Mike Brown•January 5, 2025•7 min read

5 Common Turnover Mistakes That Are Costing You Thousands

You're doing everything right—or so you think. Your properties are beautiful. Your listings are optimized. Your pricing is competitive. But somehow, your reviews keep getting dinged, your occupancy is lower than competitors, and you're constantly putting out fires.

The problem isn't what you're doing. It's what you're not noticing.

After analyzing operations data from hundreds of vacation rental turnovers, we've identified five silent profit-killers that most hosts don't even realize they're committing. Each one costs the average 3-bedroom vacation rental $3,000-$8,000 per year in lost bookings, bad reviews, and emergency fixes.

Let's expose these expensive mistakes—and more importantly, how to eliminate them.

Mistake #1: The "Trust-Based" Supply Restocking System

What It Looks Like

You assume your cleaner is restocking essentials during each turnover. Toilet paper, paper towels, soap, coffee, trash bags—the basics. You buy supplies in bulk, leave them in a closet, and trust that everything gets refilled.

Why It's Expensive

Without verification, supplies run out mid-stay, triggering panicked guest messages:

"There's no toilet paper and we have 3 more days here"
"The coffee pods are empty—any way you can drop some off?"
"We're out of trash bags and garbage pickup is tomorrow"

Each instance requires you to either:

• Drop everything and deliver supplies personally
• Arrange emergency delivery through a service
• Ask the guest to purchase items and reimburse them

But the real cost isn't the $15 in supplies or the hour of your time—it's the review damage. Guests who experience "ran out of basics" complaints mention it in reviews 73% of the time. Those reviews depress booking inquiries for 4-6 months.

The Fix: Photo Verification of Supplies

Require cleaners to photograph stocked supplies in specific locations:

• Toilet paper under bathroom sinks (minimum 4 rolls per bathroom)
• Paper towels in kitchen (minimum 2 rolls)
• Coffee/tea station fully stocked
• Cleaning supplies under kitchen sink
• Trash bags in all waste bins

When cleaners know they must submit proof, "I forgot" becomes impossible. Supply issues drop to nearly zero.

Mistake #2: Same-Day Turnovers Without Buffer Time

What It Looks Like

Checkout is 11am. Check-in is 4pm. That gives you 5 hours, which sounds like plenty for cleaning a 3-bedroom rental. You accept back-to-back bookings to maximize occupancy.

Why It's Expensive

This system works perfectly—until it doesn't:

• The previous guest checks out late (11:45am instead of 11am)
• The cleaning team encounters unexpected mess (spilled wine, pet hair everywhere, dishes piled up)
• An appliance breaks (dishwasher still running, dryer with wet towels inside)
• A maintenance issue appears (clogged toilet, broken bed frame)

Suddenly your 5-hour buffer becomes 2 hours. Your cleaner rushes. Quality suffers. Or worse, the property isn't ready when the new guest arrives at 4pm.

Late check-ins trigger instant bad reviews: "We waited outside for 45 minutes" or "Had to rush our cleaning, property wasn't quite ready."

The Fix: Implement Turnover Buffer Blocks

The most successful property managers follow one of these approaches:

• One-Night Buffer: No same-day turnovers allowed. Checkout Monday, next check-in Wednesday.
• Extended Checkout-to-Check-in Window: Checkout 10am, check-in 5pm or later (7-hour minimum buffer)
• Dynamic Buffer System: Allow same-day turnovers only if previous guest stayed 1-2 nights (less wear). Require buffer after 5+ night stays.

Yes, you'll block some potential booking combinations. But the math works in your favor: Reducing rushed turnovers by 80% increases review scores, which increases booking demand by 15-25%, offsetting the lost nights.

Mistake #3: Invisible Maintenance Issues

What It Looks Like

Your cleaner notices a loose towel rack during a turnover. They make a mental note to tell you about it, then get distracted by the next task. It never gets reported. Three turnovers later, a guest yanks the towel rack completely off the wall, damaging the drywall.

Or: A bedroom door starts sticking. Cleaners force it open each time without mentioning it. Eventually a guest calls frustrated: "The bedroom door is impossible to open—feels unsafe."

Why It's Expensive

Small problems become expensive emergencies because you're not aware they exist:

• The $15 towel rack fix becomes a $200 drywall repair
• The sticky door needs emergency service during a guest stay ($150+ emergency locksmith)
• The slow-draining sink becomes a completely clogged pipe requiring plumber ($300)
• The burnt-out exterior light becomes a safety complaint in a review

Preventive maintenance costs 60-80% less than emergency repairs, but only if you know issues exist before they escalate.

The Fix: Mandatory Maintenance Reporting System

Add a maintenance checklist to every turnover:

• Test all doorknobs and locks (any sticking or looseness?)
• Check all light bulbs and switches
• Run all faucets and showers (water pressure normal? drains clearing quickly?)
• Test appliances (making unusual noises?)
• Inspect furniture (wobbly chairs, loose screws?)

Require photo documentation of any issues found, no matter how minor. This creates a maintenance queue you can address during vacancy periods before they become guest-facing problems.

Mistake #4: Inconsistent Wi-Fi Performance

What It Looks Like

Your Wi-Fi works fine when you test it. Guests occasionally mention "slow Wi-Fi" in reviews, but most don't complain. You figure it's good enough.

Why It's Expensive

In 2025, Wi-Fi is no longer an amenity—it's infrastructure. Remote workers and digital nomads represent 22% of vacation rental bookings, and they have zero tolerance for connectivity issues.

When Wi-Fi underperforms:

• Remote workers can't attend video calls (instant bad review)
• Families can't stream entertainment (complaint in 40% of reviews)
• Your smart home devices disconnect (lock codes fail, thermostats don't update)

But here's the insidious part: Wi-Fi problems are intermittent. It works fine when you check, then slows to a crawl when 5 devices are connected simultaneously. Guests blame your property, not their usage patterns.

The Fix: Professional Wi-Fi Systems With Redundancy

Upgrade from consumer-grade equipment to prosumer or business-class systems:

• Minimum Speed: 100 Mbps download (200+ Mbps for properties targeting remote workers)
• Mesh Systems: Eliminate dead zones in larger properties
• Separate Networks: Guest network isolated from smart home devices
• Backup Connection: Cellular failover for mission-critical properties

Test connectivity monthly by actually using it: Join a video call from each bedroom, stream content, upload large files. If you experience buffering, your guests definitely will.

Mistake #5: The "Hope and Pray" Checkout Inspection

What It Looks Like

Checkout is at 11am. Your cleaner arrives around noon to start the turnover. They're the first person to see the property after guest departure. If there's damage, they text you. If everything looks fine, cleaning begins.

Why It's Expensive

Airbnb and Vrbo give hosts 14 days to file damage claims, but there's a critical catch: You must prove the damage occurred during that specific guest's stay.

The problem with the "cleaner discovers damage" system:

• By the time damage is discovered, the guest has already left (maybe hours ago)
• Platforms favor guests in late-reported disputes
• Without timestamped photos of the damage before cleanup, guests can claim it was pre-existing
• Your damage claim approval rate plummets to 15-25% without immediate documentation

The math is brutal: a $400 red wine stain on a white couch costs $800 to professionally clean. Without immediate photographic evidence linking it to the departing guest, you eat the entire cost.

The Fix: Mandatory Pre-Cleaning Inspection With Photos

Require a full property inspection before any cleaning work begins:

1. Immediately after checkout time passes (within 30-60 minutes)
2. Document property condition with timestamped photos showing:
   • Any damage or unusual wear
   • General condition of key areas
   • Proof of guest departure (packed belongings gone, beds disturbed)
3. Flag any issues immediately before touching anything
4. Then proceed with cleaning

This workflow increases damage claim approval rates to 65-70% because you have irrefutable proof of when damage occurred.

The Compounding Effect

Here's what makes these mistakes truly expensive: They don't happen in isolation. They compound.

A same-day turnover gets rushed. The cleaner forgets to restock toilet paper. They also don't notice a maintenance issue. The Wi-Fi happens to be slow that week. A minor damage goes unreported.

The result? A guest stays in a property where multiple things go wrong. Instead of a 5-star review with maybe one minor complaint, you get a 3-star review listing multiple issues. That review tanks your visibility for months.

One bad review from compounding mistakes can cost $4,000+ in lost bookings over the following quarter.

Calculating Your Actual Cost

Add up the annual cost ranges for each mistake you're currently making:

For a single 3-bedroom property, eliminating these five mistakes can recover $11,000-$25,000 per year. If you manage multiple properties, multiply accordingly.

Conclusion: Systems Over Intentions

None of these mistakes happen because you're lazy or incompetent. They happen because you're relying on memory, trust, and good intentions instead of verifiable systems.

The hosts who consistently earn 5-star reviews and maintain 80%+ occupancy aren't lucky—they've built operations that make mistakes structurally impossible:

• Supplies can't be forgotten because photo proof is required
• Maintenance issues can't go unreported because inspection checklists force documentation
• Damage can't be missed because pre-cleaning inspections happen every single time

Fix these five mistakes, and you'll eliminate 60-70% of the operational drama currently consuming your time and eroding your profits. Your reviews will improve. Your bookings will increase. And you'll finally have the profitable, low-stress vacation rental business you started this for in the first place.