The cleaner schedule I forgot to send (and how to prevent it)

Here’s a painful (and common) hosting story:

I had a schedule change. A guest shifted dates. Everything looked “fine” in the platform… but the human parts of the operation didn’t update automatically.

I forgot to send the updated schedule to my cleaner.

What happened next was predictable:

• the cleaner showed up on the wrong day
• the unit wasn’t ready when it needed to be
• I spent my afternoon apologizing and scrambling
• I promised myself I’d “be more organized” (which isn’t a system)

The problem wasn’t that I’m irresponsible. The problem was that the workflow depended on a single fragile step: me remembering to message someone at the right time.

The fix: remove the “remember to send” step

Instead of managing schedules in a thread of texts, we use a workflow like this:

1. Aggregate calendars so there’s one source of truth (Airbnb + VRBO + personal calendars)
2. Share a read-only schedule link with the cleaner (so they can always see the latest plan)
3. Use reminders for the moments that matter (check-outs, same-day turns, early check-ins)

That way, when something changes, you’re not relying on memory. You’re relying on a system.

If you’ve ever had a “how did I miss that?” moment, you’re not alone—and you don’t need more willpower. You need fewer manual steps.