Window cleaning for Airbnb: my schedule, what I pay, and why I stopped doing it myself at property three

Window cleaning was the last maintenance task I systematised. For the first two years of hosting, I cleaned windows when they looked dirty, which meant: not often enough, and never before check-in, and definitely never before I took listing photos.

Then a guest at my Brighton flat left a review that mentioned 'smudgy windows facing the sea'. The view is genuinely the best thing about that flat. I'd been letting it be obscured by two months of salt spray and fingerprints.

I got a window cleaner in within a week. The view is now one of the first things guests mention in positive reviews. I have no idea how long I'd been wasting it.

Why windows matter more for STRs than for owner-occupied homes

In your own home, dirty windows bother you when you notice them. In a rental, dirty windows feature in listing photos, guest first impressions, and occasionally reviews. The stakes are different.

Listing photos especially. Natural light is everything in Airbnb photography — it makes rooms look bigger, brighter, more appealing. Dirty windows cut the light. They also introduce reflections and smears that show up in photos even when the editor hasn't noticed.

I had professional listing photos retaken after getting my windows properly cleaned. The difference was visible in the click-through rate — up about 11% in the six weeks after I changed the photos. I can't isolate windows as the sole cause, but they were the only major change I made.

How often to clean

This varies enormously by location and property type. My general schedule:

Brighton seafront flat: Every six weeks. Salt air deposits on the outside, constant sea breeze brings spray. If I push it to eight weeks the difference is visible. This is my most demanding window cleaning property.

Edinburgh Old Town flat (second floor, mostly internal courtyard): Every twelve weeks. Urban grime builds slower, no salt spray, and the windows don't face primary light direction for the listing photos. Could probably go to sixteen weeks without guest impact, but I stay at twelve.

Edinburgh Stockbridge flat (first floor, residential street): Every ten weeks. Bird mess is the main issue — London plane trees on the street. Unpredictable timing, so the ten-week schedule catches any accumulation before it starts showing in photos.

Lake District cottage: Every eight weeks during let season (March through November). Closed for December to February, so two cleans over winter aren't worth it. I do a full clean before reopening in March as part of the seasonal maintenance run.

The contractor vs DIY maths

I cleaned my own windows for the first two properties. It took me about 90 minutes per property, required a decent squeegee and a ladder for the first floor, and I was always nervous about the ladder on wet days. I also never got the outside of the upper-floor windows properly clean because I didn't have the right equipment.

Professional window cleaners with a water-fed pole system get the outside of upper floor windows cleaner than I ever managed from a ladder, in about 20–25 minutes per property, without me being anywhere near the premises.

What I pay: my Brighton window cleaner charges £28 per visit for the flat (two bedrooms, one reception, kitchen, bathroom — ten windows inside and out). Edinburgh is £22 and £24 for the two flats. The Lake District cottage is £35 because it's a full three-bed with more windows and the cleaner has to travel further.

Annually across four properties on my current schedule: approximately £580 on window cleaning. That includes one additional clean at the Brighton property in August because the salt buildup is worse in peak summer.

My 90 minutes of my own labour to do one property, roughly 12 times a year, would have been 18 hours. At my effective hourly rate as a host (I track this — it's roughly £22–28 an hour across everything I do), that's £396–504 a year of my time per property. For one property. The contractor is cheaper than my time, does a better job, and doesn't require me to store a ladder.

Finding a reliable window cleaner

This was harder than I expected. The first cleaner I used in Brighton flaked twice in a row during busy summer months, which is exactly the wrong time to have dirty windows. The second has been reliable for two years.

What's worked for finding them: asking the building's other residents or neighbouring businesses, not Google Maps listings. The window cleaners who clean for local businesses tend to be more reliable than the ones running solo residential rounds, because they have larger contract value at stake on the same route.

I pay my cleaners by bank transfer monthly in arrears, which gives them a predictable income and gives me a reliable service. Anyone who only takes cash and won't commit to a regular schedule is not worth the price saving.

Internal windows — the turnover question

Professional window cleaning covers the outside. Internal windows need to be done during turnovers.

My cleaner checklist includes: wipe all glass surfaces with a microfibre cloth and glass cleaner. This covers internal window panes, mirrors, shower screens, and oven glass. It takes about eight minutes per property and is part of the standard turnover cost.

The distinction matters because internal fingerprints and smears are guest-caused and turn-over-frequency — the kind of thing a guest does opening a window on arrival and which your previous cleaner wouldn't have seen. External grime is slow-building and needs the professional equipment.

Velux and skylights

My Lake District cottage has two Velux windows. These are the ones I most frequently forget about and the ones most visible to guests because they're in the main bedroom. The external surface builds moss and debris faster than standard windows in a countryside setting.

My window cleaner adds £8 to the visit to do the Velux externals. I considered doing them myself but the pitch of the roof rules that out safely. Worth asking your cleaner specifically about skylights — some won't do them, some charge extra, and some just include them without being asked.

Before listing photos

One absolute rule: get a window clean before any new listing photos, and before any major rebrand of the listing. I now schedule a professional clean about four days before photo day, which gives time for any water-spotting from the clean itself to dry and be wiped off.

If you haven't had listing photos retaken in more than eighteen months, book a window cleaner first, then a photographer. The gap between your current photos and what the property could look like with clean glass and good light is probably larger than you think.