Download the full transcript PDF.

 [00:00:00] Sarah: Hello, welcome back for another great week. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are–

[00:00:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:07] Sarah: Kickoff this episode like we do every week, and that is sharing one of you, our amazing listeners or viewers who is using our hashtag on Instagram, #STRShareSunday. We’ll share you here on the podcast, in our newsletter, on the YouTubes. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

[00:00:24] Annette: Today we are sharing @twobaystay, and that is the number two Bay Stay. And Kara, you’re crushing it. And we were just at the same event. I don’t know if we crossed paths, but please do yourself a favor, go check out all of Kara’s property. So Kara is a property owner. She is a property manager, and she’s a realtor.

So I want you to not only go to her Instagram because there is some just amazing wallpaper in multiple places. I need to know about your plants, Kara. She has plants everywhere. I need to know if they’re real or fake. They’re gorgeous. And I just want you to take a look at how she’s designed all of these homes.

 They’re well designed, but they’re not over designed. It just seems very curated. But again, there’s not a lot of things, but you can tell that she’s put so much time and effort in the design. I want to go stay at all of them.

[00:01:23] Sarah: She’s got this coffee station in it. Have you seen this? Oh my gosh, it’s so good. She’s got her cups on the wall hanging from hooks and she’s got– and like you said, it’s cute, it’s simple. She’s got a little bucket list on some writeable paper. It’s just real cute.

[00:01:40] Annette: She has, I love this, a vinyl and cocktail corner. So she has vinyl records as art on the wall, on shelves, and then a little cocktail station, which is genius. And it looks like she’s done a really nice job in a lot of the bedrooms, having some accent law to bring the space to life. Similarly to that vinyl wall, she has a wall of books that are so amazing. It’s a kid-friendly book area. 

And last but not least, I just want to give her a shout out because when you go to her website, please check out her direct booking website. It’s amazing. But the thing that I really love is she has woven in that she is a realtor and she does specialize in short-term rentals. And if you are a host out there looking for more things to do because you’re already not busy enough, take a look at Kara and what she’s doing.

Well done. You are a shining example of an amazing host, co-host, and professional in the real estate world, Kara. So keep up the amazing work. Hopefully, we will head North and visit you someday soon. All right, Sarah, let’s get on to the episode.

[00:02:51] Sarah: Today we’re going to take it back a little bit, get very basic, but before you press that pause or stop button on this episode, hang with us because we just want to make sure that these five basic but essential cleaning tools are available to not your cleaning team, not only your cleaning team, if they’re want to use it, but your guest.

[00:03:15] Annette: Yes. Most importantly, these are there for your guest. Nothing drives me crazier than when I am at a short-term rental and I want to do a little bit of cleaning and there’s no supplies, or heaven forbid, you drop something, you spill something and you really need to help yourself. So let’s get into it.

[00:03:37] Sarah: Did you experience something this past weekend where this– you were inspired for this episode Annette. Did you go to reach for something to clean up and it wasn’t there? 

[00:03:44] Annette: Yes. Multiple times. There was a lot of us. We were all staying there. I wanted to clean up the kitchen. I wanted to wipe down the bathroom. I just wanted to tidy. These are things that I do at my own home and I live alone. And that’s what’s inspired this of like, I know that there are certain things I do on a daily basis with just one person that the compound effect is real when there’s multiple people staying in the house.

There’s maybe multiple baths and showers and restroom breaks and food being cooked. So let your guests help themselves and if the short-term rental is to mirror a home, most people do some cleanup when they’re on their daily basis at their house. So let’s get into these things that– one thing that we’re excited about too is these things are purchased once. Most of them. 

We are not going to ask you to go spend a ton of money. These are investments in your property. And again, your guest is going to be helping you keep your asset clean. But these are things that you can buy once, and besides one of them, you should not have to repurchase for quite some time.

[00:04:48] Sarah: Yes. And we’ve got five here for you. We’re going to go in order. And all of these items will be linked in our show notes, the ones that we use in case you’re interested. So first up is, drum roll, please, microfiber cloths. Why microfiber, Annette? Your mom, you dubbed her microfiber queen. 

[00:05:09] Annette: They’re great multipurpose cleaners. Let’s say you want to wipe down the television screen. You want to wipe down your own computer screen. You want to wipe down a surface that maybe you don’t want to put some cleaner on. They are the catch-all. They can be used over and over again. The guest can clean them. Just a great catch-all, if you will, product that they could use on multiple different surfaces.

And it’s safe. You know that if the guest is going to use it on any of your surfaces, it’s safe. It’s not like maybe if you have porous sponges, something like that. If a guest is going to help themselves, it’s going to be safe on everything in your home.

[00:05:51] Sarah: You can buy a pack of them. You can wash them. You should wash them between stays. And when you do, there are some things you want to be careful of so that you don’t have to keep buying these cloths. You can keep reusing them. The most important thing is to make sure you wash them on their own with other microfiber materials. You want to make sure you’re using a fragrance-free and additive-free detergent. And here’s the kicker, you want to make sure that you do not use fabric softener in the dryer cycle.

[00:06:20] Annette: Yeah. Because it makes the magic of the microfiber unmagical.

[00:06:24] Sarah: Unmagical. And then I looked on Google and if they get full of odors over time, just a little splash of vinegar in that wash cycle will clear that right up for you.

[00:06:33] Annette: That’s number one.

[00:06:33] Sarah: 

Okay. Number two seems obvious, but you’d be surprised because I ran into this issue a few years ago. I had a wonderful short-term rental and I couldn’t believe it. I went you go look for it and there was no multi-purpose cleaner anywhere. And here’s the cool thing. Here’s what we do. We get a concentrate so that all you have to do is add water. And you can get a multipurpose cleaner that is safe, non-toxic.

It doesn’t have to be anything terrible for your home. The safer you get it, the more non-toxic you get it. Your guest won’t use it on a surface that’s not meant for it. But like Annette said, people want to clean up after themselves. And having a multi-purpose cleanup that they can use throughout the home during their stay is really lovely.

[00:07:21] Annette: Yeah. They can use it in the kitchen, if they want to take it to maybe the bathroom sink. A lot of people are traveling, maybe they can use it in their car if they spilled something. Think of all the places. But that’s something super simple and I know that’s– especially if they’re using your kitchen a lot, it’s nice to spray it on the countertops.

[00:07:37] Sarah: Some tips. Use a spray bottle. I’ll try to link to the ones that we like to use, are by Zep. But you can reuse them over and over again. Put a label on them. Make sure guests know exactly what’s in there. And make sure you’re not putting them where kids can get their hands on them. So either behind locked doors or up high.

[00:07:52] Annette: Yeah.

[00:07:53] Sarah: All right. Here’s number three, and this one took some convincing back in the day for one of my clients to allow me to have one of these in the home because she didn’t want a guest to think about cleaning. That was her argument. I don’t want my guest to think about cleaning when they’re here. I’m like, well, unless you’re providing daily cleaning service, the guest is going to want this in their home. Annette

[00:08:12] Annette: Ooh, broom and dust pan.

[00:08:14] Sarah: Yeah.

[00:08:15] Annette: And I do not cook and I do live alone. And I still, every day I am like, how are there things on my floor? And I sweep my own floor very, very often. And I just know if people are cooking in your home, also if a glass breaks, they need to sweep that up.

Or if there is a spill, it can be very clean in a closet on a hook. It can be very tidy. If they don’t want to think about cleaning, they don’t have to. But if they need to or want to, it is there for them. Super inexpensive. Please, put this in your home for them.

[00:08:49] Sarah: Bonus tip. Have one for outside use as well for your guest. Because sometimes guests, I’ve learned over the years, want to clear off the deck or the porch or the walkway. You’re going to have those guests who just enjoy doing that and they want to keep it tidy during their stay.

[00:09:03] Annette: Especially, I know homes, in the woods there’s tons of stuff on the patios all the time. If you’re on the beach, it definitely is something to leave for your guests and super inexpensive.

[00:09:13] Sarah: All right. Here is one that I’ve stood by since the beginning. Some of these I’ve learned over time to include. This one, a vacuum. And you need to have a vacuum in each of your properties and you need to forbid your cleaning team from bringing their own that they’ve used at other properties. They can bring with them bugs and– mostly bugs.

[00:09:38] Annette: I live near multiple short-term rentals and the cleaning teams that clean them, I see them on every turnover day, grab the vacuum out of their car. I’m like, where has that vacuum been?

[00:09:49] Sarah: Yeah.

[00:09:49] Annette: Where has that vacuum been? Have your turnover team clean that. It needs to be cleaned out. It can’t be full of all of the things that our vacuum cleans up. So that is something that they do just need to clean it out each time. But again, your guests will really appreciate that if, again, they just want to clean or if they have had some spill or they need to clean something up. So–

[00:10:11] Sarah: Yes, and we’ve got–

[00:10:11] Annette: Leave that in your property.

[00:10:12] Sarah: We’ve got something that we’ll tag in our show notes. We’ve got two options. One is a higher price option if you want to make an investment. We also have another one that I’ve been using for the past several years, and they’re pretty indestructible and they’re not expensive, and they’re good for pets. And they’ve got some decent attachments too, so we’ll share those with you. And of course, if you’ve got a vacuum or any of these items that you love, let us know and we will share it with the masses too so everyone can learn from you.

[00:10:38] Annette: And last but not least.

[00:10:41] Sarah: Annette, can you share with everyone why this one’s on our list?

[00:10:44] Annette: This one is on the list because I guest had to call me and alert me that there was not one in the home and they were leaving. And so guess what, I’m the one that had to deal with it. So now these are everywhere. And you guys can guess, it was the plunger. It should be–

[00:11:03] Sarah: In the 

[00:11:03] Annette: Yeah. In every bathroom too. I’m just putting myself in that guest’s shoes. How embarrassing to have to call me. They didn’t even have to call me and tell me, but they wanted to give me a heads up like, hey, if you’re coming here to clean, help yourself out. But I feel terrible now that that was something that I forgot. But yeah, you don’t want your guests having to call you. You don’t want to put your guests in an interesting situation with fellow people that they might be vacationing with. Some of them they may know, may not know. That’s why you do want to have multiple, because no one wants to have that.

[00:11:36] Sarah: Hey, can you pass me the plunger? You don’t want to do that.

[00:11:39] Annette: But yeah, and again, let your guest help you because, Sarah, you have a plunging incident. Yeah. And you supplied it.

[00:11:47] Sarah: I did.

[00:11:48] Annette: But maybe it wasn’t as in eyesight and you had a little overflow–

[00:11:53] Sarah: Yes.

[00:11:54] Annette: Issue that ruined a lot of things. 

[00:11:56] Sarah: It did. It ruined some rugs. You had to call in– at that point you have to call in professionals to sanitize the apartment. So put it in sight, and here’s how you can do it if you’re saying, well, I don’t want a guest to see a plunger next to my beautiful toilet, I like the ones where the plunger can sit inside of, they’re usually white and you put them down, and the white encasement covers the plunger. 

And then you can wash the plunger outside with the spigot or whatever you want to keep it in good shape, but that way it stays. And then I also offer this bonus tip too. We like to offer toilet bowl cleaners as well, for the guests, especially if you offer longer stays. A guest might want to clean the toilet. Especially, like Annette said, that they’re sharing it with other people, maybe acquaintances, friends, who knows. But give them that opportunity to do that so they can keep the toilet bowl clean as well.

[00:12:47] Annette: And obviously these five things, we’re just going to go through them really quick. One more time. The microfiber towels, multipurpose spray, a broom and a dust pan, a vacuum, and a plunger. We understand there are many other things that we just assume you’re leaving for your guests– soaps, hand soaps, body soaps.

[00:13:06] Sarah: Future podcast episodes.

[00:13:07] Annette: Yeah. Your dishwashing pods have detergent if you have a washer and dryer. Those are things that we just made some assumptions about that we assume that you have those in your property, but these are five sneaky ones that, that we find a lot of aren’t in properties and really will help your guest out.

And these can be very organized, very neat. And again, they can be out of sight of the guest if they don’t ever need to deal with them. And if you– the plunger, if you want to put it wherever, just so it’s there on the property so people can help themselves. But do these things today. It’ll help that guest. And again, maybe someone hasn’t mentioned this to you, but just because they haven’t mentioned it doesn’t mean that they didn’t think about it or want or need it during their stay.

[00:13:48] Sarah: As always, learn from our mistakes. With that, my name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:13:52] Annette: I’m Annette Grant, and together we are–

[00:13:54] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:13:55] Sarah: We’ll talk to you next time.