What makes a checklist work
Airbnb expects hosts to clean between every stay, including laundry, trash, vacuuming or sweeping and wiping surfaces, and to have the home free of health hazards such as mold and pests before check-in. Cleanliness is also a rating category guests score on its own. Your checklist is how you make that happen the same way whoever cleans.
- Order it the way the cleaner walks the home, so nobody doubles back.
- Make each line checkable. "Wipe inside the microwave" is checkable; "clean the kitchen" is not.
- Give quantities for anything you restock.
- Pair it with reference photos of each room made up for guests.
- Keep one version, in one place, and change it there.
Below is a starting checklist. Cut what your home doesn't have and add what it does.
Arrival and laundry
- Walk through before cleaning. Photograph any damage, stains, missing items or excess mess, and send them to the host.
- Check drawers, closets, under beds, outlets and the fridge for left items. Photograph and bag them.
- Strip all beds, including pillowcases and any mattress protector that is soiled.
- Gather towels, bath mats and kitchen towels. Start the first laundry load, or bag it for the laundry service.
- Load and run the dishwasher.
Room by room
Within each room, work from top to bottom so dust falls onto areas you haven't cleaned yet, and do floors last.
- Kitchen: counters, backsplash, sink and tap; stovetop and oven door; inside the microwave; fridge shelves, with old food thrown out; coffee maker and kettle emptied; cabinet fronts and handles; dishwasher emptied and dishes put away; bins emptied and relined.
- Bathrooms: toilet inside and out, including the base; shower or tub, glass and grout; hair cleared from every drain; sink, tap and mirror; towels hung or folded as in the reference photo; bin emptied.
- Bedrooms: beds made from clean linens as in the reference photo; under the beds; bedside tables wiped; closet and drawers empty with hangers in place.
- Living areas and entry: surfaces dusted; cushions straightened and throws folded; glass and mirrors; remotes, light switches, door handles and the thermostat wiped.
- Outdoor, if you have it: seating wiped, cushions checked for stains or mildew, grill cleaned, cobwebs cleared, hot tub or pool per your own care routine.
- Floors everywhere: vacuum rugs and carpet, then mop hard floors, working toward the door.
Restock and reset
Write a restock list with the quantity to leave of each item, and keep spare stock in a locked owner's closet. For example, adjusted to your home:
- Bathroom: toilet paper rolls on the holder and spare, soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash.
- Kitchen: dish soap, a new sponge, dishwasher tabs, paper towels, coffee, tea, sugar, salt and pepper.
- General: trash bags, spare light bulbs, batteries for remotes.
- Any welcome items you offer.
- Note anything taken from spare stock and anything running low, for the host.
Final walkthrough
- Run every tap and flush every toilet.
- Check every light and lamp, and replace dead bulbs.
- Check the Wi-Fi works and the details in the home are current.
- Set the thermostat and blinds as the host asked.
- Smell each room. Open windows rather than covering odors with spray.
- Take the end-of-clean photos from the reference angles.
- Lock all doors and windows, set the lock, and send the host the photos and notes.
Airbnb's safety requirements say entry codes should change between reservations. If your lock codes don't change on their own, add a line for that. The photos are how you check the clean without being there; see how to know your cleaner actually cleaned.
Keep the checklist alive
- When a guest mentions a miss, add a line or a photo instead of sending a one-off reminder.
- Add the spots that get skipped: under beds, inside drawers, cabinet doors, small appliances, blinds and shelves.
- Plan deep cleans separately, on a schedule you agree with your cleaner, for things like inside the oven, behind furniture and washing pillows.
- Keep your guest checkout instructions and house rules in line with it; see what your house rules should include.
- Share it with every cleaner, including your backup, before their first job.
Do this once, then review the checklist every few months.
- 1Walk your home in cleaning order and write each task as a checkable line.
- 2Take reference photos of each room made up for guests.
- 3Write the restock list with the quantity to leave of each item.
- 4Add the final walkthrough and the end-of-clean shot list.
- 5Walk the checklist with your cleaner on a paid test clean. Cut lines that don't apply and add what they spot.
- 6Store one version where every cleaner can open it on their phone.
- 7Share it with your backup cleaner before their first job.
- 8Add a line each time a guest or a photo shows a miss.
- 9Set a deep-clean schedule separately.