Your Airbnb To Do List, for flawless organisation!

A check-out at 10am, a check-in at 4pm. In between: the cleaning, the laundry, the restocking, and the check that nothing has been broken. Six hours feels comfortable until the day the machine is still running at 3.30pm.

What sets apart the hosts who keep up the pace isn't speed. It's the order in which they do things, and the fact that they never have to rely on memory.

The order matters more than the list

The rule that saves the most time fits into one sentence: whatever takes time without you goes first.

The washing machine and the dishwasher go on within five minutes of you walking through the door, before you even look at the state of the property. They'll run while you get on with the rest. The classic mistake is to clean first and put the washing on at the end: the laundry then becomes the bottleneck for the whole day.

Only then do you work through the property, top to bottom and back to front, so you never cross a clean area twice.

The supplies round

This is where most of those late-evening messages come from. A missing supply isn't visible at a glance: you have to count it.

• toilet roll: a part-used roll doesn't count, always leave two spares in plain sight;
• washing-up liquid, sponge, bin bags, dishwasher tablets;
• soap, shower gel, salt, pepper, oil, coffee and filters;
• light bulbs, remote control batteries, capsules if you provide a machine.

The habit that settles the matter once and for all: keep a closed reserve stock in the property, and mention it in the welcome book. A guest who finds the packet of sponges on their own doesn't message you.

The three checks that make your reviews

Across dozens of Airbnb reviews, three points come up far more often than cleanliness itself.

The wifi. Actually connect, with your own phone, forgetting the network first. A router that restarted overnight may be behaving differently, and you're the only person who won't notice, because your phone is already paired.

The hot water. Turn on the shower tap and wait. A tank that takes four minutes to heat up isn't a fault, but it is something to write down somewhere.

The access. Test the keypad or the key box with the code you're about to send out, not from memory. A digit changed during the last stay and never reset is the most common failure, and the one guests take worst.

What to check once a month, not at every changeover

Not everything needs checking between two stays, and trying to do the lot every time is the surest way to end up doing none of it.

Once a month is enough for the smoke alarm, the shower seals, the condition of the utensils, defrosting the freezer and cleaning the extractor filter. In high season, slot this round into the day with the longest gap between two bookings.

The list to print

We've put this routine on a single page, to pin up in the broom cupboard or slip into the folder of whoever does the cleaning.

Download the Airbnb To Do List (PDF)

Delegating without losing control

The day someone else takes care of the property, the list in your head becomes a problem. It has to exist in writing, in the same place as the stay information, along with the quirks only you know about: the shutter that sticks, the step that creaks, the neighbour to warn.

That's also what makes the condition report useful. Photographed at every check-out, it saves you the argument about what was already damaged, and lets you spot deterioration before the next guest discovers it on your behalf.

On the guest side, the same logic applies: the wifi code, the local recommendations, the useful numbers and the recycling instructions shouldn't have to be repeated for every stay. A digital welcome book keeps them up to date once and for all, and your guests reach it by scanning a QR code sitting on the table.