New Cleaning Standards

The global Coronavirus pandemic has changed many aspects of life in just a few short months.  The travel sector, in particular, has been profoundly impacted.

Restoring people’s faith in travel is going to require sustained and careful effort to reassure staff, guests and travellers.  It is our belief that this restoration of faith must be achieved without creating any misplaced confidence and must be built on safeguarding all involved in the best possible way.

Essential Coronavirus cleaning measures

White Rose Villas has implemented safer cleaning regimes since the news of the pandemic first emerged.  We have been following advice to leave homes empty for 24 to 72 hours between bookings, depending on size of the home and the quantity of bedlinen available. 

We have provided staff with personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves.  And we have asked them to stay at home if they show any signs of symptoms, as per the official guidance.

As always, our routine inspections are in place to ensure that your vacation rental meets all expectations.  

Our cleaning commitment

Our cleaning programme ensures all guests can enjoy a thoroughly cleaned villa by including such practices as washing and drying all towels, sheets and comforters at high temperatures. Staff will use new gloves when handling clean and disinfected items.

Our housekeeping team will also pay extra attention when cleaning high-touch surfaces.  High touch areas include (but are not limited to):

• Doorknobs
• Stair railings
• Telephones
• Remote controls
• Television buttons
• Sliding door handles
• Touch screens
• Kitchen appliances and fixtures
• Light switches

All of these surfaces will be cleaned with hospital-grade, EPA-approved disinfectants to ensure that they are thoroughly cleaned to the highest standards.

To give further confidence, we are now following the new SafeHome scheme.

The SafeHome scheme for vacation rental properties

The Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP) and the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) have launched a new SafeHome initiative to help members adopt safe cleaning standards.  In many cases, these standards exceed those mandated nationally, state-wide or locally.

Since these enhanced precautions have been developed to keep guests and staff safe and healthy, we have decided to adopt these enhanced cleaning standards.

The SafeHome recommendations include:

• Disinfection and sanitation techniques
• Proper use of personal protective equipment
• Recommended products, cleaning agents and equipment
• Updated cleaning and inspection processes for soft surfaces, upholstery and linens
• Waste removal and maintenance processes
• Communicating the new, expanded cleaning processes to guests

VRBO President Jeff Hurst said, “Making families feel comfortable enough to travel again after this pandemic is a must for the entire vacation rental industry.  Adopting these new cleaning guidelines will reassure travellers that vacation rentals are safe places for their next vacation.”

Self-catering can be the safest way to enjoy travel

Toby Babich, the president of VRMA, also highlighted how the launch of the SafeHome scheme will help to restore confidence.  He said, “We can count on our professional community to rise to this occasion and restore confidence within our local governments and guest populations that staying in a professionally managed vacation rental is the safest way to enjoy travel.”

We agree.  That’s why we welcome the news that we can reopen our homes in Osceola county to bookings from across the USA (provided the guests are resident in U.S. states with COVID-19 case rates less than 700 cases/100K residents).  For your information, CDC information on COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population by the state can be found here.

The new changes we’re making to White Rose Villas cleaning processes

As part of the implementation of the SafeHome guidance, you will notice some major changes to the way we clean your home. 

These changes include:

• Dining tables and breakfast bars will no longer be set.  Plates, glasses, etc. will be washed and put away with the other dishes in the kitchen.
  
• Throw cushions and throws will be washed and put away in the closets.
  
• Handwash and extra soap will be left for guests on arrival.  In addition, cleaning spray and cloths will be left in the home for guests’ use.
  
• We will be training all staff on approved VRHP courses about the new cleaning procedures and how to enact safe social distancing rules.
  
• In light of the new guidance, owners won’t be allowed to clean the home as this needs to be carried out by professionally licensed cleaners.
  
• Additional pillow protectors, pillows, mattress pads/protectors, blankets, comforters should be purchased, as possible, so they can be easily changed and laundered.  If choose not to purchase additional linens, we will continue implementing the 72-hour delay between bookings.

Procedures after cleaning has been completed

We have introduced a new detailed cleaning checklist to outline the new procedures and help our staff to embed them.  We are happy to send any of our owners a sample checklist for review, if you wish.  If you’d like us to do this for you, please get in touch.

From now on, all cleaning reports will follow this new extended format and you will receive a copy of it after every clean, as per normal.

Once homes have been cleaned, our usual pre-arrival inspections will be performed to confirm that the villa meets the standards we have set.  This final inspection confirms if a villa is show-ready and able to welcome its newest guests, making our procedures as thorough as possible.

Do you have questions?

As always, our team remain on hand to answer your questions.  If you would like any further clarification about these changes, or have any questions at all, please call or email the White Rose Villas team. 

Thank you for your support.