach cleaning for an Airbnb business. The reasons are:
Time: cleaning a home takes time, but cleaning it to the standard required by Airbnb takes even more time. If you choose this option, you will be perpetually cleaning after guests.
Limited growth: With this strategy, you cannot grow your Airbnb business beyond one or two homes because there is a limit to the number of homes you can clean.
Destroys focus: Instead of thinking about growing your property portfolio, you will be busy cleaning the home to get it ready for the next guest.
2. Hiring an individual cleaner
This is a better approach than doing the cleaning yourself. However, there are also significant limitations to this method.
Training: You may have to train the cleaner to clean the home to the standard required by Airbnb. The cleaner will have no obligation to stay up-to-date with those standards. You will still have to oversee their work to ensure they keep to standards.
Disappointments: Given that this is a solo operation, if the cleaner falls ill or has an emergency, you will have no one to stand in for them. Even if you find a replacement, you are not sure they will clean the home to the standard you require.
Security risk: Unless you know how to do a thorough background check on the cleaner, you could be putting your property and guests at risk.
3. Hiring a professional Airbnb cleaning service
This is the best way to handle the cleaning of an Airbnb rental. It is the method recommended by Airbnb and it guarantees your long-term success. Why is that?
Specialists: With this method, you have a company that specializes in this kind of service. They know the Airbnb standard better than you do, they will stay up-to-date with the standard, and they have systems and tools for delivering the best results every time.
Availability: A professional Airbnb cleaning service is always available to do short-notice jobs because they have a team of cleaners at their disposal. They will reduce your turnover time without compromising the quality of cleaning.
More money: Using a professional Airbnb cleaning service means you can commit to Airbnb’s 5-step cleaning process. Hosts who meet this standard will have the “Enhanced Clean” badge featured on their listings. They will be able to attract more guests and charge a little bit more.
Finally, before you choose the best cleaning strategy to use, think of your long-term goal as an Airbnb business. If you aim to own a chain of vacation rentals, the only cleaning strategy that will let you do this is hiring a professional Airbnb cleaning service.
