Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between.

Greer asks:

I'm looking to hire inspectors to help with the cleaning process and get some work off of my plate so I can focus on growing my business. What advice do you have on hiring: should they be employees or contractors? Should we pay hourly or per turnover? Should we charge different rates for different properties?

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Hello, welcome to another great episode.

My name is Sarah Karakaian.

I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

Thanks for Visiting.

And this is the--

Hosting Hotline.

We've got a great question today about inspectors.

Hi, Sarah and Annette.

My name is Greer.

I'm from Gregory Hill Homes, on Instagram.

We are a short-term rental owner operator in Rhode Island.

I absolutely love you guys, love listening to you, and have gotten so many great

insights from you guys for this industry.

My question is about hiring.

I'm looking to hire inspectors to help with the cleaning process and

get some work off of my plate so I can focus on growing my business.

Um, I know that you guys have experience with that, so I was just wondering how you

went about hiring them for the first time.

Looking into it, it looks like I won't be able to hire them as

independent contractors, but employees.

So just wondering how you went about that, how you pay them.

Do you do it hourly or per turnover, um, if every house is the same, etc?

So any help and insight would be very helpful.

Thank you.

All right.

We have so much to say about this.

Annette, do you want to get us started?

Well, first I want to thank Greer because number one, she's an amazing host.

Please check out her spaces in Rhode Island at Gregory Hill Homes.

She's actually been a STR Share Sunday.

So we thank you for being a loyal listener and contributor,

and let's talk about this.

Everyone, if you don't have an inspector, you might be the

inspector, but let's get an inspector.

Let's start really quick, Sarah.

Let's just give a rundown of what an inspector does.

I love that.

Yes, so an inspector is someone who helps you trust but verify the work of

the cleaning team and lends an extra layer of support to the cleaning team.

So on our team, our inspector comes, if they can, prior to the clean, and

they do a little pre-clean checklist that can include filling all the

soaps, bringing out a new sponge.

If they can--

Starting laundry.

Starting laundry.

Yes.

So those sorts of things.

They let the cleaning team come and do their thing, and they come

back in, they lint roll everything.

They stage the curtains.

We, of course, check all of the safety elements.

They run their hands across the counter.

So it really is just a [Inaudible] but verify.

But also in our company, we treat them as just an extra layer for

the cleaning team to lean on.

All right, so now that we know who the inspector is, Greer, the first

thing we want to tell you is, and this is for all listeners, this person definitely

needs to have a high attention to detail.

They are the detailer.

Some people call them the detailer in their company.

So that's number one when you are hiring.

Number two, this is something, um, you do want to make sure in you're

in alignment with this person.

I know Greer you had mentioned not being able to hire an independent contractor.

Need a little more info there, but listeners also, some people hire them as a

1099, which is an independent contractor.

Some people hire them as a W-2.

Of course, this is something that you're going to want to look very

specifically in your state, exactly how your business is set up, and

what you're asking this person to do.

But we want to encourage you, you're going to find the right person, but set up first

before you even go on the hunt for this person, what is that job description?

What are you going to want them to do?

And Greer, it sounds like your business is growing, and, um, this is an

opportunity that is that person just going to be an inspector or are you

going to have them do some other things?

But Sarah, let's talk about what she was asking of, the payment.

What type of compensation?

Is this a per turn?

Is it by the hour?

Are they driving a far away?

Are they going to be able to do multiple places?

Here's the tricky part.

In my experience, it can vary greatly whether or not you have

a very small company, business.

You have one property, two properties.

I understand the pains there of how do you get someone to take ownership of the

inspector position for you while you may only have two, three turnovers a week?

So if that is you, put yourself in the potential inspector's

shoes, in the detailers shoes.

What's going to make it worth it to them to take ownership and pride

into making sure every single one of your spaces is guest ready?

In my opinion, that might be more of a per piece compensation.

What is it going to be worth it for them to get a bed, go to your

property, spend some time there?

How many bedrooms?

How many baths?

Are they doing stuff on the outside?

Are they checking the elements?

Hopefully you're getting a professional to do the pool and the hot tub and things

like that, but they might just make sure everything's locked up and ready for the

guest and safety elements are in place.

So think about that really deeply.

It may not be, well, they're only there for an hour and a half.

Well, sure, but if they're only turning over the property once or

twice a week, it may not be worth it to them on that hourly rate.

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And some ways to get really creative, you may have an opportunity,

I have in the past had my turnover person also be the inspector.

And that was number one, because I really trusted this person.

They had the time to be able to turn the place, take a break, and then

go back into the property with an inspector's view, um, and know that

they were doing a separate job the next time that they went through the house.

And so I also just want to say, what does your turnover team look like right now?

Is that a one or two-person team?

Is there a way that you can maybe compensate them to do a secondary?

And say, this is not the clean, this is a second portion of

the work that's contracted.

That's a place that I would maybe look at, Greer, just because you said you couldn't

do the independent contractor thing.

I don't know what type of company you're using for your turnovers.

First, go to them, and maybe they even know someone.

Um, Sarah and I were just thinking there's a plethora of places to

look online, inside your network, see what other people are doing.

But this is definitely a place you are going to have to get creative, and you

are going to have to iterate most likely.

And the awesome part is you can continue to layer on more things.

So just really need to make sure that person's in alignment.

I would also see what your budget can handle.

If you are a larger company out there loving this information or

this conversation about inspectors, you can pay by the hour if you can

offer your inspectors a larger shift.

So for us right now, our inspectors start around 9:00, 9:30 in the morning, and

they usually work until 4:30, 5 o'clock in the evening, depending on how busy our

day is, how many back to backs we have.

And then we have a couple inspectors, that way every day is covered in our business.

That's how we work.

I know other companies that have-- really large companies might have

every inspector or property detailer has a section of homes or an area of

homes that they take ownership of.

So there's a lot of ways to structure this.

There really is no one-size-fits-all.

But I also want to give a shout out to one of our podcast sponsors, Breezeway.

They help you dial in this inspector role.

So whether you take Annette's advice and maybe see if the cleaning company

has someone else, they can offer you to come and be the inspector or

maybe the cleaner is the inspector.

If they have two different checklists, I always share with my team that

these checklists are our little mini contracts for every turn.

If you check that box on our Breezeway app, that means you've done that task.

And you want to make sure that your inspector checklist is obviously very

different from the cleaners checklist.

They're looking for different things.

They're doing different tasks.

So Annette, anything else that you can think of we can offer Greer?

I'm excited for you, and I just really want you to dig in and be

creative because I'm sure if you start to have these conversations, there's

more things that you could probably take off of your plate that the inspector

might gladly add on to their plate.

For example, do you need someone helping you shop for consumables?

Do you need someone, um, helping you with social media?

Do you need someone doing guest outreach?

So there's just some other things I encourage you, if you have to get creative

and it's going to be an investment, and you want to make sure that investment

you're making in human capital, which is so important that, uh, just get

creative with it, we're excited.

Check back in with us.

Let us know how it goes.

With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

Thanks for Visiting.