When it comes to running a vacation rental, “cleaning” is a key factor that can make or break guest satisfaction. Even if your property and location are fantastic, insufficient cleaning can lead to negative reviews, which in turn makes it harder to secure bookings down the line. In this article, we’ll introduce five practical ways to find a cleaning service for your vacation rental. Take a look and find the approach that best fits your property and management style.

1. Reach Out to Multiple Cleaning Companies

▼Key Points
・Search using your property’s location plus keywords like “vacation rental cleaning service”
・Contact 10 to 20 of the top-ranking companies at once
・Share your property details and desired cleaning scope, and request quotes

The number of companies offering vacation rental cleaning services keeps growing every year. Start by compiling a list of candidates through a search, then request quotes from several companies. This lets you compare each company’s track record, typical pricing, and scope of service side by side. It’s a highly effective way to find a company that matches your management style and budget.

2. Hire Your Own In-House Cleaning Staff

▼Key Points
・Recruit part-time staff in the area around your property
・Conduct interviews to gauge motivation and sense of responsibility
・Create a thorough cleaning manual and provide proper training

Hiring your own staff can potentially cost less than going through an outside company, and it also allows you to directly train employees in your own standards and attention to detail. Cleaning skills tend to improve with repeated training, making it easier to maintain consistent quality.

That said, this approach requires strong management capabilities—handling staffing, scheduling, and responding to any issues that arise. If your organizational structure isn’t well established, this option could end up creating more work rather than less, so it’s worth careful consideration.

3. Contact a Vacation Rental Management Company

▼Key Points
• Some companies offer cleaning services beyond dedicated cleaning specialists
• Ask a vacation rental management company if they offer “cleaning only” spot requests
• Many have solid operational know-how and support systems already in place

Vacation rental management companies typically handle everything from guest communication to reservation management, but some also offer plans where you can request cleaning services alone, on a spot basis. Searching and reaching out through this channel—separate from dedicated cleaning companies—can sometimes lead you to reliable cleaning staff through an unexpected route.

[From another blog] Is Vacation Rental Cleaning Really That Hard? Should You Outsource It? Explaining the Benefits and How to Choose a Cleaning Agency

4. Ask an Emergency Response Company

▼Key Points
• Contact an “emergency response company” that handles 24-hour trouble support
• Some of these companies also run a cleaning division
• You may gain support on both trouble-shooting and cleaning fronts

Emergency response companies—the ones that handle late-night guest complaints or sudden equipment breakdowns—sometimes also cover cleaning work as a lesser-known service. If you’re lucky enough to find a company that offers both, you can get comprehensive support in one place, so it’s worth asking.

5. Clean the Property Yourself

▼Key Points
• Cleaning it yourself lets you know exactly what quality looks like, without question
• You can build up real, hands-on know-how about cleaning procedures and things to watch out for
• This experience makes it easier to set standards and create manuals later, if you outsource

Ultimately, “the most reliable way to maintain quality” is to clean the property yourself. This is especially true if you have a strong personal attachment to the property—cleaning it yourself as the owner deepens that connection and helps you catch small details guests might not even notice.

That said, this may not be realistic if you’re busy with your main job or managing multiple properties. Even so, we recommend trying it yourself at least once—the experience and know-how you gain can serve as the foundation for the standards and manuals you’ll use when outsourcing later on.

Summary: How to Find a Cleaning Service

Cleaning is an incredibly important task in vacation rental management—it’s essentially the guest’s first indirect point of contact with your property. Poor cleaning quality leads to more negative reviews, which can seriously impact your booking rate and revenue. Use the five methods below as a reference, choose the approach that best fits your property and management style, and work toward raising your cleaning standards.

1. Get quotes from multiple companies via an internet search
2. Hire your own in-house cleaning staff
3. Contact a vacation rental management company
4. Ask an emergency response company
5. Clean the property yourself

Here at Stay Buddy, we provide vacation rental management services mainly in Osaka, including cleaning services. We can also support properties in other regions, including Tokyo and Okinawa, so please feel free to reach out if you’re interested. Thank you for reading to the end!