Hosting an Airbnb can be a lot of fun! You get to meet new people, explore your town with new friends, and even make some extra money while you’re at it. However, if you’re anything like me, the fun comes to a screeching halt when it comes to the dreaded turnaround.
Turning around an Airbnb between stays can be a hectic and labor-intensive time. This is why a lot of hosts choose to outsource their cleaning duties to someone else. It saves hosts the headache of trying to juggle managing their business and spending time stripping beds and scrubbing floors.
There are a ton of Airbnb cleaning service options on the market, so I’m here to break down my top seven options for hosts so m here to break down my top seven options for hosts so you can decide which one is right for you.
What are the Best Airbnb Cleaning Service Options for Hosts?
See each section below for a detailed breakdown of the pros, cons, and overall review of each Airbnb cleaning service.
Bark.com
Bark offers a wide variety of professional service workers that can fit pretty much anyone’s needs. For example, they have wedding photographers, personal trainers, DJs, counselors, and yes, house cleaners. With a setup similar to other websites offering in-depth searches of pros in your area, I can’t say that what they offer is very unique. Nothing on the website stood out to me apart from its sleek looking design.Â
A personal pet peeve of mine is when websites or companies who advertise transparency and ease of use require you to enter your email and other personal information in order to see any pricing. Bark is one of these companies, and so are several others on the list. This is not necessarily a huge fault in some people’s eyes, but it does make researching and comparing costs especially tedious.
From what I could find on Bark, they seem to have a pretty well-vetted selection of professionals in just about every industry imaginable. They also offer a section where clients can write reviews of the people offering services, which is always a plus. In spite of it not being Airbnb specific, I would still recommend that you check out Bark for its cleaning services. They do require you to select a cleaning frequency, which could become problematic if you have frequent stays or need a quick turnaround time. I didn’t have trouble finding professionals available in my area on Bark, and it seems that they have pretty widespread availability.
Handy
Handy is another service search engine that seems to be a little more geared towards home improvement and cleaning services than Bark. They also offer furniture for sale, and you can even hire someone to come assemble your existing furniture for you! There are a lot of handyman type tasks on Handy (which makes sense), including for several things that I had never considered hiring anyone for. TV mounters, wall hangers, and even toilet uncloggers can all be found on Handy’s easy to navigate website.Â
Sadly, they do require an emailed quote and don’t allow you to see prices or available professionals without going through all the hoops. They are also not Airbnb specific, but I don’t necessarily think that should deter anyone from checking them out. They have a specific portion of the website dedicated to vacation rental cleaning, which is nice to see. It seems that they also operate on the “cleaning frequency” model, so irregular bookings might become tricky.
Their pros are all background checked, an incredibly important detail when inviting someone into your home. They also have 24/7 customer service in case of an issue. Their cleaners bring their own supplies, but cleaning procedures are standardized and do not include laundry.Â
TurnoverBNB
I am a huge fan of TurnoverBNB’s business model. It is a pretty ingenious way to cater to the Airbnb and vacation rental community, and it seems like they do a very good job as well. As the name suggests, they are an Airbnb-centered company. Their website advertises that they are “the smart way to schedule, pay and find Airbnb vacation rental cleaners”. Unlike a lot of other websites, TurnoverBNB is more than just a search engine or a way to facilitate communication between you and your newly hired staff.
They allow you to schedule your cleanings, pay your cleaner, and even automate your schedule within the website itself. TurnoverBNB also has an app, which is a huge convenience feature for busy hosts and cleaners alike. They even offer guest checkout and review management within their website, which puts them in the running to rival some of the channel managers out there.
It seems that they have growth in mind as they continue to implement new smart features to make hosting a breeze. TurnoverBNB can sync up with Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO as well as “all major channel managers”, according to their website. This is a huge plus in my book.Â
My main issue with TurnoverBNB is that they don’t post prices (like so many others, unfortunately), and that they require you to enter your information and only notify you when someone “bids” on your job. For this reason, it is difficult to see where they really concentrate the majority of their services. The website lists links to click on for several major cities such as Los Angeles, Miami, London, Denver, and Melbourne, but not much mention of more local markets specific to certain regions.
Tidy
Tidy is a cleaning-only service that has narrowed down their offerings into four choices. They have the Tidy level, which is a 1 person, 1-hour cleaning, the Tidy+ which is a 1 person, 2.5-hour cleaning, the Tidy XL (1 person, 4 hours), and finally the Mighty Tidy (2 people, 4 hours).
The streamlined offerings take the guesswork out of the equation and are probably much easier on the company’s end than letting everyone choose what they want done, but they do limit the freedom of the clients significantly. Laundry is also not included in the Tidy plan, and only 1-2 loads are included in the other plans. Laundry can be a large portion of the work when turning over an Airbnb rental, so that is definitely something to consider.
All of their cleaners go through Tidy’s independent certification program, which is nice since many companies don’t offer anything similar to that. They are also all background checked and come with their own nontoxic cleaning products and vacuum! Unlike some of their competitors, Tidy does not require a frequency plan and offers on-demand service with next-day availability which makes them especially well-suited to Airbnb.
In keeping with the trend, Tidy does not publish their prices. This seems counterintuitive to their otherwise very simple to understand service offerings. The fact that they send their own employees, rather than using independent contractors, would make them very well suited to a standardized pricing model.
They say that they determine the price you’ll pay by analyzing metadata from Airbnb to see what listings in your area charge for their cleaning fee. This seems like a bizarre way to do business, but I guess it makes sense that you should pay your cleaners what you charge guests for cleaning. Sadly, they only serve a handful of areas at this time: southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Boston.Â
Thumbtack
Finally, a website that shows prices up front! Thumbtack is a very sleek website that allows you to search for tons of different services ranging from HVAC technicians to tax preparers. Of course, they also have home cleaners available. They are not Airbnb specific or vacation rental oriented, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them!
I love that they let you see the contractors, their profiles, prices, and reviews without any hassle at all. When trying to compare prices, nothing is more irritating than sorting through the heaps of emails that you are now subscribed to in order to find a hypothetical quote sent to you by some website you can’t even recall. They also publish “cost guidelines” that give moving averages of what others in your area are paying for certain services. This is super helpful in determining if you’re getting a good deal.Â
Check Out Our Other Articles on Rental Recon:
- Wheelhouse vs PriceLabs 2023: Side-By-Side Comparison
- Wheelhouse Vs. Beyond Pricing: Side-By-Side Comparison
- DPGO Vs. PriceLabs (2023): The Clear Winner Is…
HomeAdvisor
HomeAdvisor is probably one of the most well-known sites of its kind. They advertise pretty widely nowadays, and have all kinds of professionals that can perform a variety of services. They do have a new “fixed price” booking option where you don’t have to go through the normal email-a-quote business, which I appreciate. Through this feature you can see reviews, prices, and descriptions. All pros in the fixed price section are background checked and have pretty high reviews (at least from what I can see).
Outside of the fixed price bookings, I did like that they have a detailed matching questionnaire that you fill out before being matched with a professional. This can help ensure that your needs are met adequately and that you know what you’re signing up for. While HomeAdvisor is not Airbnb specific, I know tons of hosts who use cleaners found on their well-established website. They are nationwide, so you shouldn’t have an issue finding someone for your location.Â
Facebook Marketplace
A relative newcomer on the scene, Facebook Marketplace is becoming almost as wildly popular as the main website itself. Offering by far the most transparency and accessibility of any of the options we’ve discussed today, you can really see what you’re going to get with a Facebook Marketplace ad.
With this transparency and accessibility, however, comes an absolutely astonishing variation in the quality of people and services that you’ll find. It can be hard to tell if someone is legit online, especially on a social media website. There isn’t really a review feature (unless the person has a business account), and the people are not background checked or vetted in any way.
It is not Airbnb specific, of course. There are definitely some hidden gems on Facebook Marketplace, but you may have to do a lot of searching to find someone that works for you. You might have better success negotiating prices than you would on other websites, but make sure you have some kind of written agreement with whoever you decide to hire.
Before you choose a home cleaning pro, be sure to check out my Airbnb cleaning checklist! All your bases need to be covered, and this is doubly true when you begin delegating the work to others. Make sure you check every box on the list!
Related Questions:Â
How do you coordinate with your Airbnb cleaner?Â
Once you’ve decided which cleaning service to hire, your next step will be sharing your schedule with them. There isn’t a great way to do this within the Airbnb platform, so a lot of people opt to use third party software or services to get the job done. One option within Airbnb is to add your cleaner as a co-host, but this can be risky as it gives them access to most of your account features.
Outside of Airbnb, there are a variety of ways to coordinate calendars with your team. One great way is to use Google Calendar. It’s free, easy to use, and synchronizes seamlessly between users. You can even sync your calendar with your Airbnb calendar to completely automate your cleanings.
Another option is to use an Airbnb management software or service. These tend to be much more high-tech and usually cost money, however, most are quite affordable. Through these, you can automate so much more than just cleanings. Things like messages, bookings, and even dynamic pricing can all be handled within a streamlined app or program.
What is an Airbnb co-host?
An Airbnb co-host is a trusted friend, family member, or staff member who shares many of the same duties as the host themselves. In fact, co-hosts have access to almost as many features within Airbnb as hosts with the exception of payment options and a few other things.Â
Co-hosts can create and edit listings as well as respond to messages, handle bookings, and even change prices. They are intended to be the host’s “right hand”, so if you do opt to have a co-host it is incredibly important that they be someone you fully trust. Some people are even professional Airbnb co-hosts who can work remotely from across the globe.
