A cleaning turnover checklist for short-term rentals

A good turnover takes the apartment from one guest's checkout to the next guest's check-in in a fixed order: a photo of how the place was left, the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedrooms, a restock, a damage check and a final photo of the ready apartment. With checkout at 11:00 and check-in at 14:00 or 15:00 that leaves about three hours, enough for a studio and tight for a larger flat with laundry. Most bad turnovers are not bad cleaning: they are a cleaner who did not know about the checkout, or learned about the next arrival too late. So the checklist starts with timing and ends with photos.

Timing first

With checkout at 11:00 or 12:00 and check-in at 14:00 or 15:00, a same-day turnover has about three hours. A studio fits in that window comfortably; a three-bedroom apartment with a washing cycle may not. Know how long each of your apartments really takes, and do not accept an early check-in on a day that is already tight.

Time each apartment two or three times and write the figure down. Add the time to get there, to take the laundry out and to wait for the lift. If the real figure is close to the window, you have three options: a later check-in, a second cleaner on busy days, or a spare set of linen so nothing waits for the washing machine.

The order that saves time

1. Open the windows and take the first photo of how the guest left the apartment, before touching anything.
2. Strip the beds and start the laundry first, so the machine works while you clean.
3. Collect the rubbish from every room and take it out.
4. Clean from top to bottom and from the far room towards the door: dust falls down, and you do not walk over the floor you have just washed.
5. Kitchen and bathroom before the bedrooms: they take longest and need surfaces to dry.
6. Make the beds with fresh linen, put out towels and restock.
7. Floors last, from the far corner to the entrance.
8. Final walk-through and a photo of every room as the next guest will see it.

Room by room

• Entrance: take a first photo of how the guest left the place, before touching anything.
• Kitchen: dishes, fridge, hob, microwave, bins, and a check that nothing was left behind.
• Bathroom: shower and toilet, mirror, drains, fresh towels.
• Bedrooms: fresh linen on every bed that was used, and a check under the beds.
• Restock: toilet paper, soap, coffee, tea, bin bags, anything your listing promises.
• Damage: photograph anything broken or stained and report it the same day. Channels give you a limited time to raise it with the guest.
• Final photo: the ready apartment, so you know what the next guest walked into.

Linen, towels and supplies

Keep at least two full sets of linen and towels per bed: one on the bed, one in the wash or drying. On a day with back-to-back stays a third set means the next guest never waits for the dryer. Store the clean sets in the apartment in a locked cupboard, so the cleaner does not have to bring them.

Write down what a stay uses: toilet paper, soap, shower gel, dish soap, sponges, bin bags, coffee, tea, sugar, salt. Leave enough for the longest stay you take, and have the cleaner report when a stock falls below one stay, not when it runs out.

Damage and left-behind items

Photograph anything broken, stained or missing before you clean it, with the date visible on the photo, and report it to yourself the same day. Channels give you a limited time to raise damage with the guest, and a photo taken after cleaning proves nothing.

Left-behind items go into a bag with the date and the apartment written on it, and the guest gets a message the same day. Documents, chargers and medicines are what guests come back for most often.

Common turnover mistakes

• Cleaning before photographing. Once the stain is gone, so is the proof.
• Starting the laundry last. The machine then decides when the apartment is ready, not the cleaner.
• Checking only the beds that look used. Guests sleep on sofas and in second bedrooms too; check every bed and every pillow.
• Restocking from memory. Without a written list, the coffee runs out on the evening a guest arrives.
• Forgetting the inside of the fridge, the oven and the microwave, and the space under the beds: they are what the next guest opens first.
• Leaving the windows closed after cleaning products. The next guest should walk into fresh air, not into the smell of bleach.

Deep cleaning between seasons

A turnover keeps the apartment ready for the next guest; it does not reach everything. Once a season, or after every few dozen stays, block a day for what a turnover skips: behind and under furniture, inside cupboards, curtains, the extractor hood, the descaling of the kettle and the washing machine, mattress protectors and pillows. Put the day on the calendar like a booking, so no guest lands on it.

Working with cleaners

• One task per checkout, created automatically, with the next arrival time written next to it.
• Instructions in the cleaner's own language. Many cleaners in the region are more comfortable in Uzbek, Tajik or Kyrgyz than in English or Russian.
• Photos as proof of work, so you do not have to drive over to check.
• Pay tracked per cleaning, so the month-end count is a sum, not an argument.

Agree a standard once, in writing and with photos of how each room should look when it is ready, and send it with the first task. A new cleaner who has a photo of the made bed and the folded towels gets it right the first time.

How Roomi helps

In Roomi every checkout becomes a cleaning task with the next arrival next to it. Cleaners open their tasks from a personal link in their own language, no app needed, and if a cleaning is late for the next check-in, you get an alert.

Cleaners attach photos to the task, so you see the ready apartment without going there, and the pay for each cleaning adds up per period. If a booking is cancelled, its cleaning task is removed, so nobody goes to clean an apartment that nobody left.

Frequently asked questions