What Should Be in a Cleaning Agreement?

Very few short-term rental cleaning relationships have anything written down, which works perfectly until the first genuine disagreement. Fort Lauderdale STR Cleaning works from a written scope on every property at (754) 354-3887.

Scope, in detail

What the standard turnover includes, room by room, and what it does not. This is where most disputes actually live, and it is the section worth spending time on.

Name the ambiguous items explicitly rather than hoping. Balcony and patio. Interior windows and sliding door tracks. Inside the oven and the refrigerator. Bins to the curb. Outdoor furniture. Pool deck. Anything above safe reach. For each one: included, add-on, or excluded.

Rate and what triggers more

The turnover rate, the rate for each named add-on, and the mechanism for an exceptional condition.

That last one matters. A flat rate assumes normal use, and one booking in twenty is not normal. Define what triggers an exception charge, who authorizes it, what evidence is required, and how it is priced. Photographs taken before anything is touched is the usual standard.

Also state what happens when a turnover is canceled at short notice, because a slot held and lost is income the cleaner cannot recover.

Scheduling and access

How dates are communicated and how far ahead. What the standard turnover window is. What happens on a late checkout, including whether overtime applies and at what rate.

Access details and their backup. Who to contact if entry fails. For a building, the vendor registration position and whether a substitute is pre-authorized.

Supplies and linen

Who buys consumables, what the par levels are, how reimbursement works and how quickly it is paid. Who owns the linen, who launders it, how many sets are in circulation, and who decides a set is finished.

These are small amounts of money that generate a disproportionate share of friction, entirely because nobody wrote the rule down.

Reporting

What the cleaner sends after each turnover: a photo set covering each room, the supply position, and anything found. What counts as urgent enough to phone about rather than message.

And the boundary on maintenance. A cleaner should report a failing fixture; whether they are expected to change a bulb, reset a breaker or wait for a contractor is a decision you make once rather than each time.

Payment terms

Amount, frequency, method and timing. Then actually meet them, because slow payment is the most commonly cited reason cleaners stop accepting an owner's work.

If you use a platform or an automated payment, say so and say when it runs. Ambiguity here costs you goodwill you will need on a Saturday in season.

Insurance, and who is who

Whether the cleaner is an independent business or an individual you are engaging directly matters for insurance, for tax and for liability, and it is worth being clear rather than vague.

Ask for evidence of general liability coverage and, where the cleaner has staff, workers compensation. A cleaner injured in your property with no coverage of their own is a problem that lands on you.

Include a short confidentiality line as well. Cleaners hold access codes and see inside your property, and a written expectation about not sharing either is reasonable and standard.

Quality standard, defined by photograph

Written descriptions of an acceptable finish are almost useless, because clean is not a measurable word. Attach the reference photo set to the agreement instead and state that the standard is to match it.

That converts a subjective judgment into a comparison anybody can make, including a substitute cleaner who has never met you. It also gives the cleaner a defense against a complaint about something that was exactly as specified.

Termination, and how to leave well

Notice period on both sides, and what happens to keys, codes, supplies and any linen the cleaner holds.

Nobody writes this section expecting to use it, and it is the one that prevents a bad ending from becoming an operational crisis. A cleaner who stops mid-season while holding your only spare key and three sets of linen is a much larger problem than a lost relationship.

Keep it to a page and revisit it

This does not need to be a contract drafted by anybody. A single page, signed or simply acknowledged by both sides, covering the above, is enough for almost every property.

Review it twice a year. Properties change, guest profiles shift, and an agreement written against a smaller scope quietly becomes unfair to one side.