How to run same-day turnovers without missed cleans

A same-day turnover, or back-to-back, is a clean that has to fit between one guest checking out and the next checking in on the same day. Out at ten or eleven, in at three or four. That is a few hours, and on a summer Saturday it is the same few hours at every property you look after.

A missed or late same-day clean is the worst thing that can happen in this business: a guest standing at the door of a property that still has the last guest's sheets on the bed. It is nearly always preventable, and nearly always for one of four reasons.

Why same-day cleans get missed

The rest of this guide takes those one at a time.

Know about every booking

You cannot clean for a booking you have not heard about. If your schedule depends on hosts remembering to message you, sooner or later one will forget, and it will be a booking made the night before.

• Take bookings from the source. Every listing on Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo has a calendar link; a schedule fed by those links doesn't depend on anyone's memory.
• Keep one schedule. Not a sheet for each host and a diary for the rest.
• Check for changes the evening before and again first thing. Last-minute bookings and extended stays are what turn a quiet day into a same-day.

Agree the window with the host

Your plan is built on two times: when the guest leaves and when the next one arrives. Get both in writing for every property, and agree what happens to them on a same-day:

• No late checkouts and no early check-ins on a back-to-back day without asking you first.
• What you do if the guest is still there when the cleaner arrives, and who phones them.
• A same-day surcharge, if you charge one. That job is taking priority over everything else that day.

Plan the day around the tight ones

1. 1Mark the same-days first. Before anything else, pick out every clean with a check-in that day. Everything else fits around them.
2. 2Order by check-in time, then by distance. The quickest route is not the right route if it leaves a three o'clock arrival until last. A clean with nobody arriving until tomorrow can wait until the afternoon.
3. 3Put the right people on them. The cleaner who knows the property, or two cleaners on a large one. A same-day is not the job to train someone on.
4. 4Leave slack. If every cleaner's day is full to the minute, one late checkout breaks it. Keep someone, often yourself, free to step in.

Prepare the day before

• Clean linen already at the property, or in the cleaner's car. A same-day clean cannot wait for a wash and dry.
• Supplies and restocking items checked, so nobody has to leave for toilet roll.
• Keys and codes confirmed, especially for a cleaner covering a property for the first time.

Know each clean has started

Most late cleans were recoverable at eleven and hopeless by two. What makes the difference is finding out early. Have every cleaner clock in when they arrive, and set yourself a cut-off: if a same-day has not been started by a certain time, you phone. When it is finished, tell the host, so they are not messaging you while the guest is on the motorway.

How RoomZoom helps

RoomZoom's scheduling reads each property's booking calendar every hour, so a last-minute booking becomes a clean without anyone sending a message. When one guest checks out and another checks in on the same day, the clean is flagged as a same-day turnover on your schedule and on the cleaner's phone.

Cleaners clock in and out in the cleaner app, so you can see which same-days have started, and the client can be emailed when the clean is done. RoomZoom is free for up to 5 properties, and calendar sync is free for your first 14 days. Sign up free, with no card needed.