It’s important that a property feels fresh and fully ready for a guest before every stay. If you’re an Airbnb host, you should understand what turnover services you need to regularly provide as guests cycle out to make a property the best it can be. The right turnover services can ensure every guest feels valued and respected.
Turnover Services Airbnb Hosts Should Provide Guests
Some important turnover services to provide guests include the following:
1. Initial Inspection
Before every new guest stays at a property, either you or a professional service provider should make sure to thoroughly inspect a room for any and all issues, big and small. This does a few things simultaneously. First, it makes sure you can link any issues caused by guests to those who actually cause them. Very little will ruin a client’s experience more than being blamed for the actions of previous guests because you didn’t catch the problems early enough.
Second, it allows you to see where you should focus your preparation efforts, so any mess is cleaned, all amenities are ready, and anything damaged or in need of replacement is addressed. In simple terms, it allows you to better provide the rest of your turnover services, as you can’t fix problems you don’t notice.
2. Deep Cleaning
Cleanliness issues are probably the number one thing that will turn off a guest to a space, cause them not to come back, and potentially lead to a bad review for your Airbnb. Providing a clean space, rivaled only by safety, should be viewed as critically important for any host.
Bedding and towels need to be replaced. All surfaces should be cleaned. Edges should be checked for dust, and clean whatever else might have potentially been dirtied, even slightly, when a space was last used. Cleaning is doubly important if previous guests made a significant mess, such as spilling drinks or food anywhere.
Cleaning of this caliber can be resource intensive, requiring a host of supplies and machines. Performing a deep cleaning without the help of an outside service is certainly possible, but it’s often good to outsource at least parts of the process. It allows you to benefit from the services of specialists without needing to invest in the people and equipment necessary to become capable of that type of specialized service internally.
3. Maintenance & Repairs
While sometimes thought of as separate from standard turnover services, maintenance and repair are important regardless of how a host wants to qualify them. If something is in your space, it needs to be taken care of and should work as intended. TVs should provide a clean picture, the WiFi should be easy to connect to and work well, and water needs to flow from sinks and showers freely.
If you promise something to renters, this becomes especially true, as misrepresenting your property can cause you genuine legal problems. If something that is featured in your listing isn’t present or working, communicate this to guests before their stay, and consider offering a discount for the inconvenience.
It’s good practice to identify anything in a space that has an estimated lifespan, sees regular use, or appears damaged and to regularly inspect those things in case repair or replacement is necessary. Some devices might even have a recommended maintenance schedule. In the case of safety equipment, like smoke alarms, scheduled checks and replacement might even be legally mandated.
4. Worthwhile Upgrades
A good practice when providing turnover services is to make an effort to improve a room with worthwhile upgrades. Consider what might make a room more inviting, convenient, useful, or fun.
This isn’t to say upgrading a room is always necessary or that you need to do so after every rental. However, if you make an effort to improve a room regularly, it will theoretically only make it more popular with guests. Depending on the upgrade, it might even allow you to justify a raise in the price of stays.
These upgrades don’t need to be extreme. Incrementally investing in replacing an older piece of furniture with something nicer, or replacing something like a TV or stereo with a later model, can help a space feel new without breaking the bank. You can also identify pricier upgrades you think would be a good fit and build toward buying them, putting aside a fraction of your rental income each month until you can afford the new item.
5. Collecting Feedback
A great way to identify what guests might want out of a space is to just ask those who have already stayed in your rental. Tastes differ and you shouldn’t take any one suggestion too seriously (unless it obviously has value), but collecting feedback regularly allows a host to identify what guests are thinking about, if anything might be a major addition to a space, or if anything is broken or isn’t working as intended.
Feedback is important because appealing to guests is the primary job of a host. If a space makes them happy, it will review well and might see frequent repeat business. If it doesn’t, your reputation can decline. At the extreme end of things, you might even lose the ability to justify offering the space for rent. Even if you don’t make every change guests suggest, you should at least make an effort to understand their wants and needs, so you can address what’s most relevant and realistic for your business.
Let Alsco Uniforms Help Your Short-Term Rentals
Turnover services are important enough that, on some level, basically any host is providing them, even if they don’t use that terminology. However, it’s important to be thorough when providing these services if you want to provide guests with the best experience you’re able to offer. Our recommended services can quickly be summarized as follows: inspect, clean, fix, upgrade, and learn.
Our team at Alsco Uniforms can help you prepare a room for its next guest in a variety of ways. We offer linen cleaning services, linen rental services, and more, all at an affordable cost. You can contact our team directly if you have any questions about what we offer. We’ll help you see why our over 130 years of experience has made us such a beloved service provider to our many clients.