How often does an Airbnb need a deep clean, and what goes in it?
A good turnover makes the place look clean for the next guest. Over months, though, the things a turnover skips start to add up: grease on the extractor fan, dust on top of the wardrobe, limescale creeping round the shower. Guests notice long before you do, and it shows up in your cleanliness rating.
Why turnovers aren't enough
A turnover is built around speed. Your cleaner has a few hours to make the place right for the next arrival, so they focus on what guests see and touch: beds, bathroom, kitchen surfaces, floors. That's exactly right for a turnover, but it means anything slightly out of sight is quietly building up.
A deep clean is the scheduled catch-up for everything the turnover is designed to skip.
A schedule that actually happens
One huge annual clean is easy to put off. Splitting it into smaller rounds works better.
Monthly:
- Clean inside the oven, microwave and fridge.
- Descale the kettle, shower head and taps.
- Wash the shower curtain or clean the glass screen properly.
- Vacuum under beds and sofas.
- Wipe skirting boards, door frames and light switches.
Quarterly:
- Wash pillows and duvets, or have them cleaned.
- Clean the extractor fan filter.
- Wash windows inside, and outside where reachable.
- Clean behind and under the fridge, cooker and washing machine.
- Flip or rotate mattresses.
- Check grout and sealant for mould.
Yearly:
- Steam clean carpets and upholstery.
- Wash or replace curtains and blinds.
- Deep clean the dishwasher and washing machine.
- Touch up scuffed paintwork.
- Replace anything tired: shower curtain, bath mat, cutlery tray liners.
Adjust to your property. A flat with a busy kitchen and back-to-back short stays needs the monthly list more than a cottage with longer, quieter bookings.
Use it as an inspection too
A deep clean is the one time someone is looking closely at every corner of the property, so treat it as an inspection as well. Ask your cleaner to note anything that needs fixing: a dripping tap, a loose hinge, a chipped mug, a smoke alarm that needs testing, a mattress that's starting to sag. Small faults caught here get fixed on your schedule. The same faults found by a guest turn into a mid-stay problem or a line in a review.
Fit it into the calendar, not the turnover
The mistake is adding deep cleaning jobs to a normal turnover. The cleaner either rushes the deep clean or rushes the turnover, and usually both. Book deep cleans as separate jobs in natural gaps between bookings, and for the big quarterly or yearly rounds, consider blocking a night in a quiet week.
Write it down
A deep clean list that lives in your head doesn't get done. Put it on paper, or better, in the same place as your turnover checklist, with a date each task was last done. Your cleaner can then see what's due without you chasing it. The cleaning checklist template can hold a separate section for this, and the Cleaning Checklist tool can email you when it's been worked through.
If you're training a new cleaner, writing a cleaning checklist a new cleaner can follow covers how much detail to include.
Watch your ratings, not just the place
You get used to your own property, and gradual build-up is hard to see when you're there every week. Guests see it fresh. A cleanliness rating that drifts down from a steady 5.0, or a review mentioning a smell or a dusty shelf, is usually the first sign a deep clean is overdue. Treat that as the trigger rather than waiting for something obvious.
Common questions
- How much should a deep clean cost compared to a turnover?
- It varies a lot by area and size, but a deep clean usually takes two to four times as long as a standard turnover and is priced accordingly. Many cleaners charge it hourly rather than as a fixed fee.
- Can my regular cleaner do the deep clean?
- Often yes, and they're usually the best person because they already know the property. Book it as a separate, longer job rather than adding it to a turnover, so neither gets rushed.
- Should I block dates for a deep clean?
- For a full deep clean, yes, a single blocked night in a quiet period is worth it. Smaller monthly tasks can usually fit into a longer gap between bookings.
Put this into practice
The free templates and tools that cover what this article describes.
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