Trust, but do Verify

You know I was always taught when I was in my w2 job as a manager to inspect what you expect. Now as you may know if you have been following me, I am a trusting person and I think that has many great benefits, but it does leave you open sometimes. Let me be clear I am not changing who I am. I will still be trusting, but in my business, I need to ensure I set up checks and balances. Let me tell you a story about my Short Term Rental Cleaner…..

We launched our first short-term rental in April and as I like to do I get my cleaner through a referral. I didn't know a ton about Short Term Rentals then (You learn a lot fast). I trusted that person on many things. We tackled and he told me what I needed for supplies, which I thought was high but his argument made sense. He said we always needed 3 sets in case something happens. I actually don't dispute this, well I kinda do in this day and age, I can get something there from Amazon in a few days. He also sourced our handyman. Here is the first flag, the handyman fixes a bathroom issue, but two guests later, it was broken again. I talked to him and he agreed to fix it at the material cost. Well, I got a bill for $520 from the plumber, $200 less than the original fix. I paid him because he did the work but continued to ask for an invoice to no avail (when I say me, I actually mean my amazing admin manager who runs all this). Ok, fine you know I’ll let this one slide. Next month he told us he threw out a bunch of items because they couldn't be cleaned. That costs the business almost $500. Finally, his quote of $275 to clean the house seemed to always be $325 due to the “need for heavy cleaning”. This was the last straw with me so my Super Admin (can any of you make a superhero drawing of that?) had a talk with him and let him go. The new cleaner came in to do an inventory and lo and behold we are missing about $1,500 worth of supplies including most bed sheets and towels that I believe he “lost”.

Now, we do watch them the best we can and have put more restrictions in place but sometimes you make mistakes to learn. Going forward we need pictures of every cleaning before payment, pictures of anything they want to throw away due to wear and tear (We do have a high level, we will not give guests stained or old towels), and we have a monthly inventory they have to submit.

I say all this as a precaution because it happened to most of us; we were taken advantage of. This did not ruin my business but probably cost me about $3,000 in total. It's a business though and I need to cut expenses. Also, I know myself, I'm trusting but once the trust is broken I no longer can depend on you.