Every bed gets fresh linens between guests

Each clean follows the same order

The beds come first. We strip every bed as soon as we walk in, so the laundry gets going early. It also lets us look at the mattress and pillows before fresh linens go on. Trash comes next, from every can in the house. A bag left sitting in a closed-up house is the first thing the next guest smells, so it goes out before we clean a single surface.

After that we work from the top of each room down. Ceiling fans get dusted first. Mini blinds and wall hangings come next, then counters and tables. The floors get vacuumed last, once nothing else is going to drop dust on them. Skip that order and it shows. A fan dusted after the carpet is done drops gray fuzz on the rug we just vacuumed. A guest lying in bed looks straight up at those fan blades.

Guests look hardest at the kitchen. We wipe the appliances down, and we check the inside of the microwave and the oven and clean them when the last guests cooked. The glass comes last. We clean window glass inside and out, including the door windows and the patio door. A patio door picks up handprints at kid height and nose prints at dog height after almost every stay. It is also the first thing guests see from the couch.

• Beds stripped and remade with clean linens
• Trash emptied and taken out
• Microwave and oven checked, cleaned when used
• Window glass cleaned inside and out
• Door windows and patio doors included

Salt air leaves a film on glass

A lot of North Shore rentals sit near the water, close to the harbor in Salem or Marblehead. Salt spray rides in on the wind and dries on the glass as a cloudy film. From inside it just looks like a dirty window, and the harbor view the guest booked turns flat and dull. A dry cloth only smears the salt around, so the glass has to be washed first and then wiped dry.

Older houses make the glass harder too. In Salem and Marblehead, plenty of rentals are wood-frame colonials and Victorians. Many still have single-pane windows with aluminum storm windows fitted outside them. On a cold morning the single panes sweat. The water runs down the glass and pools on the sill. Left there, it stains the paint and softens the wood over a few winters. We wipe the sills along with the glass, since that is where the drips end up.

Spring and summer bring different dirt. In late spring, pine and oak pollen coats every sill and the outside of the patio door with a yellow film. Bare feet track it inside. In summer, beach sand ends up in the track of the sliding door. A sliding door with grit in the track grinds and sticks when the next guest tries to open it. We vacuum the track before we clean the glass.

Guests notice small things right away

A guest walking into a rental does a quick check without meaning to. They pull back the comforter and look at the shower. One hair on a pillowcase makes them wonder whether the sheets were changed at all, even when they were. So the pillowcases get a second look after the bed is made. The bathroom floor gets checked again once the tub and sink are done, because hair settles on tile while we work.

Damp towels are the other common problem. Massachusetts summers are humid, and a rental with the windows shut holds that moisture in. Wet towels left in a pile on a bathroom floor start to smell sour by the next day, and the smell can stay in the fabric even after washing. So wet towels and bath mats get picked up with the sheets at the start of the clean. A guest who smells mildew in the bathroom assumes the whole place is dirty.

Guests cook more in a rental than they would in a hotel, and most do not clean up all the way before checkout. Splatter left inside a microwave bakes on harder each time someone heats a plate. A spill on the oven floor smokes the next time the oven gets hot. The guest who preheats it for a frozen pizza and fills the kitchen with smoke will mention it in the review. Cleaning it up after the stay that made the mess keeps it from building up.

October and January need different cleaning

Salem fills up every October. Rentals near downtown can have one group leave in the morning and the next arrive that afternoon, all month long. The houses get hard use in those short stays. Face paint ends up on towels and pillowcases, and wet leaves come in on every pair of shoes. Costume glitter gets into rugs and couch cushions and takes more than one pass to pick up. If you run a Salem rental, call us about October before the month starts.

Winter is quieter, and harder on the floors. Boots carry in road salt and sand. The salt dries into white marks on hardwood and a crust on the entry rug. Sand left on a wood floor scratches the finish under every step. In winter we vacuum the entry and the rugs slowly. We go over each spot more than once, since a single pass leaves grit behind in the pile.

A rental that sits empty for a few weeks in January has its own problems. Older houses around Danvers and Salem often have fieldstone foundations and damp basements. Once the heat is turned down, a closed-up house starts to smell musty. Dust settles on every flat surface, and dead flies collect on the sills. Tell us when a place has been closed for a while, because the first clean after a quiet stretch takes longer.