Maui Cleaning Services

[Francisco Gutierrez]

Hello All,

I wanted to know what one would expect to pay for cleaning services for a STR on Maui - Lets say a 1BR/1BA? Do you pay per cleaning or maybe a fixed monthly amount? I am in the early stages of finding a condo near Kihei and after reading (new/old) posts it sounds like your cleaning service is important - Just not sure on how much I should expect to pay. Thanks in advance

[Mike Neubauer]

@Francisco Gutierrez. Oh boy, you've gotta have your cleaners locked in to your schedule. For us, we let them know as soon as a booking happens. In fact, we have an auto email generated and sent to our cleaners as soon as a booking comes in. We ask them to confirm the unit and that they have received each email and that cleanings are in their calendars. We usually keep about a 92-95% occupancy depending on the unit.  Because of this, most of our check outs are at 10am and our cleaners get in at 10:01am. Guests usually arrive same day and check in is around 3pm. That means, as soon as the cleaners arrive they need to let us know the condition of the unit and if there is anything that needs additional attention: broken fan, leaking toilet, missing TV, whatever it is. Then we'll need to get with the correct provider of services (handyman, plumber, etc) and get that remedied ASAP.  

If you are thinking about getting into the STR market because the money is good, there's a few things you should know. 1) You're buying into a FULL TIME job. 2) There will be A LOT of stress. 3) It is BY NO MEANS PASSIVE INVESTING unless you hire property management. If you do hire property management you probably won't cash flow, which negates any reason you might want to do this for most new investors.

If this all sounds good to you and you are prepared to manage your own properties, then yes, the returns can be pretty lucrative. Just know what you're signing up for before you buy...

Good luck!