What holiday home cleaning covers between stays
Beds and towels: beds made and towels changed, using your own linen. Kitchen: benches, the sink, the stovetop, the microwave and a check of the fridge for anything the last guests left. Bathrooms: shower, toilet, basin and mirror. Then: floors through the house and the bins emptied.
You and the cleaning business agree when it happens, for example after every stay, or once at the start and end of your own holiday. The oven, inside windows, carpet steam cleaning and wall marks can go in as extras when the place needs them.
Bach, crib or Airbnb cleaning: one job, three names
Most of the country calls a holiday home a bach, and in the southern half of the South Island it's a crib. People also say Airbnb clean for any home let to short-stay guests. Here it only describes the kind of clean: Cleaner Scout has no link with Airbnb or any booking site.
Holiday home cleaning: guests aren't tenants
Tenancy Services lists holiday homes among the arrangements the Residential Tenancies Act doesn't cover, and says the Act doesn't apply when a house is rented for the tenant's holiday purposes. So the end of tenancy standard and Bond Hub don't come into a weekend booking. What guests can expect, and what you expect of them, is set by your own booking terms.
A bach let to someone who lives there is a different arrangement. If that's yours, read Tenancy Services on who tenancy law covers before you treat it as a holiday let, and see end of tenancy cleaning for the clean when that tenancy ends.
Set these up with your holiday home cleaner
- Where the clean linen lives, and who washes the used sets.
- How the cleaner gets in: a lockbox, a key with a neighbour, or a code.
- Your booking pattern, so they know when cleans fall.
- What they should tell you about: breakages, low supplies, anything left behind.
- Whether they'll restock basics you keep on site, like toilet paper and dishwashing liquid.
- Your council rubbish and recycling day, and where the bins go.
Damp at a closed-up bach between cleans
A bach that sits shut between visits gathers damp, and it shows on the walls behind beds, in wardrobes and around window frames. Opening up, airing the place and wiping condensation helps, and small spots can be dealt with as they appear.
Bigger patches are a different job. For large areas of mould, or mould after a flood, Health New Zealand says to get advice from a professional mould removal specialist.
Owner's jobs and the cleaner's jobs at a bach
Worth doing yourself
- Enough sets of linen and towels that one can be in the wash while the other is on the beds.
- Clear house rules for guests about rubbish, recycling and the barbecue.
- A shelf or cupboard the cleaner can use for spare supplies.
- Checking the place yourself at the start and end of each season.
Where a cleaning business earns its keep
- Turning the house round between a morning check-out and an afternoon arrival.
- Bathrooms and the kitchen to a standard guests notice.
- Sand, grass and dust tracked in from the beach or the lake.
- Spotting breakages or damage and telling you before the next guests do.
What to watch for when hiring Airbnb cleaners
- Flea treatment or fumigation offered as part of the clean. That's pest control, a separate trade.
- A business that suggests it works for or with a booking site.
- No agreed way to tell you about damage or missing items.
- Payment wanted for a whole season of cleans before the first one.
How we'd set up holiday home cleaning for a bach
Write a one-page reset list for the bach, room by room, with where the linen and spare supplies are kept, and give it to the business with the key arrangements. Agree how they'll report damage between stays, and book the first clean before your first guests, so you can see the standard while you're still there.