The ultimate vacation rental cleaning checklist

There are many approaches to cleaning your rental. Some folks opt for the room-by-room method, while others do their least favorite tasks first.

At Vacasa, we’ve spent over a decade perfecting our cleaning services, creating an approach which emphasizes efficiency. Our professional cleaning service team members learn to assess, prioritize, and execute thorough cleans in every home they’re assigned.

A key takeaway from our tried-and-true cleaning method is to start with the tasks that take the longest. So if you’ve got a mountain of dishes to do, get the dishwasher going before you head off to the living room to vacuum. You’ll get a lot more done when you can do two or three tasks at once!

Want more details? Check out our vacation rental cleaning FAQ or read some of our own housekeepers' top cleaning tips.

That depends on the size of your home and its features. A one-bedroom condo will take significantly less time than a six-bedroom cabin with a sauna and home theater. It also depends on how long your guests stay at your place—consider how much use your home will get with a week-long stay compared to a weekend.

You know your home best. So, track your cleans as you go to figure out how much time you’ll need to allot between when one guest leaves and your next guests arrive. That way you can set realistic expectations for yourself—and prevent miscommunication with your guests.

To protect yourself while cleaning a vacation rental, here are a few CDC-recommended best practices:

• Anytime you change gloves, make sure you remove them safely
• If you're wearing gloves to strip bedding and towels, wear new​ gloves to make the bed(s)
• If your gloves tear or become visibly contaminated, swap them for a fresh pair immediately
• Throw gloves away after you finish cleaning—never wash or reuse disposable gloves
• Wash ​your hands with soap and water (or use hand sanitizer if soap and water is not available) afterward

And keep up with changing guidelines and recommendations from the WHO and CDC—your guests will thank you for it!

The short answer: yes, absolutely. In addition to wearing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), the CDC, the Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP), and Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) recommend these extra steps to lower the risk of transmission while cleaning your home.

• Improve ventilation
  As you work through your vacation rental cleaning checklist, make sure you’ve turned on any fans and opened as many windows as possible. These measures help air out your home and decrease the likelihood of contamination (with the bonus of keeping you cool while you work).
• Sanitize, then disinfect
  Once you’ve finished cleaning, spray high-touch surfaces with a CDC-approved disinfectant—think doorknobs, countertops, the arms of chairs, light switches, faucets, and so on. Once you’ve sprayed the disinfectant, try not to touch these surfaces again.
• Use hot water when doing laundry
  Be sure to wash all towels, linens, and bedding with hot water (and dry them with high heat). When laying out fresh towels or making beds, change your gloves to minimize the chance of contamination.
• Limit the number of people in your home
  By keeping the number of people coming in and out of your home minimal, you make it easy to reduce the threat of contamination while you clean (and make a lot less work for yourself). If you have maintenance workers coming, ask that they wear PPE while in your home, and be sure to follow these COVID-19 cleaning guidelines after they leave.

It’s a lot of work, we know. But a trustworthy, professional cleaning service can eliminate your stress. See how we’ve risen to the challenge—and learn more about cleaning with COVID-19 in mind—by checking out Vacasa Premium Clean, an enhanced cleaning program exclusive to Vacasa homeowners.

A fresh-feeling home requires the right cleaning supplies. And while a few Lysol wipes and a Magic Eraser might make your home look great at first glance, we think it’s important to thoroughly clean before welcoming guests.

We recommend using EPA-approved cleaning products, like the ones listed here. And always make sure you use cleaning products in accordance with the instructions on the label.

On top of cleaning products, our professional housekeepers also carry an arsenal of tools. If you’re going the DIY route, follow our lead and buy:

• A 5-gallon bucket
• Bucket sleeve with pockets (like a utility belt for the bucket)
• Grout brush
• Squeegee
• Mop with extendable handle
• 6 mop cloths: 3 soft, 3 scrub
• Scrub brush with nylon bristles
• Multiple microfiber rags

And it never hurts to have duplicates of all these, as tools wear out and get damaged over time. After all, housekeeping is much less of a headache when you have the right cleaning products on hand.

As you clean your home, you’re bound to notice things that could look better (but could wait for another day). These tasks are what deep cleans are for—and you’ll find more than a few deep cleaning ideas listed in our downloadable vacation rental cleaning checklist.

We recommend performing a full vacation rental deep clean at least once a year, which covers things like dry-cleaning curtains, scrubbing down the baseboards, or pulling out kitchen appliances to clean behind and underneath them. Another approach is to tackle one item from the deep cleaning checklist every time you do a turnover cleaning—that way, you spread out the work throughout the year rather than leaving it to do all at once.

If you encounter a problem while cleaning but aren’t sure if it’s something you should deal with now or later, ask yourself these questions:

• Will my next guests notice it?
• Will their experience at my home be worse if I don’t do something about it before they arrive?
• Will the problem escalate rapidly?
• Could this be potentially dangerous?
• Will this become expensive or destructive if I wait to address it after my next guests leave?

If you answered yes to most (or all) of these questions, you should probably address the issue right away instead of relegating it to your deep cleaning checklist. After all, guest safety and comfort is your top priority—and your turnover and deep cleaning checklists should reflect that.