What are some questions to ask when hiring a house cleaner for your Airbnb? Cleaning expectations can be part of the questions to ask when hiring a cleaner for your Airbnb. 

Hospitality and turnover service means something different to every caretaker or housekeeper. The questions to ask when hiring a cleaner for your Airbnb or vacation rental will keep you both cleaning on the same page.

Listen: Questions to Ask When Hiring a House Cleaner for Your Airbnb

Watch: Questions to Ask When Hiring a House Cleaner for Your Airbnb

Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.

What Questions Should You Ask Before Hiring a House Cleaner?

What questions should you ask your house cleaner before you hire them for your vacation rental or your Airbnb? Let’s say that you have a vacation rental, and you live out of state. And you have four properties, you need house cleaners to come in and clean those vacation rentals between the time guests come and leave.  You’ve got to have somebody come in and do the turnover service.

All right, first, you’re going to have an ad of some sort. It can be on NextDoor, it can be in a Facebook group. It could be on Indeed or ZipRecruiter or any of these other places.

When someone comes in for a job interview,  your first question is “What made you respond to the ad?”

Ask Why They Responded to Your Ad

That will tell you right there what their motivation and incentive are. Is it because they’re a mom and they’re trying to fill a gap to earn a little bit of extra money while their kids are in school? Is it someone that’s looking to plug in space because they’re a growing cleaning business?

Is it someone that loves the tourism and travel industry, and wants to connect with people who travel and the flair of a turnover service? Everybody has their own reasons. Once you understand the reasons why it’s going to help determine if this is the right person for you.

Ask How Flexible They are

Next ask them, “How flexible is your schedule?” The reason this is important is if it is one person, they are counting on the money from your Airbnb.

And then if you don’t book anything for a couple of days or a week or a month. They’re going to go away in search of other money because they can’t afford to hold the spot open for the turnover service. They’re going to have to go get other work. The questions are going to focus on your industry.

Ask if They Work Solo or With a Team

Then ask them “Do you work alone, or do you have a team?” If they do work alone, they will obviously be going to have at some point go and get other work during the window.

Unless you can guarantee them a certain amount of money to have them come in and do other tasks during that same window.  This works for many Airbnb owners or vacation rental owners.  They have somebody come in and they say there are a variety of tasks. If the turnover service is necessary because somebody came in last night, that’s great.

On the days that people are still here, you don’t need them to turn that room. Then you could have them clean your house, defrost the fridge, clean out the cupboards or file papers. There are other tasks then they will hire that person for the time. So, if you’re flexible at work with the tasks you do, homeowners can find things for you to do during your window.

Find Out if They Have Mixed Skills

“Do you have mixed skills” and “Are you willing to do other projects on days where we do not have any customers?”   That guarantees that you get your work done, and it guarantees them money, boom everybody wins.

What Cleaning Chemicals Do They Use?

Another great question to ask is “What cleaning chemicals do you use? Do you prefer to bring your own, or can I supply them?” Lots of Airbnb owners prefer a specific set of supplies that cater to all the weird things that happen in an Airbnb.

You might have an ozone generator or something that’s strong that will cut out smells that you don’t expect that will happen. There are extra things sometimes that an Airbnb needs the regular house cleaner is not going to have.

A great question to ask is, “Are you open to using my supplies?” And then add that into the list of stuff that you buy for your inventory. So that doesn’t come out of the house cleaner’s pocket.

Ask About Their Experience

Ask the house cleaner, “What experience have you had in the Airbnb industry?” I This is a great question to ask because a lot of house cleaners have traditional clients. This is a weekly customer or even a monthly customer.

We’re not cleaning daily, and the cleaning is a little bit different when you do daily cleaning than when you do biweekly cleaning. It’s not as thorough or as deep, but it’s frequent. And you’re doing a variety of new tasks like laundry and making beds. You’re doing inventory and damage control. 

Although you’re very thorough with the cleaning that you do, you’re not doing regular maintenance clean on a home that’s biweekly cleaning, right? This is a daily clean, right? Those are some questions I would ask the house cleaner if you’re a vacation rental or an Airbnb to make sure that you’re all playing on the same page.

You Can’t Assume House Cleaners Know About the Airbnb Business

There’s nothing worse than hiring a house cleaner and assuming they know your business. Because the Airbnb business is so different. It’s as different as commercial cleaning, even though they’re both cleaning. Yes, they’re both cleaning, but the nuances are different.

The expectations are different, ratings and reviews are different. The time that you’re going to spend is different, the way you clean is different.

Make sure that you’re playing on the same page as your house cleaner, and then everyone wins, it’s awesome.

Resources

96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire – https://amzn.to/2V8sQUo

Add Product to List Ladders 2019 Interviews Guide: 74 Questions That Will Land You the Job – https://amzn.to/2vtDrd5

Winning Answers to 500 Interview Questions – https://amzn.to/2VDy3mu

Add Product to List High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job – https://amzn.to/2VDykpw

Amazing Interview Answers: 44 Tough Job Interview Questions with 88 Winning Answers – https://amzn.to/2LdSUc1

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Turnover Cleaning Tips – for Vacation Rental and Airbnb Hosts