6 minute read · Updated 20 August 2026
The Airbnb changeover checklist
What to check between guests, what to check monthly, and the small things that cause bad reviews.
Who this is for: Hosts, co-hosts and serviced accommodation operators running their own changeovers or briefing a cleaner.
The window is the job
A guest checks out at ten. The next arrives at four. Everything below has to happen in between, and the window does not move.
That is why a changeover is not a deep clean done quickly. It is a different job with a different list — reset to a known state, check nothing is broken, restock, and photograph it.
Every changeover
Bedrooms
- Beds stripped and remade with fresh linen, corners squared
- No marks or hairs on bedding or towels — check in daylight
- Under the beds, where they move: nothing left behind, no rubbish
- Wardrobes and drawers emptied and wiped
- Surfaces, mirrors and skirtings
Bathrooms
- Shower, bath, basin and WC cleaned and descaled
- Plug holes and shower drainage cleared of hair
- Glass and mirrors polished — streaks show in photographs
- Fresh towels set out
- Consumables restocked
Kitchen
- Inside all appliances checked clean
- Fridge emptied and wiped, left closed
- Dishwasher emptied, crockery counted back in
- Hob, splashback and worktops
- Bins emptied and rebagged
Before you leave
- Floors vacuumed, hard floors mopped
- Furniture and cushions reset to match the listing photographs
- Outside bins — if they are overflowing, report it
- Any damage photographed and reported before the next guest finds it
- Left belongings bagged, labelled and reported to the host
Not every changeover
Some jobs would be wasteful every visit and negligent never. Running them on a rota per property is the only way this works — nobody can hold it in their head across a portfolio.
Twice a month
- Move the beds and clean underneath
- Take out and clean the extractor hood filter
- Inside windows, unless they are visibly dirty sooner
Monthly
- Descale the kettle and the inside of the toilet
- Scrub the skirting boards, which are dusted every visit
- Clean the ceiling lights
- Pull out the appliances and clean underneath
- Shelves inside the kitchen cupboards, if they need it
What guests actually complain about
Rarely the things people worry about. In practice it is hair — in the shower, on bedding, on the bathroom floor. Then smells, usually a bin or a fridge. Then the small missing thing: no loo roll, no bin bags, a dead bulb.
None of those are difficult. They are just easy to miss when the clock is against you, which is exactly why a written list beats working from memory.
Photograph it
Photograph every room when you finish. It takes two minutes and it settles three arguments: whether the property was ready, whether damage was already there, and whether something a guest reports was actually the case when you left.
Date-stamped photographs are also the fastest way to answer a guest message without driving back to look.
If you would rather not
Airbnb changeover cleaning
We clean changeovers to this list across Greater Manchester, Warrington and St Helens, with photos of every room the same day. From £59, all in, your linen laundered and remade, and one of us confirms the price with you before you book.
From £59, all in
Priced on the property — the beds and bathrooms you tell us about — not on an hourly guess. We strip, launder and remake the linen that is at the property, and restock the consumables you provide. Count the rooms for your starting figure, and we confirm the price with you before the job goes in the diary. Managing several properties? Call us — portfolios are priced together, and volume earns a better rate.
Also worth reading
- The end of tenancy cleaning checklistEverything an inventory clerk checks, room by room. Use it, print it, or hand it to whoever is doing the clean.
- Deposit deductions for cleaningWhat can be taken, what cannot, and what actually happens if you disagree. Written from the scheme rules and the published figures rather than from what everybody says.
- Airbnb changeover cleaning prices explainedHow the figure is built, what sits outside it, and where a website has to stop and a phone call has to start. Our own card, not a survey of the market.
- Why cleaning quotes vary so muchTwo quotes for the same flat, three times apart, and neither document says which job it is. What causes that, what you are entitled to be told, and the questions that make two numbers comparable.
- Office cleaning contracts: how pricing actually worksThree proposals, three different shapes, and no way to line them up. What a specification should actually contain, what sits on every hour, and the obligation that arrives with a change of contractor.
- Linen for short lets: own it, hire it, or ask guests to bring itIf you run one or two flats with a working washer-dryer, own your linen and do not buy stock from us. We sell it, and at your size you do not need it. Here is everything that decides the answer, including the parts that cost us the sale.
- How long should an Airbnb changeover actually take?We will not tell you how long your changeover takes, because nobody has published a figure we could stand behind and we are not going to invent one. Here is what we found instead, and what to ask for in its place.