Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Time to Regulate Airbnb Cleaners?

Transcript

Time to Regulate Airbnb Cleaners? · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

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  Spotless Stays is back. This monthly podcast series is
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  brought to you by Houseplanet and Rural Stays Yorkshire.
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  My name's James Farley, the founder of House Planet, and our
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  goal is to explain everything you need to know about cleaning
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  and maintenance strategies for short term rentals.
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  Today we'll be talking about regulation in the STR cleaning
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  industry and how Rural Stays founder Steph Flint helps
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  property management businesses to train cleaning staff and
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  streamline their processes. Steph, welcome back to Spotless
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  Stays, a new monthly series. Looking forward to catching up
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  with you monthly. Thank you.
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  How are you? You're well.
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  I am very well, thank you. Yeah.
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  Looking forward to another discussion about cleaning.
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  We managed to have quite a few controversial social media clips
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  last time when we were talking about about pets and everything
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  else before we move forward. Like what was the reaction you
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  got to the series we did before? Oh my gosh, yeah, yeah, it was,
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  it was interesting. It was interesting.
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  Then people, the people started tagging me in post and I'm like,
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  Oh my God, I'm going to be here number one, like worst hate the
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  most hated person and when it comes to when it comes to dogs.
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  But you know what it is for it is at the end of the day,
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  there's always two sides to every story is knowing.
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  It's interesting, I guess, to to hear from hear from everybody's
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  opinions on stuff. Maria.
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  Everybody's got their own opinions and especially with
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  pets, you're going to find people very in favour and people
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  very not in favour. And that's that's just the way
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  of the world. All right.
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  Then for today's conversation then we're going to kind of
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  rerun something that we did at an event that we were at in
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  April when we were talking to you about cleaning and
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  regulation within the industry. So why do you think that STR
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  cleaning needs regulation? Oh gosh, why?
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  There's many, many factors to be fair in this, but I think that
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  ultimately we regardless of short term rental, we are
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  commercial and I think that we need to have accountability at
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  many different levels. And the days of all gene down
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  the road like the farmer's wife and that looking after the
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  holiday properties and bringing around like mop and bucket in,
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  it's just not it's not good enough anymore.
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  Do you know, we've covered many, many holiday properties that you
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  go into and the level of, of the standard of the, the quality of
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  the equipment is not there. The, the, the actual cleaning
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  itself is just substandard. Like really bad when you go in
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  like 6 inches thick of dust with some places dirty old mops that
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  you can smell them like stuffed underneath the, under the stairs
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  and so on. And I just think that, you know,
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  we it's OK having checklists, but if nobody's really being
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  accountable at every step of the way, then are we not just
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  entering a different era where there's just going to be more
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  claims, more lost revenue, right?
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  Damaging people's reputation, businesses reputations and so
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  on. If we don't have good quality
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  cleaners who understand how to clean but understand cross
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  infection, contamination, you know, if you when people are
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  coming in to stay in these homes, they expect bathrooms to
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  be cleaned properly, not to be used the same cloth that then
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  they're going to go off and use in a bloody kitchen or then
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  Chuck The Dirty clothes under the sink ready to use next time.
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  Because we've seen things like that too.
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  And I just think that we need to have accountability if we're
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  charging out and a lot of properties that we look after,
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  they're up to a couple of 1000 lbs for a weekend.
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  If we're charging, charging guests this sort of money, then
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  they have to have a level of cleaning that is taught, right?
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  It's not just acceptable, but of a standard that is, you know,
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  you would feel safe and comfortable in, you wouldn't
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  want, you wouldn't have it in a hospital, you know, so you, you
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  wouldn't have it in a, you know, a swimming baths, you know,
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  health and fitness, right? They've got to be clean.
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  So why are we not making sure that what is happening in our
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  holiday rentals is of a good standard?
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  You'd expect it in a hotel. It's one of the challenges that
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  a lot of hosts and property managers out there, they're
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  looking at their bottom line and they're going for the cheapest
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  option all the time because of course they they want to make a
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  profit at the end of the day. Absolutely.
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  Now, what I do want to turn around and say is that they the
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  most expensive isn't necessarily always the best either, because
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  you can have people that are charging top dollar for their
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  cleaning services and still not being not delivering a really,
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  really good service. So you can have really, really
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  good cleaners who don't understand their numbers and
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  charging way less than than they should be.
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  And so I don't want to sort of like stereotype it to either the
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  cheapest or and only the the most expensive is the best.
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  But yes, that's definitely a factor.
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  It's definitely a factor in if they're, if the owners are are
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  not pricing their properties accordingly to make a profit or
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  there's just not enough money in it.
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  Some of them are, you know, they've, they've got investors
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  to to get the properties, mortgages, etcetera.
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  Then it is down to it is down to a cost in.
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  But we need to educate everybody that maybe be either charging a
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  little bit more per night to be able to afford the better
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  cleaning service or put in a minimum three nights stay.
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  If you can only charge X amount and you know that you're not
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  going to get it within the area that you're at, you have to be
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  able to tweak their numbers to make it, to make it work a bit
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  better. And then hopefully as well, if
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  we can educate the cleaners within the industry, then they
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  know what they're worth is they know how the price better.
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  So then they can, as we educate the cleaners, they can then
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  essentially pass that information and that education
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  on and we all win from it. So.
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  What degree do you think the short term rental space needs to
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  learn from hotels in this area? Well, I think there's the the
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  thing with it's difficult with right hotels, you've got beds
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  and bathrooms, right, Short term rentals, you've got beds,
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  bathrooms, communal areas, kitchens, etcetera, right.
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  So I think that the beauty of hotels is that you have a
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  collection of staff that that work in different departments as
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  well. So I think I've always looked at
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  staff and try to bring them in from the hospitality industry as
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  a whole and my background is it. But I think that if you are
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  looking at how they, they train their, they train their staff
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  and there is, you know, there's, there's procedures and protocols
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  that, that they follow. Then essentially you've got like
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  duty managers and so on that will come around and do all of
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  and do all of them checks to make sure that everything is as
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  it's supposed to be. Obviously within short term
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  rentals, you don't have that right.
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  You, you're literally relying on the integrity and the quality of
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  the company that you're working with to do them checks and make
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  sure that everything is done correctly.
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  So it is a grey area. There isn't no one fits all.
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  But I do think that if we could sort of look towards how hotels
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  manage their housekeepers, then it may.
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  And you know, and bring people in that actually genuinely care
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  about the industry as well. You know, the more that you care
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  about something, the more that you want to do better.
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  If there was some sort of regulation, maybe like an
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  accreditation scheme for cleaners, how do you envisage
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  this would look? If a cleaner out there says
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  right, I want to work in the STR space, is it like a day of
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  training? Is it an online course?
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  Something like that do. You know what it takes months to
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  actually build a good cleaner. So I don't think that if you
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  turn around and go, oh, you can go and sit a 1/2 an hour course
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  or a couple of hours course or sit in front of a webinar or
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  whatever, tick a few boxes. Then after that, then you can,
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  you can booger off and and go, Oh yeah, I totally, totally
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  disagree with that. I think it's something that it
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  would really, really need to be some more along the lines of
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  like an apprenticeship style. You know, you have to, you have
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  to be able to demonstrate on multiple times that you're you
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  can do XY and Z. So I think it's something that'd
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  be quite a a longer process, definitely not a one day piece
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  of training. And I will say that a few years
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  back that I done training for to clean a hot tub, right?
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  And it was sat, I was sat in a room nowhere near a hot tub.
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  So I got some, we got the information fed to was about
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  water balancing, etcetera and gone through it.
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  You know, when we had a brochure and we've gone through and then
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  at the end of it, I was qualified to to clean hot tubs.
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  I didn't know what I'd I'd never been anywhere near 1.
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  So I then went on my own accord and shadowed a cleaning a hot
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  tub company and learn how to clean them on my my own time
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  free of charge, because there was no way that I was going to
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  be able to go and clean a hot tub and know that I'd done it
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  properly. So, you know, these classroom
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  environments are all very well and good, but when you're
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  actually put into practice, like, you know, I didn't learn
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  anything that day apart from the, you know, the academic side
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  of it, but didn't still didn't have a clean hot tub.
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  I ain't got a clue. It took me probably about nine
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  months to learn how to do it properly and be confident enough
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  to be able to offer that service.
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  It is really about raising standards, isn't it across the
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  industry and and how can, if it's better pay and more
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  professional recognition, how can that raise the cleaning
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  industry really in in STRS? Well, at the end of the day,
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  we've got there's a the cleaning industry as a whole, right?
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  It's always been known for something that is is cheap.
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  You know we want to bring new cleaners into this industry in
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  the short term rental there are actually like hospitality
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  professionals. It's not just about the actual
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  cleaning, it's about the delivering the whole service
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  from the moment that somebody lands on your web page to write
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  to purchase your right to stay in your home, right the whole
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  journey and that, and we're part of that journey.
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  We we need to, we need to, however we do it, make it a lot
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  more appealing to cleaners wanted to come in and build a
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  career out of it instead of it looking at it, it's just like,
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  you know, this is, this is a job for now.
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  It's stop gap for me because the industry, it's a multibillion
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  dollar industry. There's a lot of lot of wealthy
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  people that have and there's a lot of people that I know that
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  work within the cleaner, the short term rental that they have
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  incredible businesses and they're incredibly profitable.
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  And there's lots of, there's lots of one man man sole traders
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  that are doing absolutely they're, they're making a lot of
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  money just on their own because of the way that they deliver
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  their service to their guests, to their clients.
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  And obviously they see the repeat bookings on the back of
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  it. There is money in cleaning, no
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  doubt about that. I've seen that since getting
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  involved in STRS. I've thought if I do another
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  business, it's going to be something to do.
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  With. Yeah, exactly.
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  Now you mentioned it before as well, but you also like work
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  with a lot of brands. Obviously you're, you're
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  cleaning for so many short term rentals through your company,
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  but you also work with different brands in the space, consulting,
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  helping to set up their cleaning teams and providing training and
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  that kind of thing. So just kind of tell us like
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  some of the things that you you do for various brands and and
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  how you can help property management businesses out there.
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  Okey dokey. So I've got national reach.
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  I'll travel wherever you want me to travel to.
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  If you are a host and you have just like a couple of holiday
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  properties and you're struggling with your cleaners, you're
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  struggling with your cleaning teams and you don't know how to
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  get the best from them, I will come.
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  I will work alongside yourself and your cleaners and build them
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  up, train them up and give them the tools and the skills for
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  them to, for use to literally manage our own team teams of
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  cleaners. So, yeah, as much as we have our
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  own cleaning business that I'm quite happy to work with hosts,
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  owners, other cleaners to help them build their own, their own
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  teams, help owners to get the, you know, the most return on
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  their investment. Because we have, as you know
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  yourself, there's lots of people that are coming into the
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  industry and they, they may be very good at property sourcing,
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  right? And they find an amazing
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  property, but then they don't know what to do with it
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  afterwards. They've taught, been taught how
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  to list it, right? They, you know, but they just
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  can't get the head round the operations because it is really,
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  really difficult. So it's very, very varied what I
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  do, to be fair, from setting people up with just cleaning
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  instructions and checklists, which is very, very basic,
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  advising them how to use right the best cleaning products,
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  right. And we're working with people's
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  to different costs as well, because everyone's got a
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  different budget, you know, SO11 box just doesn't fit everything,
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  you know, not for everybody. And we've got to be very, very
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  mindful that something that works in Leeds City centre is
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  not going to work in rural North Yorkshire, you know, And we've,
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  we have to, we have to tweak things to, for each individual
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  to get the best from him. So it we do all sorts, we do all
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  sorts. If you need help with your, your
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  cleaning team, you know, monitoring all those kind of
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  things, definitely give Steph a call so where people can contact
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  you. Steph, just let us know your
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  contact details. So, well, there's two websites
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  now now, so we've got rural stays Yorkshire and rural clean
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  Yorkshire. So either one of them drop me
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  lying on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, you know, I'm sure you'll pop all
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  the all the bits and pieces and their Instagram and hopefully
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  we'll get on YouTube soon. Perfect.
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  Yes, We'll put all those details in the show notes so that people
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  can get in touch with you. Steph, Pleasure as always.
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  Thanks for joining us on SPOTLESS DAYS.
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  Thank you. Great to chat to Stephanie Flint
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  there from Rural states, Yorkshire.
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  Get in touch with Steph if you need any support with your
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  cleaning operations. If you're looking for more free
• 16:41
  education, head to Hostplanet Club, the fastest growing
• 16:45
  multimedia platform in the short term rentals industry.
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  We're proud to help hosts and property managers supercharge
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  their businesses by sharing a wealth of free content.
• 16:54
  Head online to sign up for our newsletter, download our suite
• 16:57
  of ebooks and listen to our podcast series.
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  Until next time, happy hosting.