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Hi Hosts, I have a cleaning business in Brisbane, which is currently focused in residential cleans in my area. I am looking at spreading our wings a little further as I learned that there are lots of Airbnb hosts in Brisbane. I was thinking of offering a lowering rate for Airbnb turn overs as these may be easier to clean and won’t need as much time as cleaning a residential home.
As I am not sure if there is anything like this anywhere, I need some advice on how to go about asking them or offering our services. And how to go about building a system where they can let me know if there is a turn over so I can assign a cleaner closer in proximity to the area of the turn over. And how billing works.
I hope somebody could shed some light on this and point me to the right direction.
Cleaning an Air bnb is a much bigger job than a residential clean - let me tell you!
You need to be completely available 7 days a week and someone’s business can succeed or fail on the quality of your job. Everything needs to be perfect, not a web, trace of dust or hair on the floor because the picky bitch that comes to stay will have her say, say it is unclean and demand a refund or give you an appalling review. This isn’t just a cleaning job!
My local cleaner here in Gippsland actually increased her rates for AirBnB cleans presumably because the owners were getting paid and she thought they could afford it. I guess also there was the issue that everyone wants their place cleaned ready for the weekend. Timing is the big issue. If there are guests then I used to warn them that the cleaner might be there on, say, Wednesday between 11 and 1pm for an hour. The problem was that a once weekly clean wasn’t good enough and I would get 3s and 4s for Cleanliness (one of the AirBnB review categories). Once there was a public holiday, which wasn’t my day, but to fit everyone in that week she told me the cleaners would be at my place at 9 am which I said wasn’t acceptable as they would be just getting up and eating breakfast at that time so she said she had done her best to “sort out my problem” which was actually her problem. As her business model seemed to be making her problems into her clients problems and charging a premium for it I gave her the flick and do it myself now.
So I think it would be a complete hassle. As @Debthecat says everyone will want you to clean when it suits them which will be mostly during changeover in the middle of the day. You should probably charge more as well, at least to those who just buy a unit to STR out on AirBnB and charge $500 or more for the weekend. I imagine some of the party places look pretty gruesome come Monday morning. As for getting in contact with them try contacting them directly on AirBnB with a fake booking enquiry and pointing out immediately that you are trying to sell cleaning services. Hosts love that. Alternatively advertise on online Yellow Pages or one of those pages and state AirBnB cleans explicitly as that is probably how people look for cleaners by googling it. In fact google “airbnb cleaner” and see what comes up and copy them.
I always go through gum tree or Airtasker when I’m looking for a cleaner if mine is on holiday. Heaps of people specialising in air cleaning on both platforms. Unfortunately 100% of them don’t do a good enough job that I’ve used them more than once. People are right. Airbnb cleaning is not like other cleaning jobs and it needs to look perfect at the end.
Gosh does Deb ever have that right. I have been raked over the coals for dust that fell during their stay (yes, during their stay) and a small spider web under the couch that I missed. Did guests really do that to me? Yes they did. Looking for anything.
When I hired out cleaning while I have been out of town, I’ve been disappointed. They can never clean up to your own standards.
Stick to residential cleanings. Much easier on the nerves. If you do do Air cleanings charge a lot for your time. It’s a rough gig.
