The number one cause of vacation rental guest complaints is cleanliness.
When guests have spent thousands or even tens of thousands on a vacation rental, their expectations of the cleanliness of the home is almost understood to be perfection. When this means turning an 8 Bedroom / 8 Bath House in 6 hours, the turn-day logistics have to go off without a hitch.
As the focus of Vacation Rentals continues to shift to a sharper focus on the guest experience, the execution of Vacation Rental Manager’s (VRM’s) housekeeping and maintenance departments becomes key to building trust and loyalty in your brand.
Fortunately, it’s a very simple issue to avoid. All housekeeping and maintenance team members have to understand the power and value of following processes the same way, every…single…time.
1. Consistency is Our Key to Success.
Vacation Rental companies sometimes try to make this part of the business difficult. As we mentioned before, turn days are an impressive feat by themselves; doing so without a road map would be nothing short of a miracle. Although this seems pretty obvious, most rental management companies HAVE the right checklists to be successful, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired.
Live the Gulf Coast has a custom checklist, by property, of Housekeeping and Maintenance items to be addressed before, during, and after check-out. There are scheduled monthly, quarterly, and annual maintenance work orders for all A/Cs, Grills, Pools, etc. to ensure your week of vacation runs as smooth as possible. Our proactive mindset and consistency keep Guests, Owners, and our Property managers happy…We like being happy and we want you to be happy!
Our Promise to you: “Our professionally trained and certified housekeeping team and inspectors are dedicated to making sure your stay is comfortable and stress-free.”
2. Safe and Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies.
Life is way too short and the beach is way too beautiful to be fretting over the chance that a housekeeper used some toxic cleaning products where your family will be eating, playing, and staying for a whole week. This was a recent discovery after some insightful feedback from a growing number of our past guests. Our team did a deep-dive to find the perfect combination of eco-friendly and still tough on dirt and we came up with some clever substitutes. If we have enough interest, we might share our top tricks in a future blog…Let us know in the comments!
Our pet-friendly renters also need not worry as we have approved all cleaning products and certified they are 100% pet-friendly.
It might seem overly simple to make sure that cleaning products are safe for use in a hospitality-esque environment, but even bleach has been banned from our list of approved products. The combination of its inherent toxicity and potential to harm small children / pets means we had to find alternatives to these common cleaning products. Any clever cleaning tips and tricks are always appreciated as well. ????
3. The Numbers Don’t Lie.
We are always looking to improve in all facets of our business, but our attention to detail with housekeeping stands above the rest. With over 3,000 reservations under our belt, Live the Gulf Coast Vacation Rentals boasts “98 percent of guests rated our properties as “very clean” or “exceptionally clean”.
Our commitment to housekeeping excellence helps us stand apart in a crowded market where the routine has become mundane, details are lost in the noise, and VRMs have lost their passion to serve.
4. Teamwork makes the Dream work.
How do they do it?
Every team member has their own responsibilities and checklists on turn-days, but no team member is done until the whole team is done.
Their title might read “Housekeeping Specialist” or “Maintenance Supervisor”, but they are striving to achieve a mutual goal that the sum of their parts could have never dreamed possible. The difference in our version of teamwork vs. another company is the sharing of that common objective by equally passionate people. Our team members not only love what they do, but they care about YOU!
The team’s most commonly shared tasks are: sanitizing all the surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen, washing and changing the linens, hanging fresh towels, emptying the fridge and cleaning the interior, putting away dishes, cleaning underneath and between furniture cushions, looking for damage or missing items, stocking the home with toilet paper, soap, etc. and providing light maintenance (changing smoke detector batteries, light bulbs).
5. We Admit our Mistakes.
Sometimes even the best of processes and quality control measures can’t always prevent a “less than desirable” guest experience. Although 98% of guests have given us rave reviews, there will always be 2% of guests that we can not seem to please. Whether it is the rare slip-up by our turn-team or, often, some higher than normal expectations; We take each and every opportunity as a learning opportunity to be better for your next stay!
We encourage feedback, both instant and post-stay, as a constant barometer of what areas in our business have room to improve.
We are passionate, driven, and focused on creating the best possible stay for you and your family. Please reach out with any suggestions you might have for us to make our Guest Experience the best on the Gulf Coast!
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