Building turnover and cleaner checklists with AI

A turnover checklist is the list a cleaner follows between one guest leaving and the next arriving. AI can produce a first draft quickly. The cleaner and you make it fit your place.

What you need

• A short description of each room: what's in it, what guests tend to leave behind, what gets dirty.
• Your standard for "ready", such as bins out, beds made, towels set out.
• A list of supplies and where they're kept.
• Your cleaner, for ten minutes of honest feedback.

What a checklist is for

A checklist is a job aid for repetitive tasks, and it covers for the way people forget things or lose focus when tired.¹ That's its job. It reminds. It doesn't teach.

The same source says a checklist differs from an instruction manual because it "does not normally provide details on how to perform the steps".¹ So a cleaner's list shouldn't read like a training course.

Steps

1. Describe your place one room at a time. Note the odd bits: the sticky back door, the spare key hook.
2. Ask the tool for a room-by-room list of short action lines. Tell it to use only the rooms and items you named.
3. Ask for a separate section for guest-left items and one for "report to host", such as damage or low supplies.
4. Cut it down. Wikipedia's advice on design: keep to the necessary checks and make the list "as short as reasonably practicable".¹
5. Give it to your cleaner. Ask what's missing, what's pointless and what's out of order.
6. Edit, save and date it.

Involve the cleaner

A checklist is more likely to be accepted "when the user is involved in the development of the checklist".¹ A checklist seen as a way to control people is more likely to be rejected. One seen as saving time and reducing errors is likely to be better accepted.¹

Watch for invented items

Drafts can include things that don't exist in your place. Wikipedia says chatbots can present fabricated information as fact.²

In a checklist that looks like "empty the dishwasher filter" when you have no dishwasher, or "restock the welcome basket" you don't provide. Strike every item that doesn't match your place.

Safety and cleaning products

Don't let the tool decide which chemicals to mix or use, or how to handle sharps, mould or bodily fluids. Follow the label and safety sheet on each product and your local work-safety rules. If you employ a cleaner, your country's employment regulator, such as Fair Work in Australia, covers pay and duties.

A handover note

Alongside the list, ask for a short handover note template with the same blanks every time:

• Guest checked out at: [time]
• Next check-in: [time]
• Anything left behind
• Damage or breakages
• Supplies running low
• Anything the next person should know

The note is a form, not a story. Keep the blanks and fill them in by hand each time. For the message to guests about checkout, see house rules messages.