Airbnb cleaning checklist: the room-by-room list we use
Without a list, everyone cleans the best they can and two identical apartments end up different. The list works when the cleaner can follow it from their phone, room by room, and when the items that matter leave a photo behind. This is the one we run in properties in Mexico, with which items ask for a photo and why. You can download it as a PDF at the end.
Before cleaning, a photo of how the guest left it
The first thing our list asks for is a photo. The cleaner takes photos of the property exactly as the departing guest left it, before moving a single towel. We put it there because a client asked for it: he wanted something to claim with on Airbnb if the departing guest left damage behind.
If you need to claim later, that photo is the only evidence you’ll have. It takes a minute, and the cleaner already has the phone in their hand.
The list, room by room
photo Items marked with a camera ask for a photo. The rest just get ticked.
-
Before cleaning
- Photos of how the guest left the property, before moving anythingphoto
-
Bedroom
- Change sheets and pillowcases
- Check under the bed and in the drawers for anything left behind
- Wipe nightstands and lamps
- Sweep or vacuum, then mop
- Bed madephoto
-
Bathroom
- Wash toilet, sink and shower
- Clear hair from the drain
- Restock toilet paper and soap
- Dry the mirror and the shower screen
- Clean towels in placephoto
- Bathroom finished, shower in viewphoto
-
Kitchen
- Wash the dishes and put them away
- Clean stove, counter and sink
- Empty the fridge of whatever the guest left
- Take out the trash and put in a new bag
- Coffee maker clean and readyphoto
- Kitchen finishedphoto
-
Living and dining room
- Dust furniture and table
- Straighten cushions and the TV remote
- Sweep and mop
- Living room finishedphoto
-
Laundry and extras
- Washing machine empty, no guest clothes inside
- Check there’s detergent
- If the property has a terrace, a balcony or a pool, each one is an item with its own photophoto
-
Closing up
- Shut the windows and turn off the lights
- Keys where they always go
Ticking the last item saves the time the cleaner finished.
Which items ask for a photo, and why
We ask for a photo on only a few items, because on a list where every item wants one the cleaner ends up grudgingly taking twenty and nobody looks at them. We ask for a photo of what the guest looks at first when they walk in, which is almost always the bed, and of what shows up in reviews when it fails, which is almost always the bathroom.
The bed is the easiest photo to judge, because if it’s made you can tell in a second. From the bathroom we ask for the shower in view, which is where limescale builds up and where the complaints come from. The towels get their own photo because they’re the thing most often forgotten, and no bathroom photo shows them properly. And we ask for the coffee maker because it’s the first thing the guest touches in the morning, and because that’s where the cleaner most often lets details slip, like the filter or the coffee.
Look, when we built the list for a client with several small apartments, he preferred the short version: one item per room, each room ending with its photo, eight items in all. For bigger houses we use the long list of ten actions, with a photo on four. Both work. A forty-item list with no photos, honestly, nobody follows.
The other reason for the photo is that it gets saved with the time. If a guest says the kitchen was dirty, you send them the photo and you no longer have to argue from memory. We cover that separately in how to check a clean without going to the property.
How it’s followed from a phone
On paper the list is fine to start with, to be honest, but it leaves no photo and no time. With us, when there’s a checkout on the calendar, Cleo, our AI operations assistant, tells the cleaner over WhatsApp which property they’re due at. The cleaner opens that property’s list in the same chat, ticks each item and sends the photos right there. It all happens in the WhatsApp chat they already use.
When the property is done, Cleo checks the photos, asks for any that are missing and sends you the report. If she sees mold in the shower in one of them, she tells you, and you decide whether to offer the owner a deep clean.
The same list serves all your properties. You build it once on the cleaning service, and on each property you switch off the rooms that property doesn’t have, like a second bathroom. We schedule the short list for an hour, an hour and a half for two bedrooms.
Download it as a PDF
It’s the same list as above, on one sheet, with the photo items marked. Print it or send it to your cleaner on WhatsApp.
Want the guide for one of your properties?
We build the guest guide for you, for free, for as many properties as you want. Send us your listing link and we start from there. And if you want to see how Cleo runs this list on WhatsApp, the page is right below.
Do I use the same list for all my properties?
Yes. The list is built once for the cleaning service and assigned to each property. On the property with no second bathroom, that item is switched off and that’s it. Change an item on the list and it changes everywhere.
What if my cleaner doesn’t want to take photos?
That’s why there are few of them, so it doesn’t feel like an extra chore. An item that asks for a photo can’t be ticked without one, but it’s five or six per property. The first week takes some getting used to, and after that the photo of the made bed comes out by itself, like sending a message.
Does it work on paper?
To start, yes, and that’s what the PDF is for. What paper doesn’t give you is the photo with its time. Once you have more than one property, or a guest who argues, you’ll want the photo.
He wrote and checked this page. Every source is public and linked above.