Airbnb turnover cleaning checklist for Koh Samui villas

A turnover is not a quick tidy. It resets the whole villa to the same standard for every guest. On Koh Samui that means a fixed checklist for every room, two or three sets of linen per bed so a clean set is always ready, a restocking list agreed with the host, a clear way of reporting damage and lost items, and photos of every room before check-in.

If any of these is missing, the result starts to depend on who turned up that day and how much time they had, and that is exactly where bad reviews come from. The checklist below is the one we follow on our Airbnb turnover cleans. Use it with your own team, or hand the whole job to us.

Most turnover problems start before anyone picks up a cloth. Agree these points once, in writing, and you will not have to discuss them every day.

Print this or save it on your phone. Every item is checked on every turnover, not only when it looks dirty.

On the pool deck we tidy loungers and towels and sweep away sand and leaves. Pool water and equipment are for your pool service.

The most common reason a turnover runs late is not the cleaning. It is wet linen. In the rainy season, sheets and towels often will not dry on the line in a day, and with only one set per bed there is no margin for error.

• Keep two or three sets per bed. One on the bed, one clean in the cupboard, and one at the laundry or drying. Do the same for towels, with a few spare pool towels.
• Count after every stay. Missing or stained items go into the photo report, so you can replace them before the next booking.
• Keep clean linen dry. In a humid villa, sheets left in a closed cupboard soon smell musty. Airtight storage boxes, or a cupboard that gets aired regularly, keep them fresh.

With us, making up the beds with your clean linen is part of every turnover, with no per-bed fee. The washing stays with you or your laundry, so the number of clean sets in the villa is what keeps the schedule on time.

We restock from your list, not from guesswork. A typical list for a Samui villa looks like this:

• Toilet paper, a full roll in every bathroom plus spares
• Hand soap, shower gel, shampoo
• Dish soap, sponges, dishwasher tablets
• Bin bags in every size you use
• Drinking water bottles
• Coffee, tea, sugar
• Kitchen roll and tissues
• Mosquito repellent
• Basic cooking items if you offer them: salt, pepper, oil

Keep the spare stock in one locked cupboard and tell us where it is. Restocking from these supplies is part of every turnover, with no extra fee. When something runs low, we note it in the report so you can buy more before it runs out.

Guests leave things behind, and sometimes they break things. What matters is that you find out before the next guest arrives, not from their complaint.

• Damage: broken glasses, stains on linen or sofas, chipped tiles, missing items. We photograph it and send it to you straight away, so you can raise it with the platform before its claim deadline passes.
• Lost items: phones, chargers, jewellery, passports. We photograph the item, leave it where you tell us and let you know. You decide how it gets back to the guest.
• Jobs for a repair person: a leaking tap, a dead AC remote, a broken lock. We report them with a photo, and your maintenance contact takes it from there.

On turnovers, our photo report reaches you before the guests check in. It shows the villa was ready, and it lets you keep an eye on the property from abroad. As a host, you should expect at least:

• Every bedroom with the bed made
• Every bathroom: toilet, shower and sink
• The kitchen: countertops, sink and hob
• The living room
• The terrace and the pool deck area
• Any issue found: damage, stains, low stock, lost items

Every clean is checked against the checklist and the photos. If we missed something on the checklist, tell us within 24 hours and we will come back and put it right free of charge. Our quality control page explains how this works.

Same-day turnovers are routine for busy villas, but the island adds a few things to plan for.

• Traffic. The ring road slows down at busy times, especially around Chaweng and Lamai, so getting between villas takes longer than the map suggests.
• Hills. Many pool villas sit on steep hills or at the end of dirt roads. We do not charge extra for this, but it adds travel time.
• Rain. A heavy downpour can keep scooters off the road for a while and makes it impossible to dry towels outdoors. In the rainy season, allow extra time.
• Size of the villa. Large villas take longer. Send the check-out and check-in times early so we can fit the clean into the window.

Give us the check-out and check-in times when you book. If you need us the same day, we can do a same-day clean for 20% more, because we rearrange the day's schedule around it.

A generic checklist written for a city flat misses what a tropical villa throws at you.

• Sand. It comes in on feet and beach bags and ends up in beds, showers and sliding door tracks. Door tracks and shower drains get checked every time.
• Gecko droppings. Small and dark, they turn up on window sills, behind curtains, on top of wardrobes and on terrace walls. Guests notice them.
• Ants near food. A few crumbs or a sticky cup on the counter will bring ants within hours. We wipe every surface near food and throw out anything guests have left behind.
• Musty smell. A villa shut up between bookings can smell of damp. We air it while we clean and check wardrobes and bathrooms for moisture.
• Mould spots in showers. Silicone and grout darken quickly in a humid climate. Catching it early on a turnover is far easier than removing it later.
• Salt on glass. Near the sea, sliding doors and terrace glass pick up a salt film that still looks dirty after a wipe with plain water.

Turnover cleaning starts from 1,000 ฿ per visit. The price depends on the type of property and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Making up the beds with your clean linen and restocking from your supplies are included. A villa with 5 or more bedrooms is priced from photos.

The price is the same in all areas of the island, with no travel fee. You pay in cash or by bank transfer once you have accepted the work, with no prepayment. The full price list and the calculator are on the prices page.

1. Send us the basics: where the villa is, how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has, how you hand over keys, and where linen and supplies are kept.
2. Share your calendar or booking times. We plan each turnover around check-out and check-in.
3. Agree the restocking list, and how many clean sets of linen the villa keeps.
4. First turnover and photo report. From then on, every turnover follows the same checklist.

For a single villa, see Airbnb turnover cleaning. If you manage several properties, we can work on a contract with a monthly invoice on request, and we offer a volume discount from 8 cleans a month. See our page for property managers.