Just bought a cabin near Blue Ridge & Ellijay, GA and we are looking for cleaner recommendations. Anyone on how to find a good cleaner? Thanks!
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I would clean it yourself for awhile so you can train your cleaner when you find one. Look for someone who does STR cleaning it is a higher standard, at least for me.
RR
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I do my own cleaning, but Iāve always thought that a good place to look for a cleaner would be through a seniorās center. There are plenty of retired people who are still quite spry and active, would like an opportunty to supplement their retirement pensions and would be flexible as far as scheduling.
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If you figure it out how to find good cleaners, please let me know.
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I recruited on local Facebook pages, and usually had several young women to select from. I had a couple of very good people but who only stayed 6 months each because of childcare issues, then a run of poor performers. They were either less fit/more crook than I am. I now do it myself, with a night between bookings.
That said, Iām not hosting remotely but in my own B&B.
Your cleaner is your most important asset and your business can live or die because of who you hired. I have a team of three that I work beside. They only work for me. We have a team meeting n Monday and sort the week ahead. That way they can pick and choose what days and no one but me gets worn out I could not host remotely as the trust issues are huge.
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This, 100%. The advice by @RiverRock is also sound; once you know what really needs done you can then judge a cleaners performance far more accurately.
JF
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@Debthecat has it right.
Remember too that you first need to specify exactly what your cleaner will do. Will he / she do the laundry? Arrange flowers? Buy consumables? Change the keypad code? Supply cleaning materials? Check the first aid kit? Change lightbulbs? Unclog the waste disposer? Clean the windows? Call and deal with the handyman?
And a million other things that whoever is preparing the rental has to do.
You really need people who are accustomed to preparing rentals for Airbnb customers. These people should also be flexible so that they can arrive at check out time and have the place ready for the next guests to check in.
They should be very professional in their work. Thereās so much more than ācleaningā.
Has anyone tried this and found that it works? Iād be interested to know because I am āretirement ageā (in most countries of the world) but youād never catch me at a āsenior centreā and Iām āspry and activeā enough to do two or three same day turnovers a week for two apartments. 
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I was just having a conversation with two young men who are about half my age. They have considered Airbnbing their guest bedroom in their apartment and the issue of how much I get per night, what cleaning would cost if I hired it out, etc. came up. It was laughable what they thought would be involved with cleaning and how much they would have to pay someone. They hadnāt even thought of how hard it would be to get someone to come from 11 to 2 on short notice with no regular weekly schedule.
Iād be a great co-host/cleaner but doubt I could be paid enough for it to be worth my time.
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To be clear, I mean outside my own home. Many here think the 20+ turnovers I do per month for an average of $50 a night is crazy but it works great for me. But thatās because I live here and also have an in home dog boarding business and can control my schedule to some degree.
Iām the same. I know there are plenty of hosts here who say that no cleaner can do it the way they do - and Iām one of them. Iāve said this here before but I once knew a woman who paid to be a member of a gym and once a week drove there to work out. When she was there. she employed a cleaner to clean her house. Crazy. Hosting is much better exercise.
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I do over half the turnovers for my listings, they are both on the same property as my office so I am around a lot. The thing is it is not about the money, I make way more money than I āpayā myself to clean the cabins. My current cleaners, and so far the best charge $20 an hour my last cleaner who ghosted me after I broke out the black light charged $25 So basically I am working for $20 an hour to clean.
The thing is I like to get it perfect, I care that the places shine and smell clean. This is really a new phenomenon for me because I have never really been like that at home, I have housekeepers come and clean every two weeks and I rarely make my bed. I keep things mostly neat at best, my desk at my office is a cluttered mess and so on. Because this is a business I take it seriously, I have developed systems and am always improving on them.
RR
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$20 an hour is a good salary for a teacher doing part time contract work. Thatās what a lot of folks donāt understand. The value of not having to get dressed, look presentable, go anywhere, or deal with anyone is worth a lot as well.
Funny, I was just telling the guys last night the same thing. The Airbnb room is like a mental refuge of clean. My house is so much dirtier than I prefer due to the dogs. Having the perfectly clean Airbnb and being told by multiple guests that itās the cleanest airbnb theyāve been in is a source of pleasure for me.
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I think the term is that you are looking after your business. We are the same, hence no cleaners, just us.
Itās ok, youāre amongst friends here, you can admit to being a bit of a slob if you want. Iāll go first if it helps
JF
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Absolutely. My days of conference rooms, high heels and bras are over. 
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TMI. Seriously.
202020202020
JF
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You better find some pretty tech-savvy
seniors, though. My cleaner checks my online master calendar and texts with me like a 12 year old. She is available via text almost 24/7. A non-tech savvy cleaner would be a non-starter for me.
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Well, that might be the best place to look then - lots of tech classes at the senior centers. lol. However, I have spent plenty of time at senior centers and itās still one of the last places Iād look for cleaners. Itās not typically your āspry, independent and also looking for workā seniors that are there. Besides, let them have their retirement, they earned it.
I did a fair bit of work in the UK with a third sector organisation where the average age was seventy odd.
What a great bunch they were and after we got the web site up and running, they took over. Just because folks are not young doesnāt mean they canāt be IT literate.
What surprised me was the depth of knowledge they had, from a business perspective. With hindsight, over a five year period I probably learned more from them than the inverse.
JF
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Seniors are probably more tech-savvy than you think. Older people have been using tech for longer than young people after all. Furthermore, the people who invented and developed it all are mostly classed as āseniorā now.
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