Introduction To Airbnb Turnovers
Arguably the most stressful part of hosting on Airbnb. If a guest complains about the cleanliness of your Airbnb, there’s no reasoning with them. “Oh, just use some paper towels to wipe away the mold in the refrigerator, it’s fine. My cleaner is busy.”
No. Action must be taken. And, immediately. I’ve had a guest find a single hair on the toilet seat and questioning the cleanliness of the home including the dishes in the kitchen, the pillowcases on the bed, and the carpet in the living room.
Enter, Turno and my Turno review and tutorial. Post questions as a comment.
What Is Turno?
Turno (formerly TurnoverBnb) is an online platform that allows hosts to automatically schedule and manage property turnovers including finding cleaners. It is available as a mobile application and website.
It allows hosts to seamlessly pay for the cleaners in the app via autopay and automatically schedule future cleaning projects by syncing the calendar. Hosts can sync their calendar with Airbnb and other vacation rentals apps such as VRBO (HomeAway) and iCal to schedule future cleaning projects based on bookings.
It is designed to make vacation rental hosting easier and a lot more enjoyable. Hosts, property rental managers, and cleaners can download the app to their android or iPhone. Or, you can signup directly on Turno’s website.
Turno free software allows you to connect with your existing Airbnb calendars to automatically schedule your cleaners, after a very short set-up process.
How To Use Turno
A recent Elevate Host purchaser and user of Turno to manage their cleanings allowed me full access into his account for this TurnoverBnb review.
Using SMS text messaging and email, scheduling of cleaners becomes completely hands-off for the host. The mobile and web app also offer the option to pay your cleaners via credit card.
Signup
Sign up is free, easy, and fast. Once completed you get a verification email in your inbox. After verifying yourself, you are good to go in under 3 minutes.
The first thing you’ll want to do is enter your property’s information. Your property is what you need to have in order to be able to schedule cleaning projects.
Add your properties
On the following page, you will:
- Enter your property’s name
- Check-out and check-in times
- Enter a description that is visible to cleaners – limited to 200 characters
- Enter its number of bedrooms and bathrooms and its approximate size
Once added, your properties will be located under the ‘Properties’ tab. From the property tab you can view the primary cleaners and backup cleaners you would have chosen for each of your properties or property and an update option is available if necessary.
Sync your rental calendar
Here, you can enter your property’s rental calendar from your rental platform. If you need help finding your calendar’s link (URL), you can click on the “Help me find my calendar URL link on the right (highlighted in red in the image below) – click on the integration platform field.
On Airbnb, you can find your calendar URL by first clicking on “Availability”.
Then scroll down to “Sync calendars” and click “Export Calendar”.
Selecting Cleaners
If you are already connected with one or more cleaners, the next step will prompt you to choose which cleaners to enable/disable on this property. Cleaners that are enabled to this property will be able to see its published cleaning projects.
If you need to find new cleaners in the future through the TurnoverBnb cleaner marketplace, your current or prior cleaners will not be notified of this action.
Enter your property address
The last step will prompt you to enter your property’s address. Simply start typing the property address in the ‘street address’ field and hit one of the Google Autocomplete suggestions, and the other fields will be automatically filled out, like in the example below.
Enter your property’s unit number or any additional identification in the ‘Unit #’ field when appropriate.
Once you’re done, hit the ‘save’ button located in the bottom right and your property will be created.
Once you have a property in your account, you can start scheduling cleaning projects with your cleaners.
If you are not connected with any cleaners, you can either invite some cleaners to connect with them or open a search to find new cleaners.
The Dashboard
The dashboard displays two tabs- one for projects scheduled for today and the other for projects assigned for the whole week.
It is also where the In-app messaging is located so you can message cleaners, guests or co-hosts within the app.
Create a checklist for efficient management:
The checklists you create here may include your own standard cleaning checklist. You can also create a checklist for every property you entered inside the TurnoverBnB app. These checklists will help ensure you’re using the right products and equipment in cleaning your property. The checklist may also include specific areas and instructions for the cleaning.
A neat feature of Turno is the Popular Checklist to serve as a guide. It contains standard templates for your reference. You can also purchase the OptimizeMyBnb.com cleaning team checklist and guide.
Remember, your cleaners are the experts and you should treat them as such. There’s no need to add every little detail, but the unique cleaning items should always be addressed in your checklists.
Turno Review – Special Features
Auto Scheduling
The auto-scheduling function makes guest bookings and cleaning confirmations easy and automated.
Auto Payments
This feature is optional as there is the option of manual payments. Automated payments are enabled via Stripe so it is a secure and established company.
The cleaner indicates job completion within the app. And as soon as the complete button is clicked, payment follows instantaneously.
Guest Checkout Reviews
The Guest Checkout functionality is designed to help you avoid bad reviews and to offer your cleaners ample time to prepare for the next assignment. This feature allows you to better serve your guests, which can invariably translate to positive Airbnb reviews. Also, it enables you to determine when your property is vacant and due for a cleaning.
What Is The Cost?
Given the benefits, Turnoverbnb pricing is extremely affordable. If you own just a property, I recommend you use the free version of the app as you would have access to all available features. The paid version offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
While any property listed after the first is charged at $6 per month paid annually. Their billing cycle is flexible. You can either opt for monthly billing at $8 per month. If you have more than 5 properties, reach out to the TurnoverBnb team for flexible pricing.
The major difference between the free version and the paid version of the application is the option to maintain a working relationship with the same cleaners instead of having to choose a new cleaner every time your property needs cleaning.
This allows for the trust aspect to be built upon, thus ensuring a property manager knows they have a reliable cleaner checking into their property, who can do the job, every time.
The pricing is not super clear as there is an additional 3.9% charge on any payments made through the platform plus an additional 5% if you find a cleaner through the app.
Turno Review – What I like
The Marketplace
In the event no one is available for your turnover, you will be notified and given the option to find a cleaner in your area from the marketplace. When TurnoverBnb finds a cleaner for you, they charge a 5% commission based on the cleaning price you set.
The sign-up process
Signing up on the Turno Mobile and Web App is very easy.
Automatic schedule of Cleaners
Hosts can automatically schedule their existing cleaners with the help of the calendar sync function. The Mobile and Web platform supports integrations with many rental calendars including: Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, Booking.com, iCal, Google, and more. Cleaners get notifications, new bookings, alterations, and cancellations directly in their phones via text messages and E-mails.
Flexibility of Choice
It is more relaxing to know that you can choose your cleaners as a host. The App does not impose any cleaner on a host. The App’s Marketplace can be used to find cleaners in your area.
However, hosts are still allowed to pick whatever cleaner they desire. Finding new cleaning professionals in your area in Turno marketplace is safe. These cleaners have been reviewed by other hosts, and you can also review them and rate their jobs.
Refund Policy in Cases of Not Showing Up
If a cleaner does not show up or finish a job, the host can void his or her payment. In cases where the host may not find the void option, a manual refund is made. This is extremely rare.
Payments Structures
The host can pay cleaners via credit card, which allows them to easily track payments. But, a manual payment is optional.
Turno Review – What I Don’t Like
Cleaner Selection
You cannot browse available cleaners. The cleaner must apply to your job. This is not the best way to do it. Essentially we’re asking for the worst cleaners (those with no customers) to apply to our jobs. I’d much rather seek out the best cleaner.
Pricing Fees
The pricing structure isn’t super clear in how it’s broken out per cleaning. Ultimately, the value is there and the fees are minimal so this is a minor concern.
User-Experience
When using the mobile app, you will be redirected to the website. The website has more functionality and should be the default for using this service. The mobile app is useful for on-the-go working.
Limited Chat History
The message history including photos between cleaner and host seems to disappear too soon.
Turno versus Get Properly?
I’ve been wanting to write this Turno review for a long time! Turno is my preferred app based on testing and feedback from active users.
The customer support is more rapid and they make you feel like a VIP when issues arise (which is rare). Although the fees aren’t super straight forward, Get Properly does not list any pricing on their homepage. Turno website and mobile app are faster creating a better user experience for both the host and the cleaner.
What has been your experience with either app? Share with me in the comment section of this TurnoverBnb review.
Turno FAQ Host and Cleaners
1. What do I do in cases of no-shows or unfinished work?
Worried about a cleaner not showing up or not completing a job? Well, if a cleaner doesn’t show up or doesn’t clean well for a project they were assigned, you can void the payment on your history page. The void can be marked up to five days after the project was marked as completed if that was the last payment made for that property.
2. How do I remove or cancel a cleaner from a project?
You can leave them a review (go to Team > Cleaners and click the stars next to their name). If you don’t want to work with that cleaner anymore, you can disconnect them from your account on that page too. Make sure you leave them a review first since disconnecting from the cleaner will also block them. They won’t be notified of new searches you open in their area.
If you want, you can also report the cleaner by letting Turnoverbnb know. This would mean that the reported cleaner can also be banned from the marketplace. This is solely to prevent them from causing trouble to other hosts.
3. Are cleaners manually or automatically paid?
Cleaners you meet through Turno have to be paid automatically. Cleaners who you already work with and are invited to link to your account can be paid either manually or automatically – it’s your choice.
Also, even though marketplace cleaners are always paid automatically for projects they complete, there is still an option to pay them manually. In case you need to pay them anything extra or send them money for errands, you can send them manual payments through this page.
4. My cleaner says they’re not getting paid, but I sent them a manual payment/automatic payments are on, what can I do?
Usually, the payments take 2-5 business days to arrive directly in the cleaner’s bank account. On occasion, the first payment may take a day or two longer as the application payments processor, Stripe, verifies their bank account. Please let your cleaner know that they can take a look at their Payouts page. Cleaners can also be encouraged to log on to their Stripe accounts (www.stripe.com). It allows them to see exactly when they will get paid.
If everything seems to be fine but you are still not getting paid, take a look at your Payment History page – it’s possible there is something wrong with your credit card. In which case your payments’ status will show as “Error (Declined)” and you can reach out to the customer service agents and request for help. The issue will be figured out and addressed.
Getting Started As A Cleaner
As an Airbnb host, I think it’s a good idea to know how things work from the cleaner’s side.
Setting up their account is intuitive and is typically accomplished in under 1 minute.
If they have received an invite to join Turno via SMS (text message) or email, follow the link to sign up and they will automatically be connected to your account. As soon as connected, they can see all the cleaning schedules posted by you. If they are not automatically connected, they can invite you via email and you will be connected automatically.
Once they have signed up and set up their account, they can download the mobile app, Turno Cleaners, available on the App Store (for iPhones) and Google Play (for Android devices), to easily view project details, accept/reject projects, and get instant notifications on their smartphone.
If you invite your cleaner to join Turno, now they’re in the marketplace and can be contacted by other Airbnb hosts.
Frequently Asked Questions – Cleaner
- I completed a job but haven’t been paid yet why?
The payment processor stripe takes about 2-5 business days to deposit directly into your bank account. On occasion, the first payment may take a day or two longer as it verifies your bank account.
If you log in to your stripe account (www.stripe.com) and go to the Balance page, you can see Stripe’s estimate for when your payments will arrive in your bank account.
- – More than 5 working days, still no pay.
There may be an issue with your Stripe account. Log in to your account and make sure you are enabled to receive payments. If your account is deactivated for receiving payments, contact Stripe and they can help you sort it out.
- – My Stripe account is all set and I still get nothing even after I hit complete on my projects.
This is important when automatic payments are switched on. Please talk to your customer and make sure they have set your price on their properties
Turno Review from a Host
I asked one user and Elevate Host purchase some questions related to their experiences with Turno.
Tim: Regarding the Turno app, I just reviewed it and it looks amazing! It works well. Overall I give it about a. B+.
Me: What is it missing? Anything? Any complaints?
Tim: The app is a little wonky. It won’t save a big past history of chat with the cleaners. Not sure how much of the history it saves, but I have noticed past conversations disappear. Another issue is finding more cleaners. The price really varies. I have cleaners submit bids for 90 and also for 180 for the same property. The other funny issue is there is some drama between cleaners. They start asking to be the only cleaner of the property or tell you what an awful job the past cleaner did. It’s almost humorous… I have noticed that with both my properties in different areas.
Me: How much is their commission?
Tim: I think it’s 5% of the cleaning fee for cleaners I meet on the platform…. They could do a better job of making a little clearer. However, the value is there so I just happily pay away.
Me: Can the cleaners send you photos (I didn’t see any)?
Tim: Yes. They can send photos and as best I can tell, are required to complete the checklist before payment is issued. The photos are archived so if a guest says “the place looks awful I want a free stay”, you can say “here are the photos.”
Me: Do they have to click off the whole checklist to finish the job?
Tim: Not sure…I have not found a way to actually verify they click each item.
Me: Does it tell you when the cleaner arrives and leaves?
Tim: I think so…but I believe it is dependent on the cleaner launching the app and clicking “I’m cleaning” and then “I’m done” type buttons.
Turno Review – Conclusion
I’ve been waiting for a cleaning management application for a long time. Turno is it. They’be been around for awhile, but have slowly made improvements to be the best Airbnb turnover automation tool available.
I’ve gone through the app myself and find it very easy to use and navigate. I also like the way it seamlessly integrates all the services needed by a host in the vacation rental property management all under one platform.
I love the features it offers such as Autopay, finding and managing cleaners, guest reviews, Checklists- which makes life for the property manager and vacation rental host a lot easier!
Overall, I have a positive impression on Turno. All the features that I was looking for in a turnover management app are there.
What is your experience with Turno?