Babies and Pets: Preparing a Property to Welcome Them

Welcoming a baby or a pet does not mean permanently adapting your property: it means getting out the right equipment at the right time, and cleaning it differently from everything else. This is exactly the sort of task that gets forgotten, because it is not needed for every clean and depends on information given at booking. This guide covers the conditional: what to put out only if requested, and how.

Conditional tasks

These tasks should appear on the checklist only when the condition is met. If a cleaner sees “put out the travel cot” on every clean, they will eventually stop reading it, and miss the one time it really matters.

Babies: safety before equipment

The travel cot is the only piece of equipment in a holiday let where a fault can have serious consequences. Three checks every time you put it out, not just when you buy it:

• All four sides locked, tested by pulling firmly upwards. If one side is not locked, it will collapse under the child’s weight.
• The original mattress and only the original mattress, exactly the right size. No extra mattress, no pillows, no duvets: the official advice for infant sleep is clear and consistent on this, as repeated by Santé publique France.
• No torn parts, no holes in the mesh, no cracked plastic.

Cleaning: wipe the frame with a gentle cleaner and wash the mattress cover at 60°C between families, making sure it is fully dry. Provide a fitted sheet with the property’s linen, rather than leaving parents to improvise.

Other baby equipment depends on your offering: high chair with checked harness, stair gate, socket covers, baby bath. Each addition widens your market but adds another item to check.

Colouring books and soft toys are about thoughtfulness. Two rules: brand new crayons and books for each stay, never leftovers from the last guests, and washable soft toys, machine washed between families. A soft toy that cannot be washed should not be passed from child to child.

Pets: three items and a protocol

Welcoming pets opens up a real market, as long as you are organised. The essentials are three items, only put out when requested:

• Two bowls, one for water (filled on arrival), one for food (left empty).
• A pet bed or mat, clean and medium-sized.
• A litter tray with scoop, in properties that accept cats.

The hygiene for this equipment is not the same as for the rest of the property. Bowls should be washed separately from guest crockery, ideally in a dedicated basin, and the pet bed should be machine washed or, if not possible, replaced regularly. These are the only items in the property that justify a separate cleaning process.

After a pet stay, add two steps to your usual clean: a thorough vacuum of all textiles, including sofas and rugs where hair gets embedded, and extra airing. A damp rubber brush on fabric will pick up hairs the vacuum misses.

Be clear in your listing about what you accept: size, number, access to bedrooms and sofas. A written rule is easier to enforce than an unwritten one. You may want to charge a pet cleaning fee, which is not a penalty but covers the real extra time required.

Storage: the key to everything

All this equipment has one thing in common: it is rarely used and takes up space. Three rules to keep it usable:

• A single, clearly identified place, known to all cleaners, ideally the same in all your properties.
• Stored clean and dry, never put away dirty. A damp travel cot folded up will go mouldy in its bag and only be discovered when you get it out in front of the parents.
• Checked every six months, even if unused: plastics age, foam sags, covers yellow.

The information “this property has a travel cot” should live in the property file, not in the manager’s memory, or it will disappear the first time you change cleaners. The same logic applies as for Dosing Consumables: The Method That Prevents Running Out.