I am intrigued by folks who just think it takes a couple of hours to do a changeover. I used to run a holiday cottage until Covid finished it. It was large, 4 bedroomed, slept 8, with a big garden, and took me a full 6 hours to clean properly.
The only thing I asked the guests to do was strip the beds and put old bedding in bath - and made it clear that that was voluntary. Most didn’t. So first thing I went round and put bleach down each wc, and a spray round the shower, bath and basins and left them to soak. Stripped all beds and remade them, and reconfigured the rooms for the new guests requests (pulled trundle bed out, set up cot, split zip link beds into singles, all as requested etc). Whilst in the bedrooms, checked each drawer was left empty (you’d be surprised how often something was left) and wardrobes ditto. Vacuumed and dusted each room (pulled furniture out if needed), wiped all skirting boards, swept edges, and cleaned each window and mirror, wiped the tops of frames, checked all lightbulbs and remotes still worked. Replaced any that didn’t. Antibacced all remote controls and light switches (and this was pre Covid).Then cleaned the upstairs bathrooms, collected and replaced all towels and face cloths, washed kitchen floor, wiped round shower and cleaned headset and shower trap. Then cleaned landing and stairs ditto. Then started downstairs with bedroom and bathroom ditto, and then did living room. Pulled out all sofa cushions and vacuumed (often found food/ toys down under the seat cushions). Dusted and swept, dusted lampshades all round. Checked all toys and games had been put back properly. Checked everything in dining room, and if tablecloths in sideboard had been used. Wiped all place mats (often left dirty). Then into kitchen. Cleaned oven (and especially grill). Emptied toaster of all crumbs. Wiped fridge and freezer (often food left in freezer so emptied it). Emptied kettle and checked flex. Emptied dishwasher Checked all pans, crockery and cutlery left clean. Left clean oven gloves and tea towels. Left clean hand towel in downstairs toilet and 2 new toilet rolls in each toilet, plus complimentary shower/bath/ shampoo products each bathroom. Filled complimentary basket in kitchen (tea, coffee, squash, biscuits, milk of their choice in fridge), ditto with washing machine and tumble dryer, left out cleaning products, washing up liquid, a couple of washing up and laundry tabs, emptied bins and put fresh liners in, loaded up all dirty laundry in the car - and then started on the garden!
Most guests left it beautifully, but not all, and I still have nightmares about the one that left the sink full of unwashed dishes, burnt food all over the cooker, sticky rock ground in through the house ( I watched from outside the kitchen door as the children doing this as I waited for them to leave - 40 minutes late), food strewn everywhere, keys to the balcony gone (the kids had taken them) furniture moved all round, food all over every table, garden cushions under bushes. Their parting shot was ‘ we’ve stripped the beds for you and piled everything in the bath as requested’. Great - but don’t you normally remove the duvets from the covers first? And why then turn the taps on? All soaking wet, (fortunately kept a lot of spares) , whilst as for the beautiful white towels!!! The next group were no better either. Covid - and no income - saw me out.