What a turnover resets, room by room
A turnover is judged by the guest who walks in next, so the list runs longer than a tidy-up.
Bedrooms
- Beds stripped and made up with clean sheets from your linen closet, pillows and throws arranged to match your photos
- Nightstands, lamps, headboards and dresser tops dusted
- Drawers, closets and under the bed checked for anything left behind
- Floor vacuumed, hangers straightened, luggage rack folded
Bathrooms
- Toilet scrubbed, base and wall behind it included
- Shower or tub scrubbed, glass and fixtures dried so they show no water spots
- Used towels collected, fresh towels folded or hung the way your listing shows them
- Hair dryer, soap, shampoo and toilet paper put back to your standard
Kitchen
- Dishes washed, or the dishwasher run and emptied so nothing waits inside for the next guest
- Counters, backsplash, stovetop and sink cleaned; inside the microwave wiped
- Fridge cleared of leftovers; coffee maker, toaster and kettle emptied and wiped
- Cabinet fronts, handles and the trash can lid; floor swept and mopped
Living areas, entry and outdoors
- Couch cushions lifted and the crumbs under them vacuumed out
- Remotes, game controllers, door handles, railings and the keypad wiped
- Throws folded, board games put back, deck table wiped, sand and leaves cleared from the door
Then the finish: trash and recycling bagged and taken where your town's rules say, toilet paper, soap and coffee topped up from your stock, anything left behind bagged for you, and thermostat, lights and locks left as your house guide says.
Turnover, deep cleaning or move-out: which one your rental needs
Hosts ask for three different cleanings, and the names get mixed up.
| Turnover | Deep cleaning | Move-out cleaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When | After every check-out | Between seasons, or before the first booking of the year | When a long-term tenant leaves, or before you sell or refurnish |
| What it reaches | Every room guests use | Baseboards, door frames, vents, blinds, cabinet fronts, grout, and months of soap scum and grease | All of that, plus inside cabinets, closets and appliances in an empty unit |
| Inside the oven, fridge and cabinets | Fridge cleared of leftovers; the rest as an add-on | Add-ons | Included |
| Time on site | Shortest, sized to your check-in gap | Longer than a turnover of the same rental | Longest, because every cabinet and closet is open |
Most hosts pair turnovers with one deep cleaning a year, add the oven or blinds from our add-ons list in a slow week, and book a move-out cleaning when a furnished rental goes back to the long-term market.
How a turnover day runs
- Dates come in ahead of time. Send bookings as they land, or share your calendar, so each turnover is on our schedule before the guest arrives.
- A walk-through comes first. Damage, smoke, a pet that was not on the booking: you hear about it by text before we start, with photos if you want them.
- The clean, room by room. The list above, in the same order every time.
- Staging and restock. Beds made, towels set, supplies topped up, thermostat and lights set as your guide says.
- Lock up and confirm. Doors locked and the lockbox or keypad reset as you instruct, then a message to you that the rental is ready.
Setting up with us the first time
Before the first turnover, send us:
- Your house guide or listing photos, so we stage each room to match
- Where clean linens and guest supplies are kept, and what happens to used sheets
- How we get in, your town's trash days, and how you handle late departures
Keys, codes and parking are in the guide to preparing for a cleaning.
Who books turnovers
- A weekend host in the Hudson Valley. An owner who rents a cottage near Rhinebeck or Beacon and lives too far away to flip it between Sunday check-out and Friday check-in.
- A shoreline host with back-to-back summer weeks. A house in Milford or Branford that turns over every Saturday all summer, with sand in every room.
- A landlord with a furnished rental. Monthly stays for a traveling nurse or a family between houses, with fresh linens between each tenant.
Short-term-rental rules differ by town
Every town sets its own rules for stays under a month. A cleaning company cannot get a permit or pass an inspection for you, but we can keep the trash, the bins and the guest packet the way a rule requires. Each entry below comes from that town's own code, local law or official page, read 19 September 2026:
| Town | Where the rule is | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| City of Beacon, NY | City Code s.223-26.5 | A city permit for stays under 30 consecutive days; the unit must be the owner's or tenant's primary residence. |
| Town of Rhinebeck, NY | Town Code Ch. 125, Art. 5 (Local Law 6 of 2024) | Two-year permit; the owner's primary residence, owner-occupied during the rental; garbage removed weekly during rentals, in covered containers kept out of view from the road. Amended again later in 2024, so ask the town clerk for the current text. |
| City of Milford, CT | Code Ch. 11, Art. V (ordinance dated May 8, 2026) | A permit before listing; hosted, or un-hosted if the owner or an agent stays within 30 miles; renters get a packet naming where trash and recycling go. |
| Town of Greenwich, CT | Building Zone Regulations s.6-5(43.4) and s.6-93 | Stays under 30 consecutive nights are a permitted use in the RA-4 through R-12 zones, lodging only; parties, weddings, filming and photo shoots are barred. No separate rental permit. |
This is not every town, and rules change. The Town and City of Poughkeepsie, Red Hook, Wappinger, East Fishkill, Mount Vernon, Southeast, Putnam Valley and Branford also have permit or registration rules on the books, and a town with no short-term-rental chapter can still reach rentals through zoning. Check with your own building or zoning office before you list. See also our pages for Poughkeepsie, Wappinger, Mount Vernon, Greenwich and Dutchess County.
What changes the time and the quote
Each turnover is quoted for your rental. What moves it:
- Beds and bathrooms. Each bed to remake and each bathroom to reset is a block of time; a bunk room counts by the bed.
- Laundry on site. Washing and drying sheets during the visit ties the finish to your machines' cycles.
- How the last guests left it, and the house itself. A party adds time, and a tall house with a deck takes longer than a one-floor cottage with the same bed count.
- How often, and what else. A standing schedule is quoted differently from a single turnover, and extras like the oven or interior windows are add-ons.
How we quote, and the tax rate in each county, is on the pricing page.
When hosts need turnovers most
Summer is the season. In every year from 2021 through 2025, August ranked in the top three months for "airbnb cleaning" searches in Google Trends for New York State; the slowest months were October, December and January. Interest is also climbing: the 2025 yearly average was nearly four times the 2021 level, rising every year in between. Google Ads counts for our five counties agree: the Airbnb and vacation-rental topic peaked in July 2026 at 380 searches a month and bottomed out in December 2025 at 200 (DataForSEO, pulled 19 September 2026). If you host through the summer, set up turnovers in spring.
Common questions about Airbnb and vacation rental cleaning
What is Airbnb turnover cleaning?
Turnover cleaning is the full reset of a short-term rental between one guest's check-out and the next guest's check-in. It differs from a regular house cleaning in two ways. It has a deadline, because the next guest arrives at a set time, and it ends with staging: beds made to a standard, towels set out, supplies restocked, and the rooms matched to the listing photos. Hosts also call it a changeover or a flip.
How much should I pay someone to clean my Airbnb?
We quote each rental rather than publish a rate, because two rentals with the same number of bedrooms can be very different jobs. The bed count, the bathrooms, laundry on site, the check-in gap and stairs all move the price. Send the address, bedrooms, bathrooms, beds and your check-out and check-in times through the quote form, and a per-turnover quote comes back, usually the same day, with sales tax on its own line.
Should I charge guests a cleaning fee?
That is your call as the host, and it is set in your listing, not by us. Some hosts pass the turnover cost through as a separate fee; others fold it into the nightly rate so the price guests see is the whole price. Either way the useful number is your actual turnover cost, which is what our quote gives you. We do not advise on platform fee policies, which change; check your hosting platform's current guidance.
Do you handle linens and laundry?
We work from the setup you choose. Sheets and towels can be washed and dried in the rental's own machines during the visit and go straight back on the beds, or used linens can be bagged for the laundry service you already use while the beds are made from your clean stock. Tell us how many sets each bed has and where they are kept. Laundry is not carried off site; our add-ons page explains laundry done at home.
What if guests leave the place in bad shape?
You hear about it first. The walk-through at the start of every turnover is for exactly this: damage, smoke, stains or a sink full of dishes go to you by text before cleaning starts, with photos if you want them for a claim. Extra time to bring the rental back is discussed with you before it starts, and if the next check-in looks tight, you hear that first.
Do you clean long-term rentals between tenants?
Yes. An empty apartment or house between tenants is a move-in and move-out cleaning, done with nothing in the way: inside cabinets, closets and appliances included. Whether a security deposit comes back is between the tenant and the landlord under state law, so we never promise one.