Why Finding Reliable Cleaners Is Getting Harder, And Why It Likely Won’t Improve in 2026
Summary
Cleaning staff shortages are significantly impacting short-term rental operations, leading to lost bookings and negative reviews. The article highlights how staffing issues, particularly in cleaning, are a strategic fault line, affecting guest experience and revenue. Hosts should focus on systemizing cleaning processes and reducing coordination overhead to mitigate these challenges.
Key Insights
- •73% of property managers identified operations and staffing as one of the most immediate constraints on their business.
- •In the U.S. hotel industry, roughly 65% of hotels reported staffing shortages in early 2025, with housekeeping cited as the most critical gap.
- •More than one-third of hosts and property managers lost bookings or received negative reviews in 2025 due to staffing or contractor issues.
- •Nearly 40% reported difficulty finding dependable local cleaning staff, with the problem becoming more pronounced as portfolios grow.
Action Items
- ✓Rethink cleaning as a system: how standards are documented, how knowledge is transferred, and how operations stay resilient when people inevitably cycle in and out.Effort: mediumImpact: medium
- ✓Reduce coordination overhead by centralizing scheduling and availability, and creating a single point of reference for cleaning instructions and expectations.Effort: mediumImpact: medium
Tools & Resources
- →Doinn: Tools like Doinn and Hospitable’s Cleaner Marketplace focus on centralizing how managers find, schedule, and communicate with cleaning teams.
- →Hospitable: Tools like Doinn and Hospitable’s Cleaner Marketplace focus on centralizing how managers find, schedule, and communicate with cleaning teams.
- →Airbnb Host Services Marketplace: One idea Airbnb has been circling over the past year is a Host Services Marketplace.
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