If there's one rule property managers in Pensacola Beach should follow, it is maintaining their vacation rentals spotlessly clean and in top-notch condition at all times. Pretty simple, right?
Not really. Cleaning and managing your Pensacola Beach vacation rental is more complex than it sounds and is an ongoing task that demands a lot of attention and stamina.
To begin with, short-term rentals receive a greater number of guests coming and going regularly, demanding much more cleaning and maintenance. Additionally, the time to perform regular cleanings is restricted to the gaps between guests' check-ins and check-outs, enhancing the pressure and the difficulty in keeping everything flawless.
Maintaining a beach rental also differs from maintaining a hotel room, for example. The former boasts different amenities, like kitchens, dining rooms, and outdoor areas featuring pools or hot tubs. Each amenity requires different cleaning strategies.
As long-time vacation property managers in Pensacola Beach, we have developed a keen understanding of how to keep rental properties always looking new and fresh.
Below, we highlight these strategies with 10 cleaning and maintenance tips for beach rentals in Pensacola Beach.
Ready? Let's dive into it!
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Besides a great decor and Maintaining your rental clean and well-maintained for every guest is key to receiving good reviews and succeeding in the short-term rental game. Pictured: Beachin' Fun.
1. Learn to separate regular cleaning from deep cleaning.
Once again, the key to success is maintaining your rental in top condition. But does that mean you should perform a deep cleaning every time a guest checks out? That would be unfeasible both financially and time-wise. Instead, you should perform what we call a routine clean every time a guest checks out.
Let's see the difference:
Routine Cleaning
Guests should always find the rental the way they see it online in photos, so when performing a routine clean, your goal is to maintain a fresh and clean appearance in the high-touch point areas of your property. Still, this is a more budget-friendly strategy, and the workload is lighter. Common tasks related to routine cleaning are vacuuming, replacing bed linens and towels, mopping, dusting, cleaning surfaces, and disinfecting the bathroom and the kitchen, among others.
One point worth noting is hair removal. Providing your cleaning team with lint rollers is an excellent idea, and you should ask them to pay attention not only to guests' hair but also their own. In routine cleaning, the cleaning staff should always keep an eye on any missing or damaged objects, too, and run inventory checks.
Deep Cleaning
Deep cleaning is way more time-consuming and demands a lot more effort. With deep cleans, you'll need to block a day in your calendar, so it's a good idea to block days during quieter months, like January and February. In case your beach rental sees a great guest turnover.
To ensure that rentals meet our standards, we assist owners in scheduling annual deep cleans to keep them in top shape. Yes, it demands a lot of attention and time, but deep cleans will keep your rental in excellent condition and away from bigger and more complex issues.
Deep cleans are more expensive and time-consuming than routine cleans, but they'll help you avoid bigger issues and keep your rental in top-notch condition.
2. Practice preventive maintenance.
No matter what kind of rental property you own, adopting preventive maintenance practices is much better than taking a "reactive" approach to maintenance.
By preventive maintenance, we mean performing regular inspections and repairs to tackle potential issues before they develop into significant and costly problems.
This can be done during both routine cleans and deep cleans. At Pensacola Properties, we instruct our team to check and change air filters, batteries, and bulbs regularly, and all of this comes at no cost to our owners.
Preventive maintenance can vary from small tasks, like the ones mentioned above, to more substantial tasks, such as checking the roof and HVAC system, as well as taking pest control precautions.
Keep in mind that this is not only about keeping your rental in good shape and free from major problems, but also ensuring your rental is a safe space for your guests.
3. Bring in professional help.
At Pensacola Beach Properties, we prefer to entrust cleaning tasks to professionals. Given the high demand for several rentals in our portfolio, we engage third-party expert cleaners, and we can confidently say that we contract with the best in the area.
We understand that cleaning is a precise task that requires an experienced eye. Professionals possess the right skills and expertise to ensure beach rentals look perfect at all times.
To ensure an extra layer of assurance, we also have a team of in-house inspectors, who are employees of our firm. Their sole job is to make sure that everything is up to our very high standards.
4. Create a feedback system that involves everyone.
Developing a feedback system involving everyone in the cleaning process, from cleaning staff to inspectors, is an excellent approach that can lead to greater outcomes. Not to mention, it's one of the best ways to promote team spirit, motivation, and personal growth.
Here's the catch, though: for a feedback system to work well and generate good results, all parties need to actively take part. This means you should listen to your cleaning team and understand their hurdles.
It's crucial to recognize that your cleaners are experts in their craft, and trusting their expertise is vital. When they express genuine concerns, it's important to listen to their feedback and follow their direction.
Pro tip: consider holding regular meetings with your cleaning team to discuss topics such as how to enhance the cleaning process for your rental.
5. Create cleaning lists and guidelines.
In addition to good feedback, it's also an idea to provide your cleaning staff with instructions that specify your expectations on how you want your rental to be cleaned. That's another way to help them keep an eye out for critical aspects of the property that demand a more meticulous approach.
You can develop checklists specifying the order of tasks and cleaning techniques, as well as step-by-step guidelines. You can go further and even create two distinct lists - one for major and more complex tasks, and another for smaller tasks that are often overlooked.
Thanks to our experience, we've pinpointed tasks that often lead to issues with guests, and we ensure to include them in our guidelines, such as cleaning inside fridges and microwaves, and unclogging shower drains.
Pro tip: to make guidelines better and more comprehensive, consider including photos or links to videos. Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone in their pockets, so your cleaning staff can access your guidelines while they perform their tasks.
6. Pay double attention to linen care.
If there's one thing guests certainly appreciate (and that often makes a cameo in positive reviews), it's high-quality linens and your effort to keep them in good condition. At Pensacola Beach Properties, we ensure that all our linens are laundered at service centers and professionally washed and bleached.
We adhere to the rule of providing at least one bath towel, two washcloths, and a hand towel per guest. We also make sure emergency supplies are at hand, so guests have extras available if needed. When cleaning linens and towels, we always instruct our cleaning staff to keep an eye out for stains. Although they don't effectively ruin the material, they spoil their good look.
Don't be mistaken: guests will always expect to find clean and fresh-looking linens when they arrive at your rental.
As property managers in Pensacola Beach, we have all our linens laundered at professional service centers and bleached.
7. Give a hand to your cleaners.
Have you ever considered involving your guests to help your cleaning team with their daily tasks?
Our experience shows that if you provide guests with cleaning supplies during their stay, they are more likely to clean up after themselves. For example, think about sponges, detergents, and additional trash bins.
These items encourage guests to keep things clean and dispose of garbage before they check out. In general, they amount to a small investment, but one that your cleaning crew will surely appreciate.
You can also take a more direct route and provide guests with cleaning guidelines to perform before checking out. For example, you can ask guests to leave the fridge free of food and wash the dishes before they go.
8. Buy supplies in bulk
As we discussed, short-term rentals require much more cleaning than a regular home. Therefore, it's essential to maintain a well-stocked inventory of cleaning supplies to ensure you never run out when you need them. A smart move is to buy your cleaning supplies in bulk from wholesalers. This way, you can purchase them at discounted rates, saving you money and time.
Online platforms will even save your order information, making it easier to replicate the same order in the future. A well-supplied inventory of cleaning products enables you to quickly respond to any cleaning requirement that may arise during a guest's stay. Resolving issues promptly and efficiently contributes to guest satisfaction, leading to those very important 5-star reviews.
9. Embrace tech tools.
You can also use the help of tech tools to streamline and enhance cleaning processes for your rental. Property Management Systems (PMS) offer interfaces that enable your cleaning team to see and confirm their schedules, and their task management tools will help you set notifications for important maintenance tasks.
These software options are also versatile enough so that you can choose to establish time intervals or set alerts according to the number of guest stays.
Here are some of our favorite platforms that can help with cleaning tasks:
Extra tip: technology can also be helpful during inspections. Cleaners can take photographs of any problems they come across, and apps like Solocator can even help them take photos with date stamps, useful as evidence in case any disagreements arise with guests concerning damage claims.
10. Bet on the services of professional vacation managers in Pensacola Beach.
Keeping an eye out for cleaning and maintenance can indeed be overwhelming. But you can also hire skilled property managers like ourselves to take the weight off your shoulders. At Pensacola Beach Properties, we are very proud of our extensive expertise that helps create the best guest experience, higher rental rates, and more repeat guests.
Discover more useful property management tips for your beach rental.
We hope you find these cleaning and maintenance tips for your Pensacola Beach property useful. For property management insights, keep an eye on our website for upcoming blogs.
