Submitted by Joel Selling, co-host of Savinar Selling Beach House. Their beautiful property is only rented to people they know, so reach out to Joel or Nancy and say "Hello!".
To catch up on what you missed at the event, members can watch the video here and read through Joel's recap below.
The person most familiar with your rental other than you is your cleaner – which is why this webinar called them a partner. They do SO much more than merely clean!
The event, Cleaners: Your Most Valuable Partner, was presented by three experts, Rachel deHaan, Melissa Bishop, and Kelsey Sweat who work with (not “for”) several H2H members. They provided insights that you and I, as hosts, might never learn on our own.
The most important thing – all 3 cleaners agreed – was that a good relationship was based on:
- strong communications
- mutual respect
- trust
Responding to text messages and calls in a timely fashion (always same day, even as fast as 10 minutes), treating them as a team member as opposed to merely a vendor, and trusting they have the skills and intelligence to identify problems and deal with them even in your absence, to your satisfaction.
An associated discussion, that had no final answer, was how we refer to these professionals using something other than “cleaner”. “Assistant” and “Domestic Engineer” were two offered alternatives. I, personally, am going to start using “GPA”: Guest Preparation Assistant. It focuses on the guest’s needs, addresses more than cleaning, and includes the term assistant. Plus we all know how important a good GPA is!
The discussion about which apps were best led us to several recommendations from the speakers, notably:
Each cleaner had a different structure and size of organization, so there was no “one size fits all”. One cleaner mentioned using Google Calendar with different colors so that different people could easily see what they had on their schedule. It felt to me like each of us H2H members would benefit from viewing each app in light of our specific situation, and seeing what works best for the GPA on our team.
For me, relatively new to H2H, there were a number of other findings that make my job easier, higher quality, or less expensive. As with every H2H event I have attended, two characteristics of the attendees come shining through: generosity and professionalism. I’d like to thank everyone who has built the culture of H2H into what it is today: generously sharing applicable wisdom.
... and thank you, Joel, for your insights and generosity. We're so glad you're a part of our community!
