Turnover day is where reviews are made. Guests forgive a lot, but not yesterday’s hair in the shower drain — cleanliness is the most common theme in negative reviews across every platform.
The difference between a stressful changeover and a calm one is rarely effort. It is a checklist: the same rooms, the same order, the same final checks, every single time — whoever happens to be cleaning.
Why a checklist beats experience
Even brilliant cleaners have off days; checklists don’t. The list does three jobs: nothing gets skipped under time pressure, a stand-in cleaner can deliver your standard on day one, and “done” becomes checkable instead of debatable.
Keep it to one page per property. A 60-item list gets ignored by week two — the right length is every task that, if skipped, a guest would notice.
The room-by-room core
- 1Bedrooms — strip and remake with fresh linen, check under the beds (the #1 lost-property spot), dust, empty bins.
- 2Bathroom — fresh towels per guest, clean toilet/shower/sink/mirror, restock toilet paper and soap, check the drain.
- 3Kitchen — dishes done and put away, counters and hob clean, fridge emptied of leftovers, essentials restocked (coffee, tea, salt), bin out with a new liner.
- 4Living areas — vacuum and mop, dust surfaces and screens, cushions and throws reset, remote batteries checked.
- 5Outdoor — terrace swept, BBQ clean (or the next guest inherits the last one’s dinner), furniture tidy, hot tub cover on.
The final checks most lists forget
- Walk every room once more with guest eyes — smell included; open a window if it needs it.
- Windows closed and locked, heating/AC back to the standard setting, lights off.
- Key back in the lockbox (and the code rotated, if you rotate per stay).
- A photo of every room — 60 seconds of work that settles damage questions and proves the standard.
- Report anything broken or running low NOW, not at the next turnover — the gap between stays is when fixes are possible.
Print it, or run it in an app
Start on paper: our free builder lets you tick the tasks that apply to your home, add your own, and print an A4 per property — date and cleaner line included.
When you outgrow paper — multiple properties, multiple cleaners — task automation takes over: in hejGuide, a cleaning task creates itself after every checkout, assigned to your cleaner with the checklist and photo-proof built in, and you see completion from your phone.
Open the free turnover checklist builderFrequently asked questions
How long should a turnover take?
A practical planning number: 2–3 hours for a 2-bedroom home with one cleaner, longer with linen on site or outdoor areas. If your checkout-to-checkin window is tighter than your real cleaning time, fix the times — not the corners you cut.
Should the cleaner restock consumables?
Yes, from a defined par list (e.g. 2 toilet rolls per bathroom, coffee for 4). “Restock essentials” without numbers means whatever was left in the cupboard.
What about laundry?
Two full linen sets per bed transforms turnover day: beds are made from the clean set while the used one washes on its own schedule. The single-set treadmill is the most common self-inflicted stress in small rentals.
Turnovers that run themselves
Auto-created cleaning tasks after every checkout, with checklists and photo proof — in hejGuide.
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