The Good, the Bad & the Messy: Life as a VRBO Host!

Hi Friends! Welcome back to the blog! A few years ago, we purchased a lakehouse. Our goal was to have a place to build memories with our extended family. We’ve been staying there in the summer and then renting it out on VRBO the rest of the year to share it with others, and it essentially supports itself. It’s a WIN- WIN for us!!

Rental Season is upon us, and we’ve had about 5 bookings so far in September. Today I’m taking you through the process of arriving after guests have checked out It’s always a surprise what we may find after they leave!

We enter through the garage and check out the trash and recycling situation. Sometimes the trash is stuffed full, but this time they didn’t leave much trash.

Wandering into the house from the garage, we peeked into the laundry room and found all of their towels on the floor (they followed check out instructions- yay!!) This stay we had 7 guests, so they used quite a few towels. We absolutely love it when guests follow the check-out instructions!!

The kitchen was in good shape. Hey, they even ran the dishwasher for us- it gave us a head start on prepping for the next guest.

They didn’t eat many of the snacks, nor did they leave anything in the fridge. I would say the most popular things that people leave in the fridge are cartons of eggs and bottles of water. We have a fridge in the garage, too, but most guests don’t use it.

I continued in the house to check out the living room; it was perfect- no damage, nothing out of place.

In our checkout instructions, we ask guests to leave the sheets on the beds; it’s easier for them to check out, and it gives me a chance to check the sheets’ condition and see if anything needs special treatment.

This guest asked for a rollaway bed to be moved into one of the bedrooms. We were happy to make that happen!! All 4 bedrooms were used this visit.

Now THIS is the reason why I leave the sheets on the beds. Someone had a little bloody ear, and it bled onto the pillowcase and soaked thru to the pillow protector. This little stain was not a problem for me!! I used my stain remover, gave it a scrub, and the stain was gone!!

The group that stayed loved doing puzzles, and they asked for a table to be set up. We did that, and they folded the table back up and placed it by the front door. Excellent!!

It takes Hubby and I about 4 hours to do the “turn over” for the next guests. Soon enough, the house was ready to go for our next guests. Yes, we clean our Vrbo property. We might be just a little picky about cleanliness and order (wink). That may be the secret to 46 “10-star” reviews!

All Ready To GO!!!

We have a book that guests can sign. This was the entry left by the guests who stayed this time. We were thrilled that they had a great stay with us!!