A fair comparison

Changeover Master vs spreadsheets and WhatsApp

A spreadsheet is a fair diary for a very small portfolio. It gets fragile when a date changes in a message and the sheet still shows the old day.

The short answer

Keep the spreadsheet if one person looks after one or two properties and every change reaches that person. Use a shared diary when several people need the same checkout, and a message is not a reliable place for it to live. Changeover Master is free for up to 2 active properties, with no card and no subscription. That includes the diary, calendar sync and the cleaner tools.

Missed changes

A guest can leave a day earlier in a WhatsApp message while the spreadsheet still says Friday. The clean then happens on the wrong day, or someone has to scroll the thread to find the latest word. You can keep the messages. The working date should not depend on a person copying them across.

In Changeover Master the departure date is the changeover. If an owner link, a booking email and a calendar feed disagree, the booking stays in the inbox until someone on your team decides. The original source stays attached.

One place the morning team can trust

A workbook, a chat and a notebook can each look like the latest plan. The office then spends the morning asking which one to use. A shared diary is one list of checkouts, with day, week and month views and the next seven days.

Owners can send a whole schedule on a private link, with no account of their own. Each property can also have a booking email. An iCal feed is optional and can sit beside both. Clear stays are added. Uncertain dates, overlaps and cancellations wait for a decision.

Less chasing, the same phone

Copying today’s jobs into messages means another round of “did you see the update?”. You add a cleaner by name and share a private job link. There is no cleaner login and no app. The link shows the address, the check-out, the next check-in and the access notes, and only the jobs you gave that person.

They tick the checklist on the link. The changeover shows the count, such as 8 of 12.
They add a photo of the finished clean. You see the photo count and the pictures on the changeover. The photos stay private.
They can report damage, missing or low supplies, maintenance, cleanliness or guest mess, or other. The note is up to 400 characters, with up to six private photos. You see a flag such as 1 open problem. Nothing is emailed about the problem.

A clean-done email, and a late clean

When the cleaner marks the clean done, the account owner for that workspace gets one short email. It names the property, the cleaner and the time. It includes the checklist count, the photo count and any open problems. The pictures are not attached. A link opens the changeover. An account owner can turn these emails off on the Cleaners page.

The same account owner gets one email for each reason a clean may miss the next check-in. If the clean has not been marked done by a cutoff before check-in, that is one reason. The cutoff starts at 2 hours before check-in, and can be changed from 30 minutes to 12 hours. If today’s changeover has no cleaner assigned, that is the other reason. The diary and the booking page show At risk before check-in, and Late once that time has passed.

Calendar sync, with a limit

Each property can connect one private iCal or ICS address. Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO and other systems that publish a standard calendar feed can use it. After a successful check, the feed is read again about every 15 minutes. That is a sync, not an instant message, so a same-day change should also be sent on the owner link or by booking email.

Be fair about the spreadsheet

When a spreadsheet is enough

A spreadsheet plus messages is a reasonable system when the portfolio is very small. One or two properties, one person who always updates the sheet, and cleaners who are told in person, can run perfectly well that way. You do not need a job link, a checklist or a photo on a phone for that to be true.

If you want to try the diary at that size, the free plan covers up to 2 active properties after the 30-day trial. No card. With more than 2 properties, the workspace becomes read-only until you choose a paid plan. Starter is £19 a month for up to 10, and Plus is £39 a month for up to 25.