Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / The Truth About STR Cleaning Everyone Gets Wrong

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The Truth About STR Cleaning Everyone Gets Wrong · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

0:00
Oh, so you went with brown sheets and brown towels.
0:02
What does that tell me as a guest, you're trying to hide
0:05
things. Whereas when there is that
0:07
transparency of we've got all white, the guests overwhelmingly
0:11
know this is an open book. You see what you get.
0:14
Just as much as the host may have the concept of that might
0:17
save them, or that might be able to hide things, so do the
0:20
guests. What colour bed sheets do guests
0:23
prefer? Should you buy or hire linen for
0:27
your vacation rental? And why should you never charge
0:30
a separate cleaning fee? Jonathan Wicks from Well and
0:33
Good is the special guest on today's House Planet podcast,
0:36
and he'll be answering all these questions and more on today's
0:39
show. Jonathan, thank you for joining
0:46
us on the Host Planet podcast. 75% of guests are more likely to
0:52
book a short term rental if it's serviced like a hotel.
0:56
Why is this and how as an operator can you achieve this
1:00
standard? Yes.
1:03
Well, thanks for having me, James.
1:04
And you hit it right at the start, which is that guests have
1:08
major preferences in the style of servicing when they stay at a
1:12
vacation rental. The reality, though, is, is that
1:15
those preferences are not often met.
1:17
We want to know as a guest what to expect when we walk into the
1:20
door of the vacation rental. And often times it's just it's a
1:25
crapshoot. We are hoping that maybe the
1:27
linens will be nice. We are hoping that there might
1:29
be toilet paper or soaps. But we don't know that like we
1:33
know a hotel. And so when we started to ask
1:36
these guests about their preferences, everyone kind of
1:40
leaning towards, well, if I just knew that it followed some of
1:42
the same standards that a hotel does, I would have a lot more
1:45
confidence. Confidence as a guest.
1:49
And one of the things when it comes to standardization and
1:52
being consistent is the bed linen, the towels, the mattress.
1:58
How important is it to get this right?
2:01
And how important is it maybe not to go for the different
2:05
colours and the the wacky bed sheets and yellow towels and all
2:09
that kind of thing? Yeah, you know, you think about
2:12
you think about vacation rentals and you often think about the
2:14
uniqueness of that experience. And so there's a lot of
2:17
customization and that's sometimes what people like about
2:20
staying in a a home. It's, it feels, it feels unique,
2:23
one-of-a-kind. And, and I think that's great.
2:26
I think that customization is is very helpful when it sits on top
2:31
of standardization. And I think you have to start
2:34
with standardization in order to have the customized feelings
2:38
feel actually nice. Because again, the uniqueness of
2:42
maybe having a pink themed room and an orange themed room, it's
2:46
really cool, right? The kids love it.
2:47
Or maybe it's unique for this particular place, however, the
2:51
pink sheets that were maybe washed again and again and again
2:55
at the quick wash cycle in the home that loses its luster.
2:58
And so, you know, we encourage folks to continue to keep
3:02
customization. That's awesome, but do it in a
3:04
way that is on top of standardization.
3:06
So maybe it's a pink throw pillow and maybe it's a pink
3:09
runner as opposed to the the basics, the essentials of those
3:14
white sheets of those of those white pillowcases.
3:16
The guest wants to feel standardization first in order
3:20
to enjoy optimization. Okay, real talk now for all you
3:23
hosts out there, you know that moment when you guest messages
3:27
you again with hey, what's the Wi-Fi code?
3:30
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works. Less stress, more bookings,
4:38
sorted with hopefully. I imagine there are some new
4:43
hosts out there. And, and I was in this boat when
4:45
I started and we were thinking, oh, shall we get all white
4:49
towels? Shall we get all white sheets?
4:50
And it was like, Oh no, because if we get a stain on them,
4:54
they're going to be ruined. So let's get grey, let's get
4:57
brown because then it'll look OK.
4:59
Why is that a bad idea? I think the guests know the
5:02
exact same thing. That's why so the guests have
5:06
the same knowledge, which is like, oh, so you went with brown
5:09
sheets and brown towels. What does that tell me as a
5:11
guest, you're trying to hide things.
5:14
Whereas when there is that that again, that transparency of
5:17
we've got all white, we've got that the the guests
5:20
overwhelmingly know this is an open book.
5:23
This is more, hey, well, you could you see what you get?
5:26
And yes, just as much as the host may have the concept of
5:29
that might save them or that might be be able to hide things,
5:32
so do the guests. Absolutely.
5:35
Yeah. My mum used to always say as
5:37
well and when I started out hosting she used to help me
5:40
manage some of the properties and still does from time to
5:42
time. She'd always say to me if you
5:45
buy cheap, you buy twice. And why is this so relevant in
5:50
short term rentals? Yeah, I think that, you know,
5:53
buying, buying cheap or maybe just even going with what you
5:56
have, going with what the standard home already was
5:59
existent is certainly the easier path.
6:02
But this is where you look at there's multiple levels to it.
6:05
Yes, if you go with a with a simple linen and you're quick
6:08
washing it, for instance, in your home, there's going to be a
6:11
higher stain attrition lost. You're not going to be able to
6:14
stain treat as easily, you're not going to have the durability
6:16
of that. But there's also another
6:19
economic aspect to doing things, the quality route, which goes
6:23
back to what the guests are preferring.
6:25
If you let the guest know prior to booking that your home has
6:29
these standards and that your home has has a confidence when
6:33
the guest walks in, well, now you may obtain bookings that you
6:36
wouldn't have normally gotten if you had just gone the, the
6:40
traditional cut the corner go with the cheaper route way.
6:43
And so that was a lot of what the, what the guest survey that
6:46
we saw indicated was not just that it's important for
6:49
operators to to have these practices and to do the right.
6:52
But it's important to tell the guests that you do that prior to
6:56
them booking because that when they're comparing home one
6:59
versus home 2 and they are comparing these homes, that
7:03
needs to be a lean in your direction based off of these of
7:06
these small things that that, you know, you maybe went the
7:09
extra mile and doing offsite laundering or you got the higher
7:11
quality linen. Now all of a sudden, that's not
7:14
just durability and and great experience for your guests,
7:16
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8:36
for further details. If somebody comes to you and
8:38
they're like Jonathan, I'm starting out, I've got my first
8:42
property, I'm not sure what to do with towels and linen and
8:46
cleaning. What are the essential things
8:49
that you advise them to get right on day one?
8:53
On day one, I would, I would definitely look to say, am I
8:57
compensating the laundering professional in and of itself?
9:03
I think so many times we have lumped in the cleaner to be our
9:07
laundry professional and we don't add a line item for that.
9:10
We're just telling them it's part of the service, right?
9:12
And then we wonder why we're not getting the results that we're
9:15
looking for because we never even itemized it.
9:17
And so I, I would start on day one and say, whatever your
9:21
process is going to be for laundering, it needs to be
9:24
documented. It needs to be compensated in
9:26
and of itself. Even if it's your cleaner that
9:28
is doing the, the wash in home, you can tell that cleaner we
9:31
need a full cycle laundry. We need to ensure that, you
9:34
know, this process is done with this style of detergent.
9:37
And in order to achieve that, I'm going to have accountability
9:39
by compensating for that particular line item requiring
9:42
documentation of that. And we just have oftentimes just
9:46
not wanted to know how the sausage is made when it comes to
9:49
just getting that laundry done. And what I would encourage folks
9:52
that are just getting into this is really examine, just like
9:54
you're examining your cleaning operation, examine how is this
9:57
laundry going to be done? I recommend off site laundry.
10:00
We know that we know that guests would feel more comfortable in
10:02
the home if they knew that the laundry was laundered off site.
10:05
But regardless of how you do it, take that part seriously,
10:09
compensate specifically for it. And you'll end up no matter what
10:12
your linen is, no matter what you're you're in home or or out
10:16
of home laundry process is you're going to end up with a
10:18
more consistent result for the guest.
10:20
And again, something that you can, you can have leaning on to
10:23
tell the guest, this is our process.
10:25
This is what we do rather than, well, I think my cleaner just
10:28
takes care of it. And should you buy all the
10:31
linen, all the towels, or should you rent?
10:37
Great question, not an easy answer.
10:40
I think that there is, you know, it really depends on what's
10:42
available in your area. Renting is something that can
10:46
help a lot when you're when you're looking at having a a
10:49
full scale servicer. Well and good is a company that
10:52
supplies the cleaning as well as the linen supply and guest
10:55
essentials. So if that type of an offering
10:58
is available, it sure helps people from having to buy 3 pars
11:01
of linen in the, in the dollar expense and the inventory
11:04
management that comes along with that.
11:06
But I also recognize that that's not always available to every
11:10
operator in different parts of the world.
11:11
And so if you're looking at buying, there's, there's
11:14
certainly no downside in that. If that's the only option you
11:17
can, you can find, you can find ways to make it work.
11:20
Again, going back to whatever that process is, do you know
11:23
what's happening? Do you have certainty of what's
11:25
happening with the linens, with the with the inventory and stain
11:28
management and the laundering specifically?
11:31
And in relation to if you are buying and you're buying the
11:35
towels, you're buying the bed linen, you're buying the, the,
11:38
the kitchen towels, everything, do you recommend white for
11:43
everything? And like what kind of quality
11:46
should you go to in, in relation to like thread counts and stuff
11:49
like that? Do you get that specific?
11:51
We do, you know, again, there's some variance in terms of what
11:54
type of home you have, but I, I look at the, the overall wide
11:58
widespread, what guest expectations are and, and you
12:02
know the one, the one word that is thrown around way too much in
12:05
this industry is the word luxury.
12:08
The reality is luxury is a very small percentage of, let's say,
12:12
hotels. OK, when you think about a
12:14
hotel, you've got your Ritz Carlton's and you've got your
12:16
Four Seasons in the very luxury category, but there are a lot of
12:20
upscale and, and really that you know that that that nice premium
12:23
offering like a Courtyard by Marriott would be a good
12:26
example. And that's going to have premium
12:28
bed linens that are going to have a, you know, probably most
12:31
likely some sort of a cotton blend would be the would be the
12:34
the starting point for that. They're going to have white
12:37
everything you mentioned about the whites, there are sometimes
12:39
where whites are not appropriate.
12:40
I think that an example for that are even the facial facial
12:43
clothes. A lot of people don't want to
12:45
use white facial clothes. They're going to ruin it.
12:47
And so that's an example where we go darker on those kitchen
12:50
towels is another example of that.
12:52
But regardless of where of where you go, I would always lean
12:55
towards the cheapest is not going to be the best.
12:57
And also we could know that that ultimate luxury luxury when
13:01
you're talking about the, you know, the $300 sheet that goes
13:05
on to your bed for a vacation rental, that may not also be the
13:09
need either. Because again, there is a very
13:11
small percentage of truly luxury, luxury homes and
13:15
travelers for that matter, that want to pay for that.
13:18
Whereas the vast majority of folks, they want consistency in,
13:21
in that mid to upper tier of, of an experience.
13:24
And that's, that's where we find if vacation rentals can meet
13:27
that mark, they have, they have now meet or surpassed the
13:31
expectations of the vast majority of individuals.
13:34
And so I, I try to look and say, if I was a Courtyard by
13:36
Marriott, what would I be doing for my linens?
13:38
What am I doing for that aspect of it?
13:40
And that keeps you in a in a line that's going to really help
13:42
the consumer and keep your cost and, and in your, your actual
13:46
expenditures within range. And if you are buying as well,
13:49
how long should decent quality linen last?
13:52
I mean, how often should you be thinking about changing?
13:54
Is it every year? Is it every six months?
13:56
Is it every 18 months? Yeah, 18 months would be your,
14:00
your probably longest lasting linens is what I've found.
14:04
And there's differences there. I mentioned about the facial
14:07
clothes. If you have white facial
14:08
clothes, expect that life expectancy to be way less.
14:11
If you, you know, things like pillowcases are going to go
14:14
quickly. Bath mats are something that
14:16
should be replenished all the time, but they're going to,
14:18
they're going to go bad. They're they're going to have
14:19
more traffic and things like that.
14:21
So it does depend on the specific item when you're
14:24
looking at the flat sheet is probably the one that prime
14:26
maybe has the the longest lasting life.
14:28
Typically we'd see on a very good overall expanded out, you
14:33
know, timeline 18 months is about the longest that we see.
14:37
Now here's the reality though, you're going to get one guest
14:39
and that's going to ruin it on get on on stay #1 And so there
14:42
is there is major variance that comes between what type of guest
14:45
people are having and all that. And I it's hard to paint with a
14:48
broad brush when you're talking about length of linens, but over
14:51
300,000 turnovers that we've done in our company, we
14:54
typically see on the on the shorter end is, you know, a few
14:56
months on the longer end is on that, on that 18, 18 month
14:59
cycle. In terms of learning from
15:02
hotels, kind of bottom line it for us, what are the like key
15:07
things vacation rentals can learn from the hotel industry
15:10
when it comes to this area? Yes.
15:12
So the first thing that I look at is the professional that is
15:16
doing the work has everything they need outside of that
15:21
individual room prior to entering.
15:24
So when you think about that in comparison to vacation rentals,
15:27
vacation rentals, most of the time our cleaning professional
15:30
is walking into that home hoping that the home inside has the
15:34
things that they need to be able to deliver the service.
15:37
That's a mistake. That's something that we can
15:39
learn from the hotels. That part that the that the
15:42
cleaning professional has for the hotel.
15:44
Yes, it's easier to pull off because it's all underneath one
15:46
roof, but that is that is the magic box that allows them to be
15:50
able to complete with efficiency and with quality and with a
15:53
similar result every time. And So what we've tried to do it
15:55
well and good and what I think a lot of people could pattern
15:57
after is encourage the process to mimic that hotel process
16:02
where the professional that is arriving at the home has
16:05
everything they need to be able to complete the service
16:07
regardless. So you're not relying on an
16:08
inventory closet, for instance, to hold toilet paper because
16:12
what if the toilet paper is gone and now all of a sudden you have
16:14
to run to the store? And all the all the mistakes
16:15
that we know we see in our industry happen because we're
16:18
reliant on a variable that is inside of the home when we're
16:21
going to approach the service. Now, another thing that's
16:24
mentioned in your survey is fee visibility.
16:28
And I know from previous experience, like when I first
16:31
started out, I used to charge a cleaning fee, but this was
16:35
because I wanted to show a a really cheap and competitive
16:38
nightly rate. And then that would get people
16:40
in and then you'd have the cleaning fee later.
16:42
But then of course, people absolutely hate that they hate
16:44
to see a cleaning fee added, especially when it might be more
16:48
than the actual nightly rate itself.
16:49
So now I don't charge a cleaning fee anymore.
16:52
Everything's embedded in. Just give us your thoughts on
16:55
cleaning fees and what operators should be aiming for.
16:58
Yeah, I think I was with you James.
17:00
I was early on, you know, you think, okay, the cleaning fee is
17:03
going to, is going to support a lot of the operations and we're
17:06
going to be able to, you know, gain all that.
17:08
And, and then, you know, there was a time in our society that
17:12
we just have become so fee driven and the bait and switch
17:17
feeling of going through the, you know, going through the
17:19
checkout process and all of a sudden realizing, wow, that
17:21
price that I saw originally is nowhere near what I'm actually
17:23
paying. And so it was a couple of years
17:26
ago that well and good started to 1st we started to we, we
17:29
stopped doing major tipping for our cleaning professionals.
17:32
Stop, stop pressuring the guests to give, to give tips.
17:35
They're paying a fair rate to stay at the property.
17:37
That was one example of additional fees, ticky tack kind
17:40
of feeling we pay our professionals of a solid rate,
17:43
right to go do the job that they're that they're completing.
17:45
We don't need to be squeezing more.
17:47
And that same thing applied for the cleaning fee.
17:49
I, I looked at some of, you know, some of the operators
17:52
across the country and they're making 50% margin on a cleaning
17:56
fee. And if you ask the guest where
17:58
that cleaning fee is going, they would think it's going to the
18:00
cleaner, they think it's going to the cleaning professional.
18:02
They don't realize it's going to restocking and laundering and
18:04
then profits and all these other things.
18:06
And so it was a couple years ago that we started to call for the
18:09
end of the cleaning fee. I said it's got to stop.
18:11
And I was thankfully supported by so many of the tech platforms
18:15
who saw the same thing from the consumer.
18:16
They said it's time to embed these into the overall nightly
18:19
rate. And I'm just very thankful for
18:22
where we are now, which is that there's more of a norm that it
18:25
isn't embedded into the overall cost rather than the bait and
18:28
switch that we saw before. It led to unnecessary
18:31
scrutinization of the cleaning professional.
18:33
If you have a cleaning fee that is double in essence, what the
18:36
cleaning is going to require there.
18:38
Now the guest is now seeing that and there are automatically
18:41
thinking negative thoughts towards the cleaner because they
18:43
think the cleaner is just making a ton of money.
18:45
We know that's not the case. But again, what's the guest
18:47
assuming is that it's going to the cleaner.
18:49
And so I'm so happy to see this be also removed, not just from
18:53
the scrutinization, but then the number one thing that people
18:55
would want to then get removed if there's any sort of a
18:57
challenge, there's, there's literally Reddit threads about
19:00
how to get your cleaning fee removed.
19:02
If you just ask this question or you just do this, you can get
19:04
your cleaning removed. That needed to stop because that
19:07
was coming out of the pockets of hard working cleaning
19:09
professionals. Absolutely, Yeah, I think, yeah,
19:12
getting rid of the cleaning fee, yeah, it's a good move.
19:16
The pump soap revolution. This is mentioned again in your
19:21
survey. Tell us about this.
19:24
Yeah. So that was again a theory that
19:26
that we looked at and part of our whole idea of asking guests
19:30
about their preferences in this, in this was to be go go beyond
19:33
theory. We knew that there's there's the
19:34
rumblings of hey, the the individual use soap is not quite
19:37
as as effective and there's a lot of waste there.
19:39
But asking guests directly across multiple markets what
19:43
their preferences were. And we found, we found that 70%
19:47
of guests said that they prefer the the clearly labeled pump
19:51
style soaps rather than the individual use.
19:52
And I mean, I would just say, you know, this is again,
19:55
personal preference combined with macro preferences that
19:58
there's not just a waste. The waste factor is there from
20:01
the plastic and all that. But there is a scarcity mindset
20:05
that comes with these tiny little soaps that just basically
20:08
says it feels like a little bit like a prison, right?
20:11
You're walking in, you get your one towel, you're getting your
20:13
one bar of soap and here you are.
20:14
And that's all you get, right? And I think if we shifted the
20:17
scarcity mindset into an abundance mindset for our guests
20:20
and say, Hey, you're here, make yourself.
20:23
At home, right, there's maybe more than one coffee pod, right?
20:26
Like it's like you're here for you're here for multiple nights.
20:28
And we say you should have a minimum of 10 nights worth of,
20:32
of essentials for your guests. And not saying that all of them
20:35
stayed that long, but the offering should not be this
20:38
scarcity offering in my mind. I think that's, it's not just
20:41
the waste, it's the scarcity mindset that those individual
20:44
soaps produce. And I think when you, when you
20:46
turn that around and say, we've got plenty for you, you know,
20:49
you're welcome in our home, that is a different feeling that that
20:52
produces that like, oh, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm here.
20:54
I don't have to measure out how many rolls of toilet paper, how
20:57
many pieces of toilet paper I'm going to use because they only
20:59
give you 1 roll. That kind of idea.
21:00
I've. Talked quite a lot about kind of
21:03
standardizing the experience from a, from a hosting point of
21:06
view and making sure that everything is consistent.
21:09
How can we apply this to the cleaning industry as well to
21:13
make sure that every cleaner who works on vacation rentals
21:18
understands the industry and knows exactly what they need to
21:20
do? I mean, I've, I've spoken to
21:22
other cleaning companies before and they said, oh, there needs
21:24
to be some kind of training. There needs to be some kind of
21:26
certificate that cleaners get. So they really understand, you
21:29
know, that if they know how to clean a hot tub, for example,
21:33
talk to me about this. You know, how important do you
21:34
think it is to, you know, cleaners to really, really
21:36
understand the industry? Well, I think it is important.
21:40
I think that, you know, most of our cleaning professionals that
21:43
come into vacation rentals come from another type of industry,
21:47
whether they were doing residential cleans maybe or
21:49
hotel cleans. This is a different beast.
21:51
It's a different animal altogether.
21:52
And So what does training look like?
21:55
We are working heavily on it, on that with well and good to say,
21:58
let's, let's try to build the best training of, you know,
22:02
platform and, and not just maybe even for homes that well and
22:04
good services, but for the industry professionals at large.
22:08
I think what a lot of that would look like would be great
22:10
checklists. I am a, I'm a checklist
22:12
aficionado, You know, Justin Ford, he told me about the book,
22:16
the Checklist Manifesto, and that book has changed my life.
22:19
It is it is something that when you give the clear and and
22:23
definite this is what needs to be done on a checklist nature.
22:26
Most people know, you know the basics of how to clean a floor,
22:30
but are they are they giving that in a checklist format?
22:32
This is what to do Boom, boom, boom.
22:34
And I did it and now I have confidence in that.
22:36
Sometimes I think that, you know, it can be a house can be
22:39
very overwhelming when you're talking to a cleaning
22:41
professional. They're going into a large home.
22:43
There's a lot to do and that kind of calibrating of the mind
22:46
through through things like the simplicity of a checklist is
22:49
really helpful. On the other side, checklist can
22:52
be damaging if they're the wrong things that are being ask if
22:55
there may be things that are on there that that cleaners are not
22:59
actually taking responsibility for, but they're saying that
23:01
they are. That's when checklist can go
23:03
negative. And so understanding the right
23:05
type of checklist, we are working on that and we've now
23:07
developed what we believe are guest readiness checklist like
23:10
the things that cleaning professionals need to be looking
23:13
at most and that things that they are in their control, not
23:16
things that are out of their control, but right within their
23:18
control. And I'm excited about the future
23:20
of training through through what we're doing well and good.
23:23
Justin Ford combining with that with Breezeway and, and bringing
23:26
some of these these minds together to say what, how can we
23:29
equip these frontline professionals who have not had
23:32
an ounce of formalized training in our industry?
23:35
And that's that's mind blowing to think about with a large
23:38
segment of, of modern travel. But the reality is that there's
23:41
just not been something as as of this point.
23:44
If there are new hosts out there and they want to get cleaning
23:48
right from day one, what would your top tips be?
23:52
Well, I think we talked about separating the different
23:55
responsibilities of the cleaner. If they're doing the laundry,
23:57
you're telling them this is the cleaning portion of it.
23:59
I'm compensating for this. My, my photo expectations are
24:02
this. Where are you going to be seeing
24:04
those photos? You know, having, having the
24:06
processes for that. There's a lot of good software
24:09
platforms you can use in that sense.
24:11
I would, I love the idea of example photos and those being
24:14
straight from the listing. You know, you, you have told
24:18
your guest what to expect by the listing photo that you put out
24:21
there, right? You, they now think that that
24:23
bedroom is going to look just like that.
24:25
Well, why is it that oftentimes the cleaners have no idea what
24:28
that expectation is supposed to be?
24:29
And so the cleaning professional goes into the home.
24:31
They're trying to make it to the best of their abilities.
24:34
I love good softwares that allow for reference photos.
24:37
If you don't have software, you can go to old school manuals and
24:40
give them the pictures of every room and just say, Hey, mimic
24:42
this and and again that that this is true.
24:45
North aspect of what we're looking to do from an outcome
24:48
perspective is a lot of what can help cleaning professionals.
24:52
We, for those of us that maybe don't involve ourselves in the
24:55
homes every day, I think we get removed from how difficult it is
24:59
to walk into a home that is completely dirty, right, and
25:01
completely used and then in just a few hours have this place
25:04
completely guest ready. And it is a lot to take on, I
25:07
think support from the perspective of what are the
25:10
expectations? What is the outcome going to
25:12
look like when they walk in? They're staring at the ideal
25:15
outcome, not staring at this big mess, but more so looking at
25:18
that outcome. I love that.
25:19
Yeah, this is exactly how it should look like.
25:22
There you go. I think that's setting those
25:24
expectations and being as clear as possible.
25:26
So, so important. Okay, then Jonathan, before we
25:29
get to our questions to finish, tell us more about Well and good
25:33
where you guys are operating and where people can find out more
25:37
information about you. Sure, sure.
25:39
So well and good is a full scale servicing company for vacation
25:42
rentals. We operate in 20 locations here
25:45
in the US and we have those locations listed on our website,
25:48
but really from coast to coast and and that's where we have
25:52
physical locations that supply products.
25:54
So that's think of a depot that the products are there, the
25:57
cleaning professionals come to obtain those products to go to
26:00
each home to do the service. We service about 1100 homes
26:03
across those different locations.
26:05
And then we also license out our process to great property
26:09
managers and great property servicers that are not in our
26:12
coverage area. So we want to provide as much
26:14
support, as much training as possible.
26:16
And so that's for maybe a manager who has their team set
26:19
up, but they need support, they need more, they need more
26:21
resources towards these professionals.
26:23
And so helping on that front as well.
26:26
And anybody who want to know more about it, whether having a
26:29
service up in one of our locations or obtaining some of
26:32
our licensing support, you can go to our website, which is well
26:34
and good dot pro. Fantastic.
26:37
Check it out and we'll put all those details in the show notes.
26:41
Okay, then Jonathan, a few questions to finish.
26:43
This can be any company in the vacation rentals space.
26:47
So what's your favorite brand in the short term rentals industry?
26:50
Apart from well and good of course.
26:52
Apart from Well and Good, my favorite brand in the space.
26:56
Wow, was I was I, if I was, I'm going to, I'm going to delay and
27:02
go for a bit, But I, I think right now this is going to sound
27:05
incredibly trendy, but I love cost ago.
27:08
I I've always loved them. Cost ago is a Scottsdale, a
27:12
company just like ours is based out of.
27:14
And Steve and I have known each other for a while.
27:16
We went to a mastermind 3 years ago where, where he told me a
27:20
line that changed my, my outlook where he said, you know,
27:23
hospitality is in color and service is black and white and,
27:27
and what we provide it well and good is service, right?
27:30
Black and white. We need to have a home that is
27:31
guest ready, period. What that allows for is the is
27:34
the color aspect of hospitality. And that's when that's when and
27:37
somebody's coming in and giving that unique touch and that
27:39
personalization and all that. And, and I think Costco does a
27:42
great job of distinguishing between service and hospitality.
27:47
And if you get service right, you can have hospitality.
27:50
You can't have hospitality without having that black and
27:52
white service be completed at the highest level.
27:54
And so seeing what they're doing with localization and making
27:57
sure that things are staying very much of, you know,
28:00
servicing the boots on the ground professionals, I will
28:03
always beat to that drum and I will always say, yes, we need
28:06
more of that. So I think in today, even though
28:08
it is a trendy answer, I'm gonna go Cos and go.
28:11
Brilliant answer and what a great line there from Steve
28:14
Schwab, of course. I saw him in London recently and
28:17
he really is a guru, isn't he? He is a fountain of knowledge
28:20
about about this industry. When you combine some of the
28:24
nerdy aspects in that, in that with the humanity that you know
28:27
somebody that cares, it's a great combination to have.
28:30
Absolutely. We've already given Steve there
28:34
a shout out, but the next question is an individual in the
28:37
vacation rental space that you'd like to give a shout out to and
28:39
why? I mentioned this earlier, but I
28:43
believe that Justin Ford's work is, is having ripple effects
28:47
that are going to continue. It's actually one of the ways
28:49
that you and I met James was, was with Justin Ford.
28:51
I, I didn't even think about that.
28:52
But you know, this, this whole concept of, of standards and
28:55
standards and having, having our industry grow up a little bit
28:59
when it comes to, you know, the guests and how we're, how we're
29:02
treating this. This is no longer a niche
29:03
portion of travel. It's a big part of, of, of
29:06
literally modern travel. What he's doing with, with
29:09
putting the, the microphone out there towards let's have safety
29:12
processes and let's look, it's literally saving lives.
29:16
And, and you know, he and I recorded a cleaner safety series
29:19
where we helped cleaners be able to go through processes.
29:23
What does safety look like for them and how can they help the
29:25
safety of the guests? And you know, we were doing that
29:28
and I looked, I'm just like, wow, like I, I've, I've done
29:31
work that's helped people and that's that's maybe benefits
29:34
lives. But to look and say we're doing
29:36
work that's actually saving lives is quite something.
29:38
And so I think that I think the work that he's doing is, is
29:41
definitely important. It's being magnified.
29:43
People are realizing it. So again, maybe trendy answer,
29:46
but I think I think Justin work is great.
29:48
Yeah, Justin's doing an unbelievable job.
29:50
Saw his presentation in Kansas City recently and it was very
29:54
engaging, very interesting. And like you say, he he really
29:57
is saving lives with the the knowledge that that he's sharing
30:00
with the industry doing an amazing job.
30:03
Finally then Jonathan, question to finish number one cleaning
30:06
tip for short term rental house and property managers.
30:10
Number one cleaning tip for short term rental hosts and
30:14
managers. All right, cleaning tip that I
30:19
would say would be to this is again, a lot of left field have
30:23
emphasis items on a weekly basis.
30:26
So this is if you maybe have a team, if you are expecting the
30:30
baseboards to be cleaned every single time, if you're expecting
30:33
the you know, the the window sills to be cleaned every time,
30:36
you're setting yourself up for failure because that's not going
30:38
to happen. Whereas if you're also waiting
30:40
for a deep clean to do those items and they're never being
30:43
touched throughout the whole year, they're just building up
30:45
and getting worse and worse, that's also a problem.
30:48
So what we've done well and good is create emphasis items where
30:51
each week, week 1 is walls and baseboards.
30:54
That's a time to hit the walls and baseboards.
30:56
Week 2 is cabinets and drawers. This is a good time to reset
30:59
those. And and then week 3 is windows
31:01
and closets. And so in week 4 is exteriors
31:03
where we emphasize a particular portion of the service on a
31:08
weekly basis. So there's a cadence to that.
31:10
And it's not saying you need to do every baseboard on week 1,
31:12
but that's a time to look for the baseboard that needs some
31:15
love. And that's, that's a time to
31:17
allow the professionals a big of, of respite in terms of not
31:20
having the weight of everything on them every time.
31:23
Yes, of course, all the main surfaces need to be cleaned.
31:25
Yes, of course, all that needs to happen.
31:26
But those deep clean items shouldn't be building up
31:29
throughout the course of the year.
31:31
Rather, we can attack them from the emphasis portion to allow
31:34
when we do the deep clean, a lighter lift and a little bit
31:36
more of emphasis on things that matter more on the deep clean.
31:39
So emphasis items have helped us a lot.
31:41
And that'd be maybe a tip that people could use.
31:44
Fantastic tip. Prevention is cheaper than the
31:46
cure, everybody. Jonathan, it's been a real
31:49
pleasure. Thank you for joining us on Host
31:51
Planet Podcast. Thank you, James.
31:53
Great to chat to Jonathan Wicks there from Well and Good.
31:56
I hope you found those cleaning and guest experience tips
31:59
useful. That's just about it for today's
32:01
episode. Remember, this podcast is
32:03
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That's it for today's episode. Until till next time, happy
32:45
hosting.