One of the biggest things to consider when setting up a holiday home business is how you are going to clean and manage your property for guests. With laundry, management and cleaning required in between bookings, it can be a huge task. Especially if you don’t live locally. If you are new to the industry and are trying to figure out how it works, you’ve come to the right place. It is more than just cleaning the kitchen and making beds.
Cleaning Your Holiday Home
A clean holiday home is essential. It is your guests’ first impressions of your holiday home. Cleanliness is frequently commented on in property reviews, which can have a big impact on future bookings. With a wide range of holiday homes across the county, this is something that you must get right.
The cost of cleaning a holiday home varies depending on the size of your property and your specific needs. You can choose to clean your property yourself to make it a more personal service and to save money, or you can hire an independent cleaner or holiday home agency. There are different factors to consider when deciding what option is right for you. To name a few:
- Do you live close enough to the property to be cleaning it regularly?
- Do you have the time to be cleaning a holiday home regularly?
- Are you any good at cleaning?
All properties require bed linen changes, kitchen cleaning, polishing, vacuuming, bin changes and bathroom cleaning, but you might have specific requests too. This can include swimming pools, hot tubs, or something else entirely. These things take time and need to be done properly. Whether you are doing the clean yourself or you have hired someone to do for you, you must ensure that the person knows what they are doing, and it is completed before your next guests arrive!
Cleaning Your Holiday Home’s Hot Tub or Pool
Guests are often drawn to properties that have hot tubs, pools or spas. They do, however, require a lot of maintenance. Hot tubs, for instance, must be cleaned between every use with specialist cleaning products. They must be drained, and filters must be checked. They also must be serviced regularly. It is imperative to know how long these tasks take so that they are factored into check-in and check-out times.
Holiday Home Laundry
The cost of laundering your holiday property’s linen will vary a lot depending on the size of your property and how many changeovers you are doing a week. A one-bedroom apartment will not cost as much as a six-bedroom house. Just as one changeover a week will cost less than two or three changeovers a week. Costs can be cut if you plan on doing all the laundry yourself, but this could end up being a mammoth task. Our advice to speak to a holiday let agency or laundry and linen company for quotes.
Linen for Your Holiday Home
Owning and laundering enough linen for your holiday home might seem like quite a straight-forward task but it can quite easily go wrong. The general rule of thumb is to have a minimum of three sets of linen for your property. One in use, one being laundered, and one ready for changeovers.
Waste/Recycling from Your Holiday Home
Your guests will create rubbish that will need to be cleared before the next guests arrive. To make clearance easy, it must be easy for your guests to dispose of their waste.
You must leave clear and easy to follow instructions for how guests are to dispose of their waste. Bins need to be accessible, and you can even ask them to empty the bins before leaving the property. Remember to change all bins including the ones in the bathrooms! It is an easy mistake to make but will have a massive impact on your next guests’ first impression!
Why Your Devon Escape?
With so much to think about when running a holiday home, many owners opt for management services. This can mean a whole host of things from booking and marketing to full property management.
At Your Devon Escape, we offer a variety of packages to suit your needs. Our property management team are highly experienced in liaising and coordinating a variety of outside contractors across many trades, alongside our in-house cleaning, linen and laundry team.
By working with Your Devon Escape, you are leaving your holiday home in excellent hands. We offer a professional service, with fifteen years of experience in the industry. We are local, flexible and have hand-picked an exceptional team of cleaners and property managers to ensure your holiday homes are maintained to the highest standards. And these are just a few of the benefits of working with us!