Preparing a villa for guests in the Samui high season: a host timeline

The high season on Koh Samui runs from roughly late December to April and peaks around February, and July and August are busy too. It comes straight after the rainy season, which lasts roughly from October to December, so many villas greet their first guests of the season with damp cupboards, mould creeping onto the silicone and a terrace full of leaves.

Hosts who have a smooth season tend to do the same things in the same order: repairs first, then a deep clean, then linen and supplies, then a fixed turnover routine. Below is that timeline, stage by stage, with what to do yourself and what to hand over.

Walk through the villa with a notebook, or ask someone to do it for you and send photos. Look for anything that needs a technician rather than a cleaner, because those are the jobs that are hard to book in December.

• Air conditioning. Units that barely ran during the wet season often smell musty or drip. Book a service now.
• Leaks and damp. Check ceilings, window frames and the walls behind wardrobes after heavy rain. Mould caused by a leak will keep coming back, however well it is cleaned, until the leak is fixed.
• Pool and garden. Agree the season's schedule with your pool and garden contractors.
• Anything broken or worn out. Batteries in the safe, remote controls, kettles, hair dryers, mosquito screens, outdoor shower fittings, sun loungers.
• Insects. If you see termite trails or a nest, call a pest control company. Cleaning removes crumbs and trails, but it does not deal with a colony.

Put everything on one list. The same list will later serve as your notes for the cleaner.

This is the step that is easiest to leave too late. Cleaning teams are at their busiest around New Year and on Saturdays throughout the season.

1. Share your booking calendar with whoever does your turnovers, or send the check-out and check-in times for every stay already booked.
2. Settle the key handover. When nobody is at the villa, a key safe or a door code that changes with each booking works best. Write the arrangement down once.
3. Agree the details of each turnover: where the clean linen is kept, how many sets the villa has and what goes on the restocking list. With us, making up the beds with your linen and restocking from your supplies are part of every turnover, with no extra fee.
4. Agree how damage and lost items are reported, with photos, so you can make a claim with the platform in time.

A last-minute, same-day clean is possible if we have a free slot, at 20% more because we rearrange the day's schedule, but you cannot plan a season around it.

Book a deep clean once the repairs are finished, for late November or early December: after the heaviest rains and before the high season starts in late December. Clean before the repairs and you end up cleaning twice. Showers are still possible, so choose a dry day and air the house well.

On Samui, a pre-season deep clean typically deals with:

• limescale on shower glass, taps and tiles after months of hard water;
• grout and silicone where surface mould took hold during the rains;
• the inside of kitchen cabinets and wardrobes, which smell damp after weeks shut;
• the tops of wardrobes, fans and light fittings;
• sliding door tracks full of sand and red dust;
• terrace furniture, which gets washed down.

The inside of the fridge and oven are included too, which matters if they have been switched off for months. A deep clean costs 5,000 ฿ for a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom villa and 6,000 ฿ for a 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom villa. Send curtains, cushion covers and mattress protectors to the laundry at the same time, so the whole house starts the season fresh.

If you are not sure whether your villa needs a deep clean or just a thorough regular one, our guide to deep vs regular cleaning has a simple test.

Linen and towels

Plan on two or three full sets of linen per bed and two or three sets of towels per guest: one in use, one clean in the cupboard and one at the laundry. With same-day check-outs and check-ins, one set per bed is not enough, because linen dries slowly in humid weather. Replace anything grey, stained or thin now. Guests do photograph towels.

Supplies list

Write a fixed list of what must always be in the villa, and note where the spare stock is kept: toilet paper, hand soap, shower gel and shampoo, dishwasher tablets, sponges, bin bags, coffee, tea, sugar, drinking water, mosquito repellent and a few spare light bulbs. With a written list, anyone can restock without having to ask you.

Guest information

Update the house guide: the Wi-Fi details, how the AC and water heater work, where the fuse box is, which days the rubbish is collected, what to do with wet towels and who to call about the pool. The fewer questions guests have during their stay, the fewer surprises at the turnover.

The first turnover of the season doubles as a final check. The cleaner works through the turnover checklist, makes the beds, puts out towels, reports anything that looks broken or does not work, and sends a photo report of every room. You see the villa on your phone before the guests do, with enough time left to fix anything.

Our full room-by-room list is in the Airbnb turnover checklist.

• A turnover clean after every stay, to the same checklist, with photos before check-in.
• Extra care during long stays. A guest who stays three weeks lives in the villa as if it were home. A regular mid-stay clean, if the guest agrees, stops limescale building up in the bathrooms.
• Watch the weak points: shower silicone, the fridge seal, sliding door tracks and beach sand in the beds.
• A deep clean in a quiet week, if the season is long and the villa is fully booked.

Hosts with 8 or more cleans a month get a discount of 10% to 15%, and a monthly invoice on request. See cleaning for property managers.

A turnover clean starts at 1,000 ฿, and the price depends on the type of property and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. For a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom villa it is 2,400 ฿.

The price is the same in all areas of the island, with no travel fee. A villa with 5 or more bedrooms is priced from photos. Work out the price for your villa:

Every turnover follows a written checklist and your notes on the villa. Each clean is checked against the checklist and the photos, and you get a photo report on WhatsApp before check-in. If we missed something on the checklist, tell us within 24 hours and we will come back and put it right free of charge. You deal with us in English, Russian or Thai, and we brief the cleaner in a language they understand. You pay once you have accepted the work, in cash or by bank transfer, and contract clients can ask for a monthly invoice. Read more about how we control quality.