Why it matters
Cleaning your own rental looks like free money. You keep the whole cleaning fee, and it is only a couple of hours. The cost appears later, in three places.
Your time is fixed to someone else's schedule. A turnover has to happen between checkout and check-in, usually 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. You cannot do it the night before or push it to Sunday.
It takes longer than it looks. A turnover is not a tidy-up. It is a full linen change with laundry, bathrooms reset, kitchen and dishes, floors, restocking and a check for damage. A two-bedroom unit takes one person three hours or more, and the washer and dryer set the pace.
Reviews depend on it. Cleanliness is one of the things guests rate directly, and a hair in the shower counts for more in a review than a beautiful view.
Take a host with a two-bedroom suite near Cultus Lake who lives in Abbotsford, about 35 minutes away. In spring she has four bookings a month and cleans it herself on quiet weekdays. It works. Then July arrives with eleven turnovers, seven of them same-day. Each one costs her a 70-minute round trip plus three hours of cleaning, in the middle of a workday. One Sunday she is at a family event and gets there late. The guests check in to damp towels in the dryer and an unmade second bed, and leave three stars for cleanliness. That one review costs more in lost bookings than a season of cleaning fees would have.
The numbers usually settle it. If your cleaning fee is $150 and a turnover takes four hours with driving, you are earning about $37 an hour before linens, supplies and fuel, and you are on call for every checkout.
Doing it yourself still makes sense when the rental is in or beside your own home, when bookings are occasional, or when you are new and want to learn what a turnover takes before handing it over.
How Honourable Cleaning helps
Our Airbnb turnovers are flat rate, from $150 plus GST, and built around the gap between an 11:00 AM checkout and a 4:00 PM check-in. Same-day turnarounds are part of the service.
A turnover covers a full linen and towel change with beds made to hotel standard, bathrooms reset, the kitchen cleaned with dishes done and the fridge checked and cleared, floors vacuumed and mopped, and remotes and other high-touch surfaces sanitised. We strip, wash, dry and remake using the linen you keep on site, and restock guest supplies from what you leave. We do not buy supplies for you, but we tell you what is running low.
The part hosts value most is the report. If something is broken, missing or running out, you get photos the same day, while there is still time to deal with it before the next guest arrives.
Two things make a handover smooth: keep two or three full sets of linen per bed so nobody is waiting on a dryer, and write a one-page checklist of how you like the place staged.
Key takeaways
- Do it yourself if you are nearby, bookings are light and you are always free at checkout time.
- Hire a cleaner once same-day turnovers, travel time or reviews become a strain.
- Work out your real hourly rate: cleaning fee, minus supplies and fuel, divided by hours including the drive.
- Keep spare linen sets on site either way. Laundry is what makes turnovers run late.
See your exact price
Pick your home size and service. Your flat rate shows up in about a minute, no phone call needed.
See my price →Call (604) 751-6260Questions people ask
Should I clean my Airbnb myself or hire a cleaner?
Clean it yourself if you live close by, have only a few bookings a month and can always be free on checkout day. Hire a cleaner once you have back-to-back bookings, live more than a short drive away, or your cleanliness rating starts to slip. For most hosts, the turning point is the first same-day turnover they cannot get to.
Related pages
Airbnb turnover cleaning in Chilliwack House cleaning in Chilliwack