The Optus Glean promise: predictability
Three pillars. Three commitments. No exceptions.
Predictable cost. A fixed per-unit changeover fee inside a retained monthly minimum, paid by SEPA Direct Debit, with an annual indexed review. No variable hours. No surprise invoices. No padded callout charges. Budgeted once, paid monthly, reviewed once a year.
Predictable presence. The turnover happens every time it is meant to happen. A named primary cleaner is assigned to your units, supported by a named relief who is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard. The changeover does not depend on whether one person is available on one day.
Predictable freedom. A single point of accountability. One programme. One named manager. One number to call. The changeover, the linen, and the seasonal resets are no longer a problem the operator has to manage — they are a service that runs.
Why holiday let cleaning in Ireland is structurally hard to get right
Holiday-let turnover cleaning in Ireland is overwhelmingly delivered by casual, part-time, or self-employed operatives found through local WhatsApp groups and social media. A significant proportion of that workforce also holds healthcare assistant shifts in nursing homes and acute care, and the cleaning shift is released when a care shift is offered. In a coastal holiday market — where short-term lets run roughly 51 percent rural along the Wild Atlantic Way against 31 percent in Dublin, on figures derived from Fáilte Ireland and CSO data — that casual base is thin on the ground and stretched across long travel distances. A single no-show on a same-day changeover is not an inconvenience; it is a cancelled or one-star stay at the height of the season.
The pattern is reinforced by Irish-specific pressures. Housing affordability and wage compression pull operatives toward whichever shift pays slightly more on the day. The Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order rate of €14.80 per hour for 2026, set under the Labour Court's sectoral framework and enforced by the Workplace Relations Commission, sits close enough to flexible care-sector pay that casual cleaners drift between the two. There is no insurance behind the gig cleaner, and no record when an inspector, an insurer, or a guest's complaint demands one.
This is the structural problem Optus Glean is built to solve. Our operatives are fully PAYE-employed with guaranteed weekly hours, paid leave, and pension contributions under Irish auto-enrolment, paid above the ERO floor deliberately so the role is the better work, not the secondary income. A named primary cleaner is assigned to your units, supported by a named relief, both Garda-vetted through the National Vetting Bureau and trained to Optus Glean's documented IPC standard. The turnover is delivered to a fixed checklist, photographed at sign-off, and logged — which is why we can promise the changeover happens every time it is meant to, not most times.
A Managed Programme for Holiday-Let Operators
Optus Glean does not sell single hobby-host changeovers. Holiday let cleaning is offered as a managed monthly programme for holiday-let operators, serviced-accommodation businesses and portfolio hosts with three or more units or a property-management remit. The operator commits to a retained monthly minimum on SEPA Direct Debit over a minimum twelve-month term; turnovers are billed against that minimum at a fixed per-unit fee, with overage billed monthly in arrears. This is the same contractable backbone Optus Glean uses for its B2B facilities work, ported to self-catering: a defined scope, an SLA, fixed pricing, and a single point of accountability.
For the per-turnover prices behind the programme, see our Airbnb cleaning cost guide for Ireland. For the step-by-step turnover itself, see how to clean an Airbnb between guests. This service sits within our wider short-term let sector programme.
Self-Catering & Holiday-Home Changeover Cleaning
Every changeover follows the published Optus Glean Changeover Standard — a fixed, room-by-room checklist signed by the operative on each turn and photographed at sign-off so the operator has timestamped proof of guest-ready state before the arrival window opens. The turnover covers the full guest-ready reset:
- Strip and bag all used linen and towels, restart the laundry cycle
- Kitchen reset — empty and wipe fridge, run or empty dishwasher, degrease surfaces, restock welcome consumables
- Bathroom deep wipe — descale, disinfect, replace toiletries, fold fresh towels to a fixed standard
- Bedrooms made up with fresh linen and reset to the listing-photo layout
- Vacuum, mop and dust all living areas, top-down, finishing on the floors
- Restock consumables and run the inventory check — log any damage or missing items
- Final walkthrough and guest-ready photograph of each room
Wild Atlantic Way & Coastal Coverage
Coastal Ireland is where the holiday-let volume sits, and it is exactly where a thin casual workforce fails most often. Optus Glean covers it through a deliberate hybrid model: employed hubs in the high-density markets, and a vetted Optus Glean Approved partner network for the lower-density tourist counties — Kerry, Clare, Donegal, Mayo and Wexford among them. A partner only earns the Approved badge if its own cleaners are PAYE-employed and Garda-vetted, it carries the insurance floor, and it works to the identical photo-proof checklist. The operator cannot tell hub from partner, because the standard is identical and auditable — that is the point.
Seasonal Deep Cleans & End-of-Season Resets
Self-catering is seasonal, and the programme reflects it. A pre-season deep clean opens the property: a full top-to-bottom reset before the first booking. Mid-season deep cleans run at agreed intervals so build-up never reaches the guest. An end-of-season reset closes the unit down with a full deep clean, a linen audit, a consumables stocktake, and a written condition report for the off-season. Each is a defined scope inside the monthly programme, not an improvised callout.
Linen & Laundry on Par-Levels
Linen is the single biggest source of holiday-let pain and the easiest thing for a gig cleaner to get wrong. Optus Glean runs a commercial laundry division and supplies hotel-grade linen and towels on a par-stock basis of three sets per bed in rotation — one on the bed, one in the wardrobe, one in the wash — laundered and swapped on the changeover visit so the operator never touches sheets. Full detail is on our short-let linen and laundry service. Self-catering kitchens are handled with food-hygiene awareness aligned to FSAI guidance, and all chemical use is risk-assessed under the Health and Safety Authority framework.
Indicative Per-Turnover Prices
Want to see what a holiday-let changeover costs by property size before you talk to us? Read our Airbnb cleaning cost guide for Ireland for the per-turnover bands that sit behind the managed programme.
How Optus Glean handles staff shortages
Every Optus Glean contract is staffed on a redundancy model rather than a single-person model. A named primary cleaner is assigned to the site at contract start. A named relief is assigned alongside them. Both are PAYE-employed by Optus Glean, both are Garda-vetted, both are inducted on the site's specific layout, access protocols, and colour-coded equipment system, and both are trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard. Substitution is built into the contract from the first day, not arranged on the day cover is needed.
Sick day cover. When the primary cleaner is unable to work, the named relief is deployed. The site site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence by SMS or email, with the name of the relief who is attending. The relief follows the same task list, uses the same equipment, and finishes within the same window. The standard of clean is unchanged because the relief was prepared for this scenario before the absence happened.
Annual leave cover. Annual leave is rostered weeks in advance and the relief is scheduled to cover the full leave period. The site is informed at the start of the leave period — not on the morning leave begins. This is the same model used in clinical rota management: known absences are pre-staffed, not improvised.
Long-term cover. If the primary cleaner is absent for more than two weeks (extended illness, parental leave, bereavement leave), cover is drawn from the wider trained bench rather than relying on the single named relief. The site is kept informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration. Continuity of standard is maintained because every operative on the bench is trained to the same documented standard.
Permanent reassignment. If the primary cleaner moves to a new permanent role within Optus Glean — promotion, relocation, retirement — the relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable, a new relief is trained on the site, and both are introduced to the site before the handover takes effect. There is no day on which the site discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed.
Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the site's risk to absorb. The buyer pays a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope to be delivered, every day it is meant to be delivered. The mechanism by which we deliver it — primary, relief, bench, retraining — is our cost to manage and our risk to carry.
Frequently Asked Questions About Holiday Let Cleaning
How much does holiday let changeover cleaning cost?
Holiday let changeover cleaning is priced as a fixed per-unit fee inside a managed monthly programme, banded by property size, with linen and consumables added per turnover. We do not quote an hourly rate. For indicative per-turnover prices by bedroom count, see our Airbnb cleaning cost guide for Ireland, which sets out the bands behind the managed programme.
Do you cover Wild Atlantic Way and coastal self-catering properties?
Yes. With short-term lets running roughly 51 percent rural along the Wild Atlantic Way against 31 percent in Dublin, coastal cover matters. We deliver through employed hubs in the high-density markets and a vetted Optus Glean Approved partner network for lower-density counties such as Kerry, Clare, Donegal, Mayo and Wexford, all held to the same checklist and photo-proof standard.
Can you clean between same-day departures and arrivals?
Yes. The programme is built around the same-day window between an 11:00 departure and a 15:00 arrival. The turnover is completed and photo-signed inside that window, and a named relief is dispatched automatically if the primary cleaner is unavailable, so the changeover is never missed for want of a person.
Do you handle seasonal deep cleans and end-of-season resets?
Yes. Alongside between-guest turnovers, the managed programme includes a pre-season deep clean to open the property, mid-season deep cleans at agreed intervals, and an end-of-season reset that closes the unit down: full deep clean, linen audit, consumables stocktake and a condition report for the off-season.
Do you provide linen and towels for holiday lets?
Yes. Optus Glean runs a commercial laundry division and supplies hotel-grade linen and towels on a par-stock basis of three sets per bed in rotation, laundered and swapped on the changeover visit. Linen hire and laundering is delivered through our short-let linen and laundry service and can be bundled into the per-unit changeover fee.
Last reviewed: 2026-06-20