How to Track Cleaning Contractors: Methods and Tools

Tracking your cleaning contractors means keeping three things in order: a solid administrative framework (contract, compliance certificate), a consistent work standard for everyone (checklist and validation photos), and a handful of metrics measured over time. Once you manage more than two or three properties, word of mouth and WhatsApp messages are no longer enough. This article covers each step in detail, including the French legal requirements you need to know, concrete performance thresholds, and a practical setup for a concierge service or a multi-property owner.

In brief

• For contracts of 5,000 € ex-VAT or more, you must request an Urssaf compliance certificate at signing, then every 6 months, and verify that it is valid.
• A single checklist and mandatory photos for all your cleaners eliminate any debate about what was done.
• Five metrics are enough: guest cleanliness rating, re-clean rate, photo compliance, response time and incidents in the first 24 hours.
• Always have a vetted backup contractor ready. Changing cleaners in the middle of a busy turnover period is the riskiest moment.

Table of contents

• Why tracking changes as your portfolio grows
• The legal framework: what to check on the contractor's side
• Set a standard before you inspect
• The five metrics to track per contractor
• A five-step monitoring routine
• Correct, replace, don't improvise
• Our view: tracking must fit in the cleaner's pocket
• Tool or spreadsheet: which to choose?
• Tracking your contractors with CleanClac
• Common mistakes to avoid
• FAQ
• Sources

Why tracking changes as your portfolio grows

With a single apartment, you know your cleaner, you drop by occasionally and a message does the job. With ten properties and four cleaners, each person interprets the work differently. A university study on cleaning for short-term rental platforms describes this shift: you move away from simply delegating tasks between acquaintances and into genuine contractor management, with greater administrative requirements (formal contracts, checks) but lower risk of long-term failure.

The stakes are financial. Airbnb notes in its guide to maintaining quality that better ratings and reviews can lead to more bookings, and cleanliness is one of the criteria guests rate separately. A rushed clean costs you twice: first in a damaged review, then in lost bookings.

The legal framework: what to check on the contractor's side

The compliance certificate

If you commission work from a business (cleaning company, self-employed contractor) under a contract worth 5,000 € ex-VAT or more, you are the principal and Urssaf requires you to request a compliance certificate at the time of signing, then every 6 months until the contract ends, and to verify that it is valid. The threshold applies to the total contract value, even when payments are split: two payments of 3,000 € therefore trigger the requirement.

In practice, for a single property owner, an annual cleaning contract rarely reaches this threshold. For a concierge service handling several properties with one cleaning company, it is reached quickly. When in doubt, ask for the document: it costs the contractor nothing if they are compliant, and its absence is already telling. If the principal does not carry out this check, they risk being held jointly liable for the contractor's social security debts, according to the Urssaf guidance.

What the platform does and does not do

Adding a contractor as a "team" on a listing does not relieve you of any responsibility. According to Airbnb's terms, the platform is not a party to the agreement between the host and the invited team, and the host remains responsible for their listing, including compliance with local rules. Tracking your contractors is your responsibility, not the platform's.

Contract and price: two points not to overlook

A service price covers the cost of delivery (labour, supplies, overheads) and a margin that accounts for expected profit and a contingency allowance, as the guide to pricing in public contracts published by the French Ministry of the Economy explains. That guide concerns public procurement, but the reasoning applies here: a heavily squeezed rate leaves little room to absorb an unexpected situation (extra linen, a very dirty property, a tight window), and quality is usually what gives way. A realistic rate, written into the contract along with the scope of work, is better than ongoing negotiation.

A useful contract should cover at minimum:

1. the scope for each property (task list, linen, consumables);
2. the rate and what triggers an additional charge;
3. the expected evidence (photos, incident reports);
4. the notice period for unavailability;
5. the correction procedure for repeated failures.

Set a standard before you inspect

The main cause of falling quality is usually not a lack of good intentions. It is the absence of a shared standard. The RapidEye recommendations for managing multiple cleaning contractors make this point clearly: one checklist for everyone, managed in a central operations tool rather than each contractor's own system, and mandatory photos. Without this, "clean the kitchen" means one thing to one person and something else to another.

In practice, standardise three things:

• The checklist by property type, room by room. You can start from our guided cleaning checklist or the detailed list of 166 illustrated tasks and remove anything that does not apply to your property.
• Validation photos: which rooms, which angles, before and after. Before-and-after photos establish accountability and prevent disputes about what was done.
• Incident reporting: a broken item, a stain or a low stock level should be flagged the same day, with a photo, rather than discovered by the next guest.

The five metrics to track per contractor

According to the same RapidEye recommendations, five metrics cover the essentials. The figures below are benchmarks from industry experts in the sector and should be adapted to your own situation rather than treated as fixed norms.

Two things to keep in mind. First, apply the same review process to everyone: focusing only on the weakest contractors lets the best ones slip without anyone noticing. Second, compare like with like: a 25 m² studio and a 120 m² house do not generate the same incident rate.

A five-step monitoring routine

1. Schedule without re-entering data. Each booking automatically creates a cleaning job between stays. This is the principle of an automatic cleaning schedule built from your bookings: fewer missed cleans, fewer messages.
2. Notify and confirm. The cleaner receives the job and confirms it. Response time becomes measurable.
3. Run the checklist. The cleaner works through each task room by room on their phone and uploads photos as they go.
4. Spot-check. You review the cleaning report for each job in a few seconds, and you visit a property in person from time to time rather than after every turnover.
5. Review monthly. You pull together the five metrics, talk through them with each contractor and update the checklists as needed.

A worked example

Say a concierge service manages 12 properties with 3 cleaners and around 160 cleans per month. If 20 cleans have to be redone or corrected, the re-clean rate is 12.5%, above the 10% benchmark. The monthly table shows that 14 of those 20 cases involve one cleaner and two properties. Rather than replacing the contractor, the concierge service revises the checklist for those two properties (bathroom and linen) and sets a two-week checkpoint. This scenario illustrates the method rather than reporting an observed result: it shows how data turns a feeling ("things aren't going well") into a targeted decision.

Correct, replace, don't improvise

The specialists cited above recommend allowing a documented correction window of around two weeks, with clear objectives, before considering a replacement. If nothing improves, transfer the properties gradually rather than in the panic of a busy Saturday turnover.

That requires a backup contractor already identified. Build a small pool of vetted local professionals (compliance certificate current if the threshold applies, insurance, references) and test them on a lower-stakes property. For urgent situations, our local cleaning jobs page lets you search for a local contractor, and our cleaning marketplace comparison helps you choose between the different ways to find one.

Feedback matters too. Airbnb advises treating cleanliness as a collaboration: ask your cleaners what difficulties they face (access issues, not enough linen, a turnover window that is too short) rather than only flagging what was missed. These conversations often surface small adjustments that make a real difference to operations.

Our view: tracking must fit in the cleaner's pocket

We see a recurring pattern with hosts and concierge services: the tracking system is designed for the manager and then imposed on the cleaner in the form of spreadsheets, group chats and photos sent at random. The result is that it simply does not get done. We built CleanClac the other way around: each cleaner has their own smartphone access with their job, checklist and photos, and the manager gets real-time tracking and reports in return.

We also think the relationship with contractors should not be taxed. That is why our model charges no commission on services: you pay a subscription per active property and you can invite your team or search for professionals at no extra cost. Finally, serious tracking includes stock: a missing soap or missing linen is a frequent cause of poor reviews, and stock alerts prevent the cleaner from discovering the shortage only when they are about to leave.

Our working rule: if a check takes the cleaner more than two minutes, it will be skipped. If information does not flow back to the manager automatically, it will be forgotten.

, Jonathan

Tool or spreadsheet: which to choose?

A spreadsheet and a group chat are enough for one or two properties. Beyond that, compare options using these criteria:

• Booking sync with your platforms and your PMS, with no manual re-entry;
• individual access for each cleaner, including a company that sends different teams;
• built-in evidence (timestamped photos, checklists, incident reports);
• stock management and alerts;
• history per contractor, essential for calculating metrics;
• pricing model: fixed subscription or commission per job.

Our guide on how to choose a cleaning management app goes through these criteria in detail, and the one on automating short-term rental management shows how to chain them together. If you coordinate multiple cleaners, the cleaning team management page presents the dedicated app.

Tracking your contractors with CleanClac

CleanClac automates cleaning scheduling from your bookings (Airbnb, Booking, Abritel, Vrbo), notifies your cleaners, assigns jobs automatically or manually, and brings together checklists, photos, videos and reports for every clean. A free plan is available. The subscriptions listed on the pricing page are billed per active property:

To put these figures in context, see our comparison of cleaning software prices. Your cleaners have their own access through the cleaner app.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Inspecting without a standard. Without a shared checklist, a photo proves nothing: no one knows what was expected in the first place.
• Replacing a contractor on the fly. Without a backup solution, any failure becomes a crisis.
• Ignoring the paperwork. A verbal agreement and no supporting documents expose you as soon as the contract value exceeds the threshold.
• Only measuring complaints. Reviews arrive too late. Internal metrics catch a decline before the guest does.
• Ignoring the season. The needs of a seaside or mountain property change throughout the year, as we explain in our guide to cleaning short-term rentals, and the seasonal deep clean deserves its own checklist.

FAQ

What is the difference between subcontracting and a service agreement?

With a service agreement, you purchase a service directly for your own use, for example a clean for your own property. Subcontracting occurs when the service provider in turn delegates part of the work to a third party, or when you, as a manager, have a service carried out for your client that you sold to them. In both cases, quality monitoring and supporting documents remain necessary.

What documents should I request from a cleaning contractor?

Depending on the type of contractor, ask for their business registration, professional liability insurance and, for contracts of 5,000 € ex-VAT or more, the Urssaf compliance certificate. Renew the certificate every 6 months during the contract. For a specific situation (contractor status, direct employment, multiple contractors), contact Urssaf or an accountant.

What happens if I do not request the compliance certificate?

According to Urssaf, you may be held jointly liable for your subcontractor's social security debts if you have not carried out this check. The requirement applies to contracts of 5,000 € ex-VAT and above, including split payments. An Urssaf adviser or an employment lawyer can confirm what you should do in your specific situation.

Which metrics should I track to assess a cleaner?

Five are enough: the guest cleanliness rating, the re-clean rate, photo compliance, response time to job assignments and incidents in the first 24 hours. Set your own thresholds after one or two months of measurement, taking the size and condition of the properties into account.

Do I need a backup contractor?

Yes. Replacing a cleaner at short notice in the middle of turnovers lowers quality and increases the risk of negative reviews. Keep a small pool of already vetted and tested professionals available for a straightforward property.

Sources

• The compliance certificate, Urssaf
• How to Manage Multiple Cleaning Vendors Across a Vacation Rental Portfolio, RapidEye
• Airbnb terms for listing management by a team
• Maintaining quality, Airbnb Resource Center
• Direct and Indirect Platform Labour: Cleaning for Short-Term Rental Platforms
• Guide to pricing in public contracts, French Ministry of the Economy