 Vacation rental cleaning. I know you guys are super excited about this topic and I know I am too. Today I have with me a special guest from TV production to commercial janitorial cleaning. I know we're gonna talk about attention to detail. I can just hear it right now. One of the things I'm super excited about is our guest today. She's the vice president and co-owner of AK Building Services and this is Sherry Cedar. And she won't tell you this the first time you meet her but I'll tell you right now, she's a marathon runner. Da, da, da, da, da. And because I know this, I know something about Sherry. She's very into the long game. So she's gonna help us understand the long game of our work. So please help me welcome Sherry Cedar. Wow, thank you, that was an amazing welcome. And yes, I do like to run. Today I did it, not as long as I would have liked but I made a run and that's great. I'm gonna give that a high five. I think that's fantastic, especially as we head into these colder months. That's great. Hey, I'm in Florida, we welcome the colder months. Well, you know, it's interesting because I moved to North Carolina and as a runner myself, I'm also a marathon runner. But as a runner myself, I love North Carolina because I can run all year round. So I just, I can't do the cold. I just, I get miserable and mean and I just can't so. All right, so today we've got some fun topics. We're talking about the Airbnb industry and how cleaning has changed since the pandemic. And there's some higher standards that we have to meet as a cleaning company. And I wanted to back up just a little bit and have you tell us all about your company because you're a janitorial service and you specialize in all the things that we aspire to be. So tell us a little bit about how you got in the industry, how you came to be, who you are and where you are today. Okay, well, we have some time. Well, I'll start with who we are and then I'm gonna back into it. My company is called AK Building Services. We're a full service commercial cleaning company located in South Florida. We clean all the way from Miami up through Jacksonville for those of you who are Floridians and know that but we're basically focused in South Florida. We focus on condo associations, single tenant, multi-tended buildings, schools, auto dealerships, you name it, it's commercial, we clean it. We do have a focus on medical as well, which is very important and we'll get into this in a little bit but of course, no one really cared about those things prior to COVID. So our expertise really came in helpful post pandemic and during pandemic. We have about 700 employees, we have a quality assurance specialist, we have a recruiter, we have a trainer, we are all about servicing the customer for clean and healthy environments. Yeah, that's what we're all about. We love what we do, we love keeping, we like to say we help people shine, every business wants to shine and we help them do that. So how did I get into this? Should we go there? Do you wanna know? Yeah, I do wanna know because I know you started out in TV production and somehow you went from TV production into owning this massive cleaning business in Florida. I think if I'm not mistaken, you're the largest privately owned janitorial service company in Florida. One of them, yes. Well, for me, I have a degree in environmental studies. I went to University of Vermont, then I went on and was a ski bum for three years to champion a mogul skiing. I went on and got a master's in broadcast journalism from BU, aspired to be Katie Couric, for those who still know who she is, but very quickly realized behind the scenes was really my thing. That's where I love to be. And I had an incredible, incredible career living in New York City producing amazing shows. Some that might come to mind for people, Real Housewives of Atlanta was my show, Season One, before I had babies and move. We did things for E for Bravo, National Geographic Channel. I had the honor of producing Favorite Things for Oprah, one of her specials. I mean, it was just really cool. So how do you go for that to commercial cleaning? Some people would be like, wah, wah. But really, my husband grew up in this industry and while he wasn't working in it when I met him, he did always want to own his own business. And even though his father was in the industry, he paved his own path. So in some respects, we're second generation because he grew up in it and ultimately ended up acquiring his father's company. But we moved to Florida, Mark grew the business. I stayed in television production and I think we got to a tipping point where it's very hard to have two households with two full-time parents in very different professions with children, I mean, babies, really. You just reach an exhausting point and I just, you know how instinctively you're like, okay, it's time? I had that moment. I can't explain, there was never like a defining moment. It was gradual. I wanted nothing to do with the cleaning business, honestly. It's like, no way. I didn't understand it or appreciate it at all, honestly. But as I got to know the business and working alongside my husband and the people who are on our team and who we work with and our customers, all of a sudden the light went off and I found the creativity in business and like genuinely love what I do. Well, it's interesting because cleaning is one of those unglamorous professions but yet everybody needs it. There are 148 and a half million households in America, just America alone and all of them need to be cleaned. And so either people are gonna clean their own homes or they're gonna hire somebody to do it. And then we send our kids to school and we expect that it's gonna be a clean, healthy environment without cobwebs and dust and germs and all the things. Those all have to be cleaned. And then when you get sick and you go to the hospital, you need super, super clean, right? So everywhere you go, we expect clean. There are services that come in and they grade at restaurants on the sanitation level. And so we live in a world that operates on clean. And yet we take advantage of the fact that we just expect everything to be clean when we show up and we don't have to do anything about it, right? Somebody's gotta clean. Yeah, and not only that, I think before COVID came, we were like the lowest vendor on the totem pole. Like nobody wanted to talk to janitorial. Really, we were an underappreciated, unrecognized industry. I don't know how many people said thank you to their cleaners or really appreciated what they did. Then COVID came and suddenly, like we were the cool kids on the block and that wasn't just because we could get, disinfecting wipes and we had electrostatic sprayers. We understood dwell time. We understood microfiber and all of these things. But suddenly people realized, oh my gosh, this is really important. This really can be the difference whether my child can go to school. This can be the difference if I could go to work today. This makes the difference if I come home and don't get sick. So we never, I guess what you'd say is the silver lining of COVID is that the janitorial services industry earns some respect, some recognition and in understanding that this is a very important industry. Well, it did a whole lot of things for us. In addition to making people more aware of cleaning, it also made people more aware of the impact of germs. And so for example, I had an employee that called today that said, my kids are out of school and they're sick. And I said, then you stay home and you take care of them. Oh, no, no, no, I'll just be a little late. No, no, no, no, no, your kids are sick. You stay home and you be the caregiver and you take care of them. We don't want you if you're in the same household. Exactly, we don't want you to stay home. Yeah, we don't want your sickness either. And so we're looking at the world a different way. And so from a household perspective of letting guests come into our homes from the vacation rental industry or the BNB industry, we need to be really aware that every single person that comes in our home could be a carrier of those germs. And I'm not saying people have germs and they're gonna show up and be sick, but they're touching the backs of chairs as they're pulling them away from the tables. And they're touching all the light switches and they're touching the knobs on the lights that are next to the bed stand. And they're touching the knobs in the bathroom drawers or under the sink as they're opening them up looking for a hairdryer or what have you. And so there are a lot of high touch areas that I'm excited to cover today and find out as a janitorial service, what are some of the precautions that we've had to start taking? I say had to start taking. Let me back up a step and say, there are a bunch of stuff we were always doing that nobody knew we were doing that we're still doing and what has changed since the pandemic. So start wherever you want, but some of the stuff that we're paying attention to. Prior to pandemic, so pre COVID, disinfecting bathrooms only, right? In your mind, that's where you're gonna disinfect, everything else, you'll wipe down, you'll clean, you'll trash and dash maybe, change some bed linens, make it look pretty, some fabulous all around to make it smell nice. But now there's a greater understanding that germs live on all surfaces. Germs can be hiding anywhere and there is a method to get rid of them. So yeah, anything that's high touch, right? This is your refrigerator handle, your microwave handle, the coffee pot handle. Oh, that one's a mega germ. Remote control, even window sills and opening and closing the windows, closet handles. I mean, I would even go so far to say hangers, people are touching, shower handles. There's a lot of hidden surfaces that do need to be wiped down and disinfected. And you just mentioned the blinds. Oh yes, the blinds, yes. The blinds have this long, skinny little stick and people's hands are all over that or maybe there's like a little pulley that they pull that needs to also be wiped down because people's fingers are all over that and then they do like with their nose or they rub their eyes. Oh my God, no, if you wanna go in and look at that little stick thing in the light because a lot of them are translucent, you'll be so grossed out. There's a lot of stuff on there. Not to mention the little kids who come in and go, ramb, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. I know and it's unseen because we were not there with the guests that are there before. And so we have no idea what people are touching when they're inside a space. So I'm curious, what kind of training do you put your team through when you hire them and what is different between like the bees for example, B&Bs or like schools for example because it's two different types of cleaning. Well, training is really important and it's two different types but cleaning is cleaning, right? There's no question on that. We use the Spartan clean check system and we have everybody certified. It's really important. I don't care if someone cleaned for 20 years. Their way may be different than my way. Standards change, the industry is evolved without any question. I think if you're in this industry and you've never heard of dwell time, you've been living under a rock or go in old school. So we have- For those of our listeners that are new that are not familiar with the term dwell time because that's industry lingo. That's those are words that we use but explain to us what dwell time is and how just a regular homeowner, somebody that may be watching our show here today and hi to everybody that's watching. I'm so glad that you guys are here. Rachel, I'll just interrupt us real fast. Rachel Rose says hello from England. So hello, Rachel, I'm glad that you're here. France is definitely not a runner. I've always loved keeping my house clean and tidy started young in my parents' homes. However, almost 79 and living in a small apartment I struggled to keep it clean. Well, Fran, we're about to give you some tips. So thank you guys for joining us today. So share with us, if you will, some of the tips that we're learning. And Gloria says she's from Calgary. You guys are from all over. Hello. Wow, hi guys. We got, actually we have a ton of great tips today. Whether you're a big school or a small single bedroom apartment or a studio apartment, these tips are going to help make everything better for you. All right, so let's talk dwell time. Dwell time is the amount of time a product needs to stay on a surface in order to effectively kill or disinfect, right? I like saying disinfect better than kill. Some people like kill, but the bottom line is if you want to disinfect there is a dwell time. Every product has a different dwell time and you do need to read the label. So what we're saying is you don't want to spray a wipe. Like the spray, the wipe, it's like a dance doesn't work. And especially if you're using a paper towel because you've really not done anything except maybe wipe away a little dirt. But if you're cleaning with a microfiber cloth and I don't have one right here, but I wish I had one with me. I might text someone to bring one in. A microfiber cloth is like your best friend when it comes to cleaning because a microfiber cloth allows your product to stay damp and to effectively clean, kill, sanitize, disinfect whatever you want to call. So that's what we mean by kill time. And would you recommend that homeowners as well as B&B owners or the people that are cleaning use the microfiber cloths? Oh yeah, my house at home, we have microfiber cloths. We have blue cloths for which we use all over the place and then the red cloths are for the bathrooms only and for the toilets because it is very important. You do not want to be using a microfiber that touched a toilet or your bathroom on your kitchen counter. There's a methodology that you have to follow. And I know in my house, we use green in the kitchen and yellow in the bathrooms for that very exact same reason. So it doesn't really matter what color you use, but in my house, if you see a green microfiber cloth, you know that that only goes in the kitchen, only ever. And the yellow only ever in the bathroom. And then we have orange for the rest of the house and that's for furniture. And that's just because I don't want the furniture being wiped down with something that wiped down the bathroom, you know, for that same reason. Exactly, or you may be using a different cleaner or product with different agents in it and that might not go well on your fabric or depending on what countertop you have. So you have to be mindful. But anyway, the microfiber cloths are your best friend and they're not very expensive. You can buy, you know, whether it's on Amazon or Costco or people from all over the world, I don't know where you shop here, but you can buy like a big pack of them and they last a really long time. You throw them in the washing machine, they're great. I wanna give you guys a hint while we're talking about microfiber cloths because I get asked this question all day, every day. How do you keep the microfiber cloths from picking up lint in the laundry? And the answer is you put them inside a mesh laundry bag and you wash them with your other towels or wash cloths or whatever it is, but it won't pick up the lint that goes through the wash. And so the mesh laundry bag, they're super inexpensive. And after this, I will leave links in the show notes so you guys can see what I'm talking about. But they do wonders and then it makes your microfiber cloths last a whole lot longer because they don't have a lot of lint and little beads of things in there that have been picked up. But if, and if you wanna get even more detailed, like you have one just for your red cloths and just for your blue cloths, so then they're already separated, which is helpful. So I think most house cleaning companies do that. And if you're just a solo house and you don't have a lot of them, it's okay if you mix the colors inside just the mesh laundry bag, but that will keep the cloths from sticking to each other. But they come in a pack of five or six different little bags. So you can do all the different colors and then they're separate. This bag goes to the bathroom, this one goes to the kitchen, make it easy. I know that as cleaners, we have got all these shortcuts that we take so that we've got less sorting time and folding time and it's all down to the minute and it's... Well, it's, time is money and you have to be efficient. You have to have that sort of schedule that you could flow through so you're hitting every spot, doing it effectively, not rushing because you don't wanna rush it, but you have to be efficient. Well, and that's another reason I like the microfiber cloths because if you have a surface that you're maintaining and you don't need a whole lot of heavy duty cleaning chemicals, a damp microfiber cloth will wipe off the kitchen counter when you're done and remove the crumbs. So if you don't need heavy duty chemicals, a damp microfiber cloth does an amazing job. So I love that tip. Oh yeah, and we rinse it. I keep one in my kitchen all the time. I have two teenage boys and there's mess often. And it's almost like a lint brush in some ways, like to the crumbs, it just gets it right off. And then you're not spending money on paper towels which create garbage and waste. And I mean, who anyone's been to the grocery store lately, big jumbo pack of paper towels, they're expensive. They are expensive, that's true. Elizabeth says, can you put Liz from something back in the dryer? And I think that she's saying, can you put the microfiber cloths back in the dryer? If they are inside, after they are inside the bags, yes, you can on low tumble. You don't wanna put them on high heat because it can damage the fibers in the microfiber cloth. But I'll share a secret with you that I do. And then if you have any secrets I would love to hear yours as well. As far as drying microfiber cloths in my own home because for me, I'm just one user in my own home. I took a shoe rack that has those little tiny shoe horns and it just has all these little shoe horns that like you could put something on and I hang it on the back of my laundry room door. And when my microfiber cloths come out, I shake them and then I hang each one of those on one of those little hooks. And I have a row for all the different colors in my house. So I've got my mop pads on one. I've got all the ones for the kitchen on one. I've got all the ones for the bathroom. And I wash them like that because I do wash them in the separate packs and I let them air dry. And then when I'm on the phone, like I don't know, my mother calls or something, I'm on the phone. That's when I fold them and I put them all away. So it's just a quick little laundry room tip and they're up and out of the way. And at a glance, anyone in the house can see them and grab the one they need. So that's a good tip. I do not do that. The low tumble dry though, you can actually take the whole bag, the whole mesh bag of them and toss them right in the dryer though. So that does work. Excellent. So again, for anyone who's just tuning in and saying, what is this microfiber? It's incredible. And for house cleaners and commercial cleaners, really anyone who cleans the microfiber system, we'd like to say it's environmentally sound. It's cost effective and it does really get the job done. It's really the only way to go. And especially for an Airbnb or VRBO or a rental property, you wanna train your cleaner, whether you're doing it yourself or you're hiring a company to be as efficient as they can, one because time is money, like I said, and you wanna get it done effectively. And so besides microfiber cloths, what recommendations would you make to a property owner or the person that's cleaning the Airbnb or the vacation rental to make sure that they have all of the cleaning system down so that it is meeting the post COVID standards? Okay, checklist, right? Everyone needs a really, really good checklist because with a checklist, you're prepared. You have the right tools for the job. You have the right products for the job. You can kind of lay out your plan. I guess like when I run, I have a route that I follow. When you clean, you wanna have a route as well. So I think post COVID that's very important to know all the areas to focus on and what to do. I'm just gonna digress a little bit though, if I can. In homes, vacation rentals, I think when you outfit your home or your property, you wanna think about cleaning as a priority item, meaning what surfaces, like don't do wall-to-wall carpet if you have a choice. Like it is much harder to clean a carpet than it is to mop a floor. Blinds are a lot easier than curtains, right? Curtains absorb smells. As we call them chachkies or bric-a-brac, take a long time to dust. So I just think it's very important to design your home for cleaning efficiency. I just popped into my brain when you were asking about the steps. Well, since you brought that up, I have to ask because with cleaning now as a background and being so sensitive to cleaning, and I say this because I'm sure you are like me where you can't go into any property, whether you're a guest or bidding a job, where you walk in and you see stuff and you're like, oh, no way, I've never had that inside my house. Yeah. There are things inside my house that I do not have that lots of people have just for that very reason. I do not wanna clean them. And so if it's things with like little curly cues and like little, I don't know, things that need a makeup brush to clean and dust or whatever, I'm like, uh-uh, I don't need it. Figurines. Figurines and like those, just little figurines, those are like, ah! And also, you know, if you're cleaning your own items if you break something, that's on you, right? If you own the property. But if you have a house cleaner come in and there's delicate items everywhere, something, I shouldn't say something will break, but the chances are in the scheme of it, if it's a small, delicate thing, you're just, there's more risk involved in damaging things. But, well, I always look when I go in, I look at vents, you know, you look up, oh, you don't wanna see a dirty vent. I look at baseboards, you know, if you see a black line of dust, that's really disgusting. The last thing people want is to see that when they're coming into a vacation property and they're like, I just wanna relax and cleanliness. And, you know, you see that, it puts a bad feeling over you. Is there something that you do in training or in, what did you call it? Quality insurance. Yeah. What do you do to ensure that your cleaners that are going inside people's homes or properties that they're cleaning are guaranteeing that they've got the best clean for the guests that's coming in? Well, at AK Building Services, we have a quality assurance specialist and they go in with a checklist and we use an amazing software called Lighthouse that I'm, I don't know that it would make sense for everyone else to use, but we have checklists. So we have, you know, if you're in a rental property, if you're in a school, a checklist, and we do scheduled inspections and we do spontaneous inspections. And I find that the checks and balance of that is really important. And we also really try to keep cleaning on a schedule. So if you're turning over, you know, in commercial cleaning, you have people coming in every day if you're in an office building. When you're in Airbnb or a rental property, it could be four days, it could be two days, you know, it's not regular. So you have to make a schedule and keep track of like when was the last time you did the events? When was the last time you did the baseboards? So you're doing, let's say a monthly deep clean and then you're keeping up with the other cleaning regularly. Like that makes a huge difference in the upkeep of a property. A lot of commercial properties have a checklist system that's actually visible to the public. So you might go into a restroom, for example, and you close the restroom door and there's a sheet on the back of the door that might be laminated. And it says this property was cleaned at a certain time by this person and they've initialed it. And it makes you even more aware like, oh, this, you know, was cleaned at a certain time. Then they'll have a note that says, if this property doesn't meet your standard of excellence, call this number and what have you. Do you guys have something like that or do you recommend something like that? Oh, absolutely recommend it. I think during COVID in particular when we were doing electrostatic spraying at a very high frequency, it made people so happy that it would come in. And we put a little card that we printed up and it says this room has been disinfected by Lennox with his signature and the time and the day. And it's like, oh, he was here, thank you. And we still do that with a lot of our customers. And it's just, it's an extra layer of assurance. You know, when you go in the toilet paper is folded really pretty, you know they've been there. But the card says, I've been here. And it gives, it's just another level that people know. Well, I know that especially in commercial cleaning, there's maybe more of a check and balance system than there are in a lot of private residences. And with the private residence, I don't want to say it's a free for all, but every B&B owner or vacation rental owner, it kind of does things their own way. How do you standardize the cleaning across the properties that your teams clean? Well, it's a great question because properties are different, right? Frequencies are different. Even having to maintain cleaners on an irregular schedule, if you say, is a challenge. So what you really try to do is consistency with the same cleaners, because once you know a home or you know a property, you do it more effectively, you know like the little ins and out in secret spaces, right? That tend to collect us. This corner is worse than that. And this microwave tends to get splatter over here. So consistency is really important, training is really important, and the checklists are really important. And also having proper tools. I think those are the main ones and supervision going in to double check everything. And I love the fact that you guys do a spontaneous inspection. I think that speaks volumes. And I think it's also, I don't wanna say it instills the fear of God in your employees, but kind of like, whoa, somebody's gonna be looking over my shoulder. I gotta do a really great job. But I've always been a big fan of the inspections for this reason. When I leave, I'm putting my seal of excellence on this job. And we've always offered 100% satisfaction guarantee with the cleaning service. And that's up to 24 hours after the job is finished. And so when we leave, it better be clean because I'm guaranteeing my work. And what's really incredible about that is when I leave and we leave the checklists behind so that the guests can see them. Not the guests, but the homeowner that's hiring us. But when they take a look at that, they can go back over and they can look at any of my work. And if I checked it off, that meant I'm honoring the guarantee on this. And so it better be clean. And that means no hair behind the bathroom door. And so one of the things that we do, especially in an Airbnb, is when we're bidding the job, we go in and we sit down, all the places a guest is gonna sit. We wanna take a look up at that light. Oh, is there a cobweb on that light that I can see from here? The guest's gonna see it as well. If you sit on the toilet there and you look up in the corners of the room and there's dust on that fabric or there's dust over in the side there of the corner of the wall where there's a little tiny nook that they're gonna see that. And so if you go in the bedroom and you sit there on the bed and you look up, what do you see? And if there's dust and there's stuff that's not where it should be, everything needs to go, right? You gotta clean everything from the perspective. Sit down where they're gonna sit for the dinner. And if that's what they're looking at when they look up and they look around and they're gonna be there for 10 or 15 minutes, it better be clean. And by having every cleaner do that same test and every property that they clean and take a really good look, I'm not saying live in the customer space, but I'm saying go in and sit there and really give it a thorough look. What do you see? It's a different perspective than if you just walk in and you're standing up at a certain height and you see everything from that angle, right? And it's a whole different way of looking at the world. It is, it is. And I wanna reiterate that the inspections, we really don't like people to feel like, oh, we're checking on you in a negative way. To me, this is checks and balances to make my team feel empowered, to let them know. We know you have a lot going on. We know you busy. Maybe you've done five properties that day or whatever your it is, we're back up, we're a team. And I think that attitude really helps everyone's performance be better and feel invested and proud of what they're doing. Like the mindset is very, very important. Well, and I'm glad you brought that up because we live in a world of analytics. Every program for every company now has analytics. There's a program that shows you where you did great and where you dropped off, right? And it's important because that's what we are able to work on and perfect because we can measure it. And if you can't measure results, there's no way you can make it better or worse or find out where something went awry or what have you. And if an employee is getting callbacks over and over and over again and you're not able to tell them where they can improve, they're gonna keep getting callbacks over and over again and that's annoying. And so by having the checks and balances, it's like saying, I got your back, I got your back. We're gonna move this together. And I always tell my team, I learn every day. Like there are things I'm like, I didn't know that. So I don't want everyone to be afraid of making a mistake and don't be afraid to learn and to ask questions. I'd rather you do that so we can learn together. We can share knowledge. I often will punt a question that I have out to my entire team via email and I said wondering on your thoughts and then we get 20 reply, I'll reply. No, you should use vinegar for this. Well, my grandmother used lemon. Well, my use, you know, and you get a mix of really good professional products to these home remedies which are really awesome too. But I love the knowledge share and I think inspections keeps the bar really high and gives learning opportunity. And it also gives praise for praises too because everyone just wants to feel appreciated. Well, and especially in the BNB industry because there are a lot of guests that will leave ratings and reviews and it's one of the things that drives the BNB properties because people will say, I want the place that's, I don't know why, I don't know why they do this but I want the lowest rate with the highest reviews. Like the lowest price with the highest reviews. I'm guilty of that myself but the ratings and reviews drive the industry and what gives the ratings and reviews? It's that ambience, it's that feeling of, hey, I arrived at this really awesome place. I had a wonderful time and they didn't have to stop and complain about, ooh, my feet stuck on the floor when I went to the bathroom and I'd like, ooh, ick, right? They wanna make sure that it's the most pleasant experience and they're counting on the cleaner to make that happen. Oh yeah, well, you know, just some respect. I mean, a clean or dirty property can make or break your business, especially in rental properties. You get one review that says it was dirty. That is just, that's gonna hurt you. That is really gonna hurt you. You get a review that says, wow, came in, smelled fresh. Cleanest can be, it was like a aha moment when we walked in. I want that place, I'm picking that place. So it's, clean is not just investing because when you want people to be healthy and safe, which of course is paramount, but it's also, it's customer service, it's marketing, it's advertising, it's paying it forward, it's good karma, it's all of these things. So as we look at the changes that have happened in the industry since COVID, what are you seeing now as trends or changes, things that are just slightly different for vacation rentals that are, is probably a new norm or a new standard moving forward? I think, well, the disinfecting of the entire property as we started out saying has really transformed and using commercial grade products means a lot more than going to whatever your local store is. And look, home products, there's nothing wrong with that, but there's more efficiency with commercial grade products. And I think that's an advertising bonus as well to tell people we use disinfectants on EPA list end. I mean, maybe people aren't getting that extreme, but the changes are people are paying more attention to details and allotting more time for cleaning. And that's really the biggest difference. There's not necessarily a turnover time of like an hour or two hours. Sometimes people choose to have a whole day between the properties so you can really wash the linens. You can really get in there and deep clean it. And what are you noticing as far as like the employee situation? Are you finding that employees are doing things radically different or are they showing up with the same attitudes like, hey, it's just a new way of cleaning and this is just the way it is. Or are they like, oh, no, we have to do something so totally different than we did before? The honest answer is some people adapt to it very well and they understand this is the way of the world. You do get some people who fields are dug in and they've been doing this for 25 years and their grandmother did it for 20 this many years and this is how it's going to be done. And you have to manage that as an employer for sure. But I would say the majority of people appreciate the new systems that we have. It just digress a second in some larger commercial properties. You have people who are specialized just doing bathrooms. You have people who are just doing the floors and there were in a HEPA backpack vacuum and for those who don't know a HEPA filter in a vacuum, when you vacuum instead of putting the yucky dust out in the air it sucks it back in. So it's a safer environment to work in. You have some people who just focus on kitchens. So when you come to a rental property you're finding a person who's skilled in all of those areas and all of those disciplines. And that's a very special person to me who understands how to clean all of those areas. And though sometimes you have people work in teams but anyway, it comes back to training and it comes to empowering people and giving them the tools to do the job correctly. So they feel good and then it's a people business too. People have to feel appreciated and praised and that motivates people to do better. That's what I found. I have a question that I'm gonna get bombarded with and we have to answer it. I know, what is it? So, well, it's two questions. From the Airbnb side, they're gonna say where do you go to find good cleaners? So that's question number one. Question number two is if you are the cleaner how do you find good Airbnb's or good vacation rental owners to work for? Oh boy. I get those two questions all day, every day. They're like two of the favorite questions ever. Okay, well, that's a tough one. And while she's answering that if you guys have those questions as well, pop those in the comments and we'll answer as many of them as we can. I would say, okay, you go with what you know. Let's start with that. You go with what you know. When you find a great cleaner, somebody who is ethical, because remember a good cleaner is not just like how they're cleaning. They need to show up for you. The worst thing you can do is book a cleaner. You have new guests coming. They haven't shown up. You're like, ah, you've got busy things to do. So you need to find someone. So if you have somebody who's dependable, reliable, trustworthy, skilled, all of that, ask them who else they know. Because most like good people, birds of a feather flock together. And that's how we staff a lot. People who live in the same neighborhood, people who go to the same church, people whose children play together. That's really how you would, you grow your network of people and you get your best people. And then of course, there's always listings too. And you know what? We've had tremendous success listing on job boards and you know, for us, we have a full-time recruiter, right? And we are out in whether it's Craigslist, indeed different areas, but if you're one person and you don't have that, but we live in a world of communication right now, whether it's next door, care.com, Craigslist, maybe not indeed, maybe not the right place, community boards, even flyers and posting up. I mean, people just gotta find great people. Well, I didn't know if there was like a magic bullet or whatever. No, there's no magic bullet, no. And it's hard, like it's just hard. And we live in a, unfortunately, a world where I think a lot of people don't wanna work that hard. Like is it general situation during COVID and post COVID? So when you find a real quality person, like treat them well, pay them well and do what you can to keep them so they stay with you. I wanna add one thing to this, to answer that question, because like I said, I get asked that question a lot. One of the things that's really great for the Airbnb industry and the vacation rental business specifically, because what we're looking at is not a regular job. There are fluctuations in the turnover business. And that's because a guest may come in and they may not. And a house cleaner is not often hired if no one's coming and there's no one on the books. And so it's kind of like, hey, at the last minute, do you have an availability to come clean this, right? And it's hard to staff as a cleaning company. It's hard to staff people that are gonna sit there and go, do I, do I not have a job, right? So one of the things we found to be most successful for the Airbnb industry is in the neighborhoods where the Airbnb's are, cause they're usually homes that people are renting out a room or it's a vacation rental where there are lots of rentals in a certain area. But in those areas, other people live. So if there are parents and their kids are going to school, the parent is free if they're stay-at-home parents, they're home drawing a particular window and that sweet spot is 11 to three. People check out and the new people check in. And during that window, they may or may not have a job. So what we've done is we put together a Google Calendar and with the Google Calendar, it's free. Anybody can have one. You add their email to the bottom of the settings and they now have accessibility to that calendar. You wanna make sure that person is able to add themselves or they can make changes or what have you to the calendar. They can add themselves up there and say, hey, look, I'm a mom. I have an availability during the day and I'm available on Tuesday and Thursday of this week during that sweet spot window. So we train those people to clean Airbnb's. And what happens is this, and it's an amazing system for this reason. They say I'm available Tuesday and Thursday. Well, guess what? If we have a check-in and we need a job, we go to Tuesday and Thursday and we say, hey, listen, there are two people that said they're available. We're gonna ask our favorite first and our favorite is going back to what Sherry said about they're reliable, they're good, they're honest, they're thorough, all the things, our favorite person first, hey, do you want the job? They already said they were available. So they've got first right of refusal. If for some reason something happened and they did not, they're not able to do it. They can find the replacement because that person's also on the board. And they can say, Kristen, will you cover for me today? Cause something came up and I can't do it. What you're doing instead of you as the business owner making that your problem, that just became their problem. They said they were available and if they want future jobs from you, they gotta find their own replacement. So you have this network of independent contractors that are working together to say, hey, I'm available to do that job. And so they become a team member of yours and you can either do employees or independent contractors. Right now, oddly enough, we have both independent contractors and employees that put themselves on the calendar. And I don't know why, but since COVID, even employees get to pick their own schedules. We're being super flexible with that because we find that when we try to say, you will be here at a certain time that it doesn't happen that way. So people are picking the times they wanna work and then they are obligated to work the times that they're available if they're available. And if there's no work, like with an independent contractor, I'm not guaranteeing them anything. But when somebody checks in for an Airbnb, we know when they're checking out most of the time. We know when they're checking out because they booked a certain number of days or certain number of nights. And so then we know when they're checking out and that way we can staff for it. And so, yeah. I was gonna say you bring up a great point with that. And it's really helpful to know a lot of people work nights, right? And then we know their days are free or their kids are in school and we call it our bench. We like to say we have a deep bench. We have a roster and it's like substitute teachers should go to the next, go to the next. Everyone needs to be trained. You cross train multiple people in multiple properties. So they're ready to go. And I mean, the key is to plan ahead, right? You should never be caught in that moment if you own a rental property in Airbnb. And, but I think if you get that roster together, you train everyone, you show them your standards, you do a walkthrough of your property, that's great. And I love how you made it accountable for people. That's incredible. Well, one of the things that we're noticing is there are a lot of B&B owners or vacation rental owners that are like, I'll just clean it myself because I know the cleaning and I'll just do it and it's my property and no one's gonna do it as good as me and whatever until they got a family emergency or until they come down sick or until there's something that gets in the way of life and it will where they're like, oh my goodness, I can't do this. Don't wait until that moment to find a backup, okay? Right now, while you're well, while everything's going great, find a backup, find a replacement, find a team of people, you can train if you are the B&B owner right now and you run your own property. Find somebody right now that can back you up if something happens. And then find people like Sherry said that can back each other up if something happens because every person that we hire on our team and I don't care whether it's a janitorial service of 700 people or whether it's a small cleaning company that has four or five, you're hiring humans and those humans have kids and they have ailments and they have elderly parents and they have menopause and they got a whole bunch of other stuff that needs time and attention. I'm not kidding. So stuff. It's true, you need backup. We book backup, I know every day, somebody will call in sick or their mother's sick or their father's in the hospital or their cat needs insulin. I mean, you name it, we are human, but we have backup and that's what you have to do because the worst feeling ever is that like when you're strung out and you have too much to do but you cannot let a guest come to a dirty place. You just can't, like, uh-uh, that is a huge no-no. Well, and to go back to the question about where do you find good people, I wanna throw this out as well in addition to what Sherry suggested because all of the listing services are fantastic places. She mentioned next door and she mentioned neighborhood apps and things like that and that is paramount but the school bus stop is huge. There are parents every single day that have kids, we watch the kids getting on the bus, we know the parent is in their car and they're going back to their house. I know that person is working out of the home, maybe they have a home business and maybe they're just going back for coffee and a TV show, I don't know. But what we do know is this, conversation at the bus stop. Hey, we're working at a B&B in this neighborhood. Are there any moms, you or anybody that you know that would be interested in a flexible part-time job? What, just a couple hours a week? I totally could do that. Great, training starts on Monday. And we've picked up so many stay-at-home parents that either do have other jobs, but it's flexible enough that if they had a job that came in that would give them an extra three or four hours worth of work per week or two or three times a week, they could fit that into their schedule, okay? And so without them going out and looking for a whole new part-time job, they can work in their neighborhood, work in this Airbnb. All they got to do is show up for the training and they've got to turn in the damage reports and do the restocking and take the pictures and whatever prove that they did the job. And then like in Sherry's situation where there is a spontaneous check-in to make sure that everything is as we believe it is, then they're good to go. And that becomes a reliable person that can work that same property for years because they live in the same neighborhood and neither the property or the person is going anywhere. And so for years, we've had homeowners that are, I don't know, stay-at-home moms and dads, they're like, sure, I can pick up an extra property and they do that one property and they're the go-to fix-it person for that property where it gets really cool is this, if something malfunctions, that person that lives in the neighborhood is often the go-to person that can fill in on some kind of a weird, there's a, I don't know, they ran out of something and instead of the owner dropping what they're doing and racing across town and going to service the property, there's somebody that lives two doors down that can run it over real quick and you pay them extra for that. And you know what, you bring up a great point. By the way, I love the school bus idea, the bus stop, that's fantastic. But with a reliable person who's cleaning your property, like they're the eyes and ears of the property, right? They're in there and they're gonna notice, you know, this light switch isn't working, something's broken, I mean, a leak. You know, you want someone to tell you because the damage that can come from that. So when you have that trust in somebody, it is, I mean, it is so valuable as a property owner. Well, is there anything that you would recommend for a cleaning company if they were just trying to get started in the Airbnb industry for the first time? And if they're just getting started right now, is there anything that you recommend for them besides just hiring somebody and outsourcing it? Well, I would make sure you have insurance. That's very, very important. You know, unfortunately, people slip, they fall, things of that nature. So, and people, when they bring a cleaning company into their home, they want to know that they're insured. So I would say that's first and foremost. Two is get some certifications. It's very inexpensive. There are organizations like ISSA, Ifma, other ones, even Spartans Clean Check System, to show that you're credentialed, that you know what you're doing, you're not just running and grabbing some products. And I'd make a nice business card, a nice logo, make a clean presentation because how you come across is what your product is. And I want to add one thing to what Sherry said. And this is going to fly in the face of, No, you can't tell me how to dress. When you show up at a property, you are the company's biggest asset, okay? You are the eyes and ears on the ground. You are the person that has reasonable thinking skills, but you are also the advertisement for the business. And so when you have your hair pulled back and when you're showered and you're clean, I'm not talking about rolling out of bed and I just lift two doors down, so I'm just going to go as I am. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about you are representing a brand. And so if you will show up and you will look professional, even if it's not a uniform, but it's clean, pressed clothes, like don't wear all wrinkly stuff that looks like it's just been watered up, like really be professional when you show up. Because what's happening is not only is the camera's going to pick you up, the security cameras will pick you up, but all of the neighbors are watching. And so what they're saying is, do I trust this person that I would recommend them? Because if you wanted another job and if you're doing an Airbnb, there's guess what, Airbnb owners, they know each other. And especially ones that are all in an area because this happens a lot. I'm booked tonight. Why don't you go over to my friend that lives two streets over? And so they will recommend each other. Guess what? They're also recommending their cleaning service. And if you look the part and you show up in your professional and your supplies are neatly packed, you've done your inventory and you look like a million bucks, they're gonna say, oh my goodness, not only do I feel great that I've got this person to come clean my property, but I wanna recommend this person as well, right? But they're not gonna recommend somebody they are embarrassed to be associated with, if that makes sense. Yeah, and in a larger, like a hotel property, they have cleaning carts, but you'll have a caddy, a house cleaner generally has a caddy. And that caddy always, you want your products labeled, you want it nice and clean, you don't want that grimy, mucky stuff, your rags need to be, and that goes such a long way. I love an apron. I just love an apron because one is you put the apron on, you can put your cell phone in the front pocket, you can put gloves in another pocket. And so it's great, it feels good, but the presentation is outstanding. Well, in addition to just an outstanding presentation, there's a level of confidence that comes with, I'm prepared, I know that I have the right cleaning supplies with me for today, I know that I have a checklist, I know exactly what I'm supposed to do when I get to the job. And you know, based on experience about how long it's gonna take you. And when you walk into a job, and this is really a trick for the Airbnb and vacation rental cleaners, when you go in and things look very different than what you were expecting. You're like, whoa, these people had a party and they broke a whole bunch of stuff. And now I'm not gonna be able to clean up in the same amount of time. And now I've gotta do a damage report. Now I've gotta contact the owner and I gotta figure out what shuffling things around do I need to do to get this property ready for the next guest that's coming in in about two and a half hours from now. What has to happen between right now and then? And there's some fast thinking that has to happen sometimes. And so when you are on your A game and I say this is you show up and you are prepared. Your cleaning supplies are prepared. You got your caddy, you got your apron. When you show up, you are now on high alert. You are now ready to throw whatever you got at me. I'm ready, right? Bring it on. And that's the confidence that you get from being prepared and knowing your job. You know, you bring up an important subject though because you come into a property, you're expecting, you know, you're expecting it was a lovely family whoever you come in, you go, whoa, this was, you know, cribs or something going on here. You must call the property owner at that moment. And I would say you need to document with photos as well on your phone because there's probably a damage fee that those prior guests may have to pay. And if you clean it up and then tell the owner afterwards without documentation, one is you don't have any proof that you had to work extra. And the property owner might say, well, why is this broken? Did you break this? Like it's just very important when you come in to make sure that you're documenting these things. And if you do need reinforcement to call the property owner to say, listen, I need to bring a friend. There's no way I'm getting this done in two hours. You know, that's really important to, I think sometimes people are afraid that they'll get in trouble. They don't want to upset the property owner or the management company. But you really, it's to protect yourself and the company to notify people. And I want to go back to something Sherry just said. She said, bring a friend. I'm going to say bring a friend in the industry because that means they can also be insured. Please don't be bringing your mom or your cousin or somebody that's not insured that's not trained because I don't want those people experimenting on the surfaces in the Airbnb, right? I want that person to be- Approved, approved friend who was on the backup list who's already been vetted. Yes, yes, yes. They're on the Google document. They're on the Google document. Yes, what you said. Never bring a child to help you, never bring someone under 17 and you know, and never bring a random person. That is just dangerous for everybody. Thank you for studying that. Thank you. And Sherry just said something really important. Don't bring kids under 17. And here's the reason why. As a parent, your instinct will always go to the child. And if something malfunctions or something happens and that person is in danger or they slip, they trip, they fall, something like that happens, you're going to take care of them, okay? Because you're a human and that's what you do. You take care of other people first. But you're not there to be babysitting. Your job is to be there cleaning. So while you're cleaning clean, let someone else do the babysitting in the childcare and when you are on the job, be there to be there for the job you're being paid for, okay? I love your kids and I want you to love your kids too. So do not bring them on the jobs because they're not insured and there are labor laws that we don't want to talk about today. So do not bring your kids on the job that's not professional and that's not part of the deal. Okay, and I'm going to add that. There's a lot of cleaners that look delicious, right? They really look yummy if fabuloso, which, you know, again, I don't love cleaning with fabuloso. It's more of a perfume. That's another subject. But if you have a bottle that's not labeled, you have a child there who thinks it's grape juice. It is very, very dangerous. So for protecting your child, whoever's child, anybody, you really can't have children on a job site for their own safety. And Sherry just brought up something. Man, we're running out of time, but I do want to say this. Sherry just brought up a really important issue and that is having labeled bottles. It is OSHA standard to have a label on your cleaning supply for this reason. It's going to have your safety instructions on there. It's going to have the name of the product and there's probably a phone number on there in case there is a hazard. If for some reason something happens and somebody has to go to the emergency room, excuse me, whether it's a person or a pet, that bottle is going to get taken to the emergency room and saying, this is what caused this ailment. And it better be accurate because if you mixed something or if you created a solution and it's in a jug and you have no idea what it is, you're wasting time at the emergency room that they can find out exactly what that is and how to resolve that. And if they don't know what it is, guess what? It's going to take forever and it's not, don't do it. It wouldn't be a bad idea. Okay, so I know we're running out of time but like safety data sheets are really important too. If you're using the same cleaners, you can put that in your closet to always have with you. One is it's, if God forbid there's an emergency, you have your SDS book right there. If you get something in your eyes and it splashes, you want to know how to deal with it when you call poison control. And it also looks really good for the property owner to have an SDS book. That's another level of professionalism. Well, thank you for bringing that up. Now, if you are the Airbnb owner, we're going to throw one last thing at you and then we'll say goodbye for today. If you are the Airbnb owner and you leave cleaning supplies for your guests, and please do, please do leave them underneath the kitchen sink because like when I go stay at a place, I like to clean up after myself. So make sure that you have some supplies, make sure they are labeled bottles as well, okay? Make sure you're using a professional ready-to-use bottle where I can read the label and I can go, I know exactly what's inside here. Please do. But do not leave bleach. That's my first opinion ever. Just a little fun fact. Bleach and ammonia causes a reaction. What is urine made out of? Ammonia. You clean your toilet with bleach, there's ammonia, not an explosion, but it could really burn your eyes. It's not good. Oh, this has been so much fun. I hate that our time is up, you guys, this has been awesome. I do have some great news though. On the Ask a House Cleaner show this coming Friday, I've got Sherry coming back to talk to all of the cleaning business owners, not just the Airbnb owners, but we're gonna be talking and having a completely different conversation. So come on back and ask any of your questions that we didn't cover today. Sherry, tell our listeners where they can go to find you. Thanks everyone. You could find me on LinkedIn at Sherry Cedar on my LinkedIn or akbuildingservices.com is my company and my contact information is right there. And I would love to connect with you if you have any questions at all, connect with me on LinkedIn and be happy to share our cleaning expertise with you. Awesome, thank you so much for today. Thank you guys for jumping in and for visiting and hanging out with us. And we will see you guys again on Friday when we pick up this conversation and we talk more about cleaning and all the great things that we've learned today. So thank you guys. Have a great week. Thanks everyone. Have a great week.