Do you ever wonder what it’s like to work as a vacation rental cleaner? We sat down with Ivan, one of South Beach Cleaning’s first and foremost vacation rental cleaning professionals, to get the inside scoop.

How did you end up working as a cleaner?

It wasn’t on purpose, actually, my companion was working at South Beach Cleaning and I liked what I saw. I got folded in. They needed somebody to work on vacation rentals. I actually worked on the company’s first vacation rental with multiple units.

What is your favorite part of cleaning?

To see the customer happy with the service.

To give you an example, this morning I was working on a unit at the Congress Hotel, and the owner was really happy with the work I’d done. She showed me her unit in the hotel, which was really beautiful. It felt good to have that experience, to have my work be recognized and to be invited to see more.

What do you wish more people knew about your job?

I wish more people realized that cleaners are professionals. Many people don’t realize that cleaning companies hire pros, who go in with specific knowledge about how to get the job done.

It would be great if more customers saw themselves as partnering with professionals, letting us work with them to make the space better. Especially in vacation rentals, where it’s sort of like managing a mini-hotel.

What could customers do to help out their cleaners?

Lay back and relax! That said, sometimes customers get motivated to help clean when they see us, it’s nice because we get to see their enthusiasm and that motivates us even more.

What are the main differences between cleaning vacation rentals and other properties?

Normally with a vacation rental, the customer isn’t present at the cleaning. Owners usually leave cleaners by themselves as well, but they’ll be in the house, so the experience is more supervised.

Vacation rentals are cleaned more often, usually weekly. So there’s more familiarity with the spaces, and fewer surprises for the cleaning team.