On the job

Turning a rental over between guests

The hours between guests: wash the linens, clean, restock, check for damage, reset the lock, photograph the rooms, all inside a short window.

Drawn in 6 stages, the way an illustrator fills a field sketchbook. Press play to watch it drawn.

Turning a rental over between guestsFreelanceSites sketchbook

Finished sketch: 6 stages, 226 pencil marks

Blocking in the house, the list and the clocks
House, list and the two clocks
The checklist and the example window
A tick, a lens and the key tag
Shading from the upper left
Caption

What the sketch shows

Between one guest and the next there is a window, and the window is the job. Check-out might be late morning and check-in late afternoon. The clock on this sketch says 11:00 to 15:00, and those hours are an example, not a platform rule and not your listing. Your window is whatever you set, and it is shorter than it looks once the laundry is in.

Work from a list you do not trust your memory to keep. Linens come off and go into the wash, including the ones that look fine. Then the clean: kitchen, bathroom, floors, the bins, the hair in the shower. Restock what the listing promises, from coffee to toilet paper, because a missing roll becomes a review. Walk every room for damage and for things left behind, and photograph anything you may need to show the platform. Reset the lockbox or the keypad to the next guest's code, and test it with the door shut. A code typed wrong is a guest standing on the pavement.

Photos at the end are for you as much as for them. They show the home as the next guest will find it, which settles most arguments that begin "it was already like that". If the window is short, the list is how you know what can wait and what cannot. A late clean is a late check-in, and a late check-in is the message you do not want to send.

The same list, every turnover. The bathroom is what memory skips.
Reset the access and test it before you lock up.
Photograph damage, and photograph the finished rooms, while you are still there.

Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com each have their own rules for guests, cleaners and claims. How they charge the guest, and what they keep, is beside this sketch.

Key points

Check-out to check-in is the whole job, and the times on this page are only an example.
Work the same written list every turnover. Memory drops the bathroom.
Reset the lockbox or the code and test it with the door shut before you leave.
Photograph damage and the finished rooms while you are still in the house.

Real numbers, from our listings

Airbnb Fees: Host-only fee of about 15.5% for most hosts Minimum payout: $1 USD default for most methods, over $60 via Western Union Payout speed: About 24 hours after guest check-in See it sketched
Vrbo Fees: 5% commission plus payment fee Payout speed: About 24 hours after check-in See it sketched
Booking.com Fees: Commission about 15% per booking See it sketched

Figures in the drawing are examples. These are the platforms' own listed terms, checked by our editors.

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