The turnaround for the student let’s in Southampton is very difficult as there are so many and not enough cleaning companies to cover it. But there’s not enough market for new cleaning firms to startup as the student let’s all finish basically on the same day. So usually the 31st June into 1st July is the 2 day period that all the previous years students checkout of their properties and the next lot move in the next day, That’s not a great period of time to turnaround those properties. My time running various cleaning companies such as The End of Tenancy Cleaners and The Oven Cleaners who was the perfect experience to see first hand how much of a mess this period is. I remember at one point I had to hire a massive team of 50 people just for 2 days only, Where only about 30 of them actually turned up to work and then we had between 50-100 properties to clean including the ovens and carpets and some of those house were 10 bedroom properties.
Then on my last year of student cleans I recall hiring all the staff, We all arrived outside the letting agent on the morning of the 31st where they told us just to wait. An hour goes by, which I had to pay the staff by the way, then I sent them all home, We then got a call mid afternoon where the agent demanded us to clean all 30 properties before the next day. “JOG ON” I said and never looked back. Looking back I do not know why I even did those jobs, The money was rubbish and the stress was overwhelming. I heard from some of the staff I employed that some cleaning companies did not even pay their staff. The whole system for this particular type of turnaround needs to be adjusted.
My advice to students when moving in, Take pictures of everything and save those photos until your moving out date to cover yourself in the checkout report. Also issues on day one, report them and keep calling everyday until they are rectified.
