One sheet per turnover, start to lock-up. This free short-term rental host checklist puts 27 tick-box steps on one printable page: kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, living areas, then a restock line list so the caddy never leaves a unit short. Below it you get an 8-row booking log, a 6-row maintenance log, and four opinions on running tighter turnovers. When one page stops being enough, the full 22-page Short-Term Rental Host Ops Binder is linked at the bottom.
How to use this page: print one copy per turnover and clip it inside the unit's supply closet. Tick as you clean, not from the doorway afterward. The booking and maintenance logs live on the back of the same sheet, so the whole turnaround record travels with the unit. Adjust steps to what each unit actually contains.
Generic sheet, your unit. Every unit is different: follow product labels on every chemical, respect your own house rules for linens and setups, and leave anything this sheet does not cover to your own list. This page is record keeping, not business or legal advice.
The turnover checklist
27 steps in four blocks plus a restock line list. Kitchen and bathrooms carry the most steps because that is where guest complaints start. Floors go last in every room. A full sheet usually takes one to two hours for a one-bedroom; write your own time next to the blocks until you know your pace.
Kitchen (7)
☐ Dishes, glasses, and utensils washed or dishwasher run; cabinets checked for left-behinds
☐ Counters, backsplash, and table wiped and dried
☐ Sink scrubbed; faucet and drain polished, no standing water
☐ Shower and tub scrubbed; glass squeegeed, streaks out
☐ Vanity, sink, and faucet cleaned; mirror polished
☐ Drains checked for hair and slow flow
☐ Towels hung fresh: bath, hand, face per your setup
☐ Exhaust fan and vent cover dusted
☐ Floor swept and mopped, behind the toilet included
Bedrooms (7)
☐ Linens stripped; bed made with clean sheets, corners taut
☐ Mattress spot-checked; protectors changed on your own rotation
☐ Pillows and duvet inspected, re-fluffed or replaced per your setup
☐ Nightstands and dressers dusted; drawers left empty
☐ Under-bed line checked with a flashlight
☐ Closet wiped; hangers straightened
☐ Floor vacuumed, edges and corners included
Living areas and exit (6)
☐ Upholstery vacuumed or lint-rolled; cushions straightened
☐ Hard surfaces dusted; remotes, switches, and handles wiped
☐ Windows and mirrors spot-cleaned; sills wiped
☐ All trash and recycling out; liners replaced everywhere
☐ Restock list completed (below); caddy back in the closet
☐ Walk-through with the sheet, lights off, doors locked
Restock line items
Tick a line only when the level matches your own minimum, not when the item merely exists. Anything short goes on the shopping line at the bottom.
☐ Toilet paper, paper towels, tissues
☐ Hand soap, dish soap, dishwasher pods
☐ Trash liners, laundry bag or basket liner
☐ Coffee, tea, sugar, creamer, filters
☐ Clean linens and towels ready in the closet
☐ Shopping line: ______________________
Booking log
Eight rows. Date in, nights, guest count, and one note that a clean sheet cannot show: late checkout agreed, a spill reported, a read on wear and tear. Row 1 is a worked example; overwrite it.
Date
Nights
Guests
Note
Example: Sep 12
3
2
Late checkout 1pm; coffee low
Maintenance log
Six rows. Catching a wobbly handle during a turnover beats hearing about it in a message afterward. One line per finding, however small. Row 1 is a worked example.
Date
Area
Issue
Done
Example: Sep 12
Bath 1
Shower drain slow
Cleared, 10 min
Four opinions on tighter turnovers
These are opinions from working the sheet, not survey data. Take the ones that fit your unit and your helpers.
Photograph every room after the clean. The photos take two minutes and settle disputes about condition, both from guests and from anyone who cleans for you. Date-stamp them and store them with the sheet or in a folder per turnover. After a few dozen, you also get a baseline: you will notice the scuff that was not there last month.
Build one restock caddy per unit, not one per cleaner. A fixed caddy with set levels for paper, soap, coffee, and liners turns the restock list above into a two-minute check instead of a memory test. When a level drops below your minimum, the shopping line gets written the same day, not discovered mid-turnover.
Clean top to bottom, back to front. Dust falls; you walk yourself out the door. Counters before floors, bedroom corners before the entry hall, bathrooms before you mop your way to the exit. The order matters more than speed: redoing a floor you already mopped is the slowest thing in the whole sheet.
Walk the unit once more with the sheet, not with your eyes. The last walk-through is a checklist read, not a glance. Tick each block closed, then check the traps guests notice first: entry, bathroom glass, bed corners, bin liners. Cleanliness is the complaint guests write about most, and the last two minutes of the walk are where most of it gets caught.
What the full binder adds
The 22-page Short-Term Rental Host Ops Binder takes this page's sheets and adds the rest of the loop, all write-in, A4 and US Letter:
Per-turnover checklists for standard and deep cleans, sized for one-bedroom to whole-house units
Booking log and guest notes with checkout readiness fields
Maintenance and inspection logs with date, area, issue, and resolution lines
Restock inventory sheets with per-unit minimum levels and shopping lines
Cleaning-session records, supply reorder tracker, and a monthly summary