Blog

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Lucky you! The door on your Short Term Vacation Rental feels like a revolving door with guests checking out and in on the same day.  Not so lucky for your housekeeper when time is at a premium, the house has been left a mess and the incoming guests are requesting an early check-in.  

Here are some tips to help expedite turnovers without cutting corners.

• Cut the clutter.  Picking up and dusting/cleaning items is time-consuming.  Remove any unnecessary items, particularly in bathrooms and kitchens where they collect hair, lint and grease.

Move small appliances into cabinets which not only opens up counter space and makes the kitchen seem bigger but eliminates cleaning unused appliances.  Leaving the coffee pot out is acceptable as that’s used frequently.  Of course hand and dish soap dispensers on the counter are a necessity.  Paper towel dispensers are easily mounted under the upper cabinet.   Make space in a drawer for utensils so they are not sitting out collecting dust and grease.  Replace the knife block with a designated drawer for knives.  

In the bathroom the only thing you need on the counter is a soap dispenser. That makes cleaning the counter a breeze and gives the guests room for their personal toiletries.  Extra toilet paper, air freshener and makeup wipes can be corralled in a basket stored under the cabinet. 

Towels decoratively folded on towel bars look great, but storing them on a towel rack or in baskets under the cabinet is more practical.  The guests will take what they need and now the towel bars can be used to hang wet towels. There will be no cross contamination by having clean and used towels on the same bar.  This will cut down on laundry because the clean and dirty towels have been separated.  This also saves time that would be used for staging towels.

Store toilet brushes and plungers in a cabinet or linen closet if possible.  They collect lots of dust and hair when sitting out and need to be wiped down.  And we all know how guests feel  about hair!

• Install hand-held shower heads in every bathroom. This makes quick work for cleaning the shower/tub.  The shampoo/conditioner/body wash bottles are easily cleaned at the same time and rinsing out the grit and hair is so much faster.  There are lots of options for hand-held shower heads in a variety of styles, including waterfalls, and price points. 

• Replace duvets with light weight quilts.  Changing out duvet covers easily add an additional 10-15 minutes per bed.  With 4 beds that’s a time savings of almost an hour!!  A lightweight quilt washes and dries in about the same amount of time as a duvet.  

• Move beds away from the walls so the beds are easier to make.  Pushing and shoving beds every time the bed is made is cumbersome, especially for twin bunks, not to mention it’s hard on the bed frame and scratches the floor.  For your guest, it allows them easier access to both sides of the bed. 

• Send out the laundry.  In addition to the time saved by not doing the laundry on site,  the laundry comes back properly sanitized and bleached if requested.  Frequently I see that guests will start a load of towels in cold water, or at best, warm.  Additionally the laundry service will fold the sheets so that the tags are visible making it easier to identify the size without having to unfold everything.