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Tutorial: Set Up a Cleaning Team

Automate communication with your cleaning team to share tasks, notifications, and calendar access

Pierre-Camille Hamana avatar
Written by Pierre-Camille Hamana
Updated over 5 months ago

Setting up your cleaning team on Hospitable can be done in various ways, depending on your needs. In this article, we'll walk you through several options. You can mix and match these methods. πŸ‘Œ

Looking to integrate with Turno (previously TurnoverBnb)? Check out their article here.

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Start Here

For all How To's discussed below, you'll first need to:

1. Create Your Teammate Profile:

  • Go to Operations > Teammates > +Add new

  • Add the teammate's name, company, and other details. An email or phone number is required.

  • Scope the teammate to their role (Cleaning).

  • Select the properties they are responsible for.

  • Click Create.

2. Create Cleaning Task Rules:

Important note: Task Rules create tasks, but they do not automatically notify your cleaners of them. You'll need to set up a method to alert your teammates of their tasks (either by Notification Rules, iCal, or User Management), which are covered in this article.

  • Go to Operations > Task Rules > +Add new

  • Select the type of task you want to create (for example, After Checkout). You can learn more about Task Rules here.

  • (Optional) Rename the task by clicking the task name and making edits

  • Set the Duration of the task using the slider.

    • Recommendation: Set the duration of the task for the time between your usual check-in and check-out. That way, the amount of time available for the cleaning will be visible in the teammate's calendar.

  • Set the timing (when the task will start). For example, immediately after the guest checks out.

  • (Optional) Add a checklist to the task.

  • Scroll to the Scope section. Click on the checkbox next to properties you want to include in the rule (or click the checkbox next to Properties to include all properties in the scoping).

  • Choose Auto Assignment and then choose a teammate.


1. How to Alert Teammates to Tasks with Email and SMS Notifications

This setup sends your cleaning team an email or text message anytime a new task is assigned or changed, or when a reservation is created or updated. It focuses solely on cleaning tasks and avoids clutter from reservation details.

After creating your Teammate's Profile and Task Rules, create Notification Rules:

  • Go to Operations > Notification rules > +Add new

  • Under Notify for a task, you'll want to set up individual rules for Task Assigned, Task Updated, and Task Cancelled.

    If you prefer, you can instead choose to Notify for an Event. These are tied to the reservation itself instead of a task.

  • (Optional) Rename the notification by clicking the name and making edits

  • Choose Email notification or SMS notification. To notify by both Email and SMS, you'll need to set up two notification rules.

  • Include all necessary information for the cleaner using short codes (full list here).

  • (Optional) Choose to Send a copy via email.

  • (Optional) If you are setting up an Event Notification, you will also have the option to Send an iCal attachment.

  • Select the Task Type or Team.

  • Scope to all properties where you have cleaners set up.

  • Repeat for the other notifications.


2. How to Share Your Cleaner's Tasks iCal Calendar Feed with Them

Your cleaners can view all tasks assigned to them in their own calendar app, such as their Google Calendar.

After creating your Teammate's Profile and Task Rules, share their iCal feed:

  • Go to Operations > Teammates > Click on the cleaner's profile

  • At the top right of the page, click on Copy the iCal feed. This will copy the iCal link to your computer, so you can paste it into a message with your cleaner.

    • Alternatively, you can click on the ... > Send instructions to email your cleaner instructions. The cleaner must have an email address in their profile.


3. How to Provide Hospitable Account Access with Custom Permissions and Daily Email Summaries

You can allow your cleaning team customized access to your Hospitable account. Depending on your settings, the cleaner can view reservations for a property (or properties), view tasks assigned to them, and manage their own tasks. Cleaners can also be sent a daily email with all their assigned tasks for the week.

You can limit their access to exclude any financial information.

After creating your Teammate's Profile and Task Rules, create Secondary User Profiles:

  • Go to Settings > User Management > +Invite a user

  • Create a profile for each cleaner using the same email address as their Teammate profile.

  • Select Custom access with permissions for Reservations, Calendar, Tasks, and Update their tasks.

  • Scope their access only to the properties they clean.

  • Click Invite to send them an invitation. They will need to accept this and create a Hospitable login.

Enable Daily Task Summary Emails:

  • Go to Settings > Preferences > Operations

  • Toggle ON Enable daily task summary emails for your teammates.

  • Click Save.


Important Things to Note:

  • A teammate can only decline a task they've been assigned if they have secondary user access with permissions to update their own or all tasks.

  • Payments to teammates cannot be processed through Hospitable.

  • To include any Checklist added to a Task Rule in a Notification, you will need to add the %task_list% short code to your Notification Rule templates. Checklists appear as bulleted lists and cannot actually be checked off.

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