Turno

What is Turno

Turno connects housekeepers with owners of short-term rentals — think Airbnb or VRBO — for quick-turnaround cleans.

How it works

Housekeepers can sign up by filling out a profile and providing references. Those references will need to give you a good review before you’ll be invited into the network.

After acceptance, there are two ways to work with Turno. You can have them manage your existing short-term rental clients; or you can search for new ones via their marketplace.

When searching the marketplace, you can bid on open jobs in your area.

Turno Review

Turno, previously known as TurnoverBnB, connects cleaners with owners of short-term rentals to arrange detailed but quick-turnover cleans so the homes can be re-rented.

The site specifically looks for clients who have multiple rental properties, offering them a quick and painless way to get their properties back on the market following a rental. These clients pay nothing until they have more than two properties. At that point, they pay a small monthly administrative fee.

Because these are landlords of active vacation rental properties, cleaners in this marketplace are likely to get regular work from clients they find here. However, for cleaners, it’s not a particularly quick or easy process to sign up and find work.

The process

To sign up, you’ll need to fill out a detailed biography highlighting your cleaning experience and upload a headshot. The site is specific about what can be in the photo to be accepted. And you can’t skip any steps in the sign-up process.

You’ll then need to provide references, who will recommend your work.

Assuming your references check out and you’re accepted, you’ll need to pay for a background check ($15) before starting work. The site also encourages you to get licensed, bonded and certified. However, these are not requirements to join the Turno marketplace, where you can see open “offers.”

Job offers

Job offers describe a location — say a one-bedroom, one-bath rental of 750 square feet in Long Beach, CA.

Cleaners “bid” on that business, saying how much they’d charge to clean it. In this way, you set your own rates. However, the site suggests “market rates” that are often lower than what cleaners might otherwise charge. And, it encourages cleaners to start with low rates to win more business.

Although that might sound like a tempting way to get work, think twice. You may not be able to raise your rates later so this “loss-leader” could just be a losing proposition altogether. (See “projects” below.)

Notably, cleaners have no opportunity to see the rental before bidding. And these bids are timeless.

You are not bidding to clean this unit today. If you “win” the bid, the landlord will put you on their “team.” Then when they need a cleaner, you’ll receive a specific request that you can accept or reject.

Projects

The cleaner’s dashboard will show your customers and any open projects, with specific dates and times. It’s only after you accept one of these jobs that you’ll know the scope of the work you’ve agreed to.

But what if you realize that the bid you submitted is insufficient to properly compensate you for cleaning this particular unit? You can request a price change. However, it’s not clear that you’ll get one.

To change your price, you’ll need to submit a new bid to the owner; explain why your original rate was insufficient; and then the customer has to approve your new rate.

You can also ask to be paid by the hour, rather than by the job. But, again, the customer needs to approve any rate changes.

If the customer doesn’t agree and you’re not willing to clean at the rate you originally set, you can ask to be removed from that customer’s team.

Concerns

Bidding on a projects sight-unseen is dicey. But it’s not our main worry with Turno.

The biggest concern we have is that the app allows customers to rescind payments to cleaners when the customer says they’re dissatisfied with a clean. When this happens, the cleaner’s account is charged without warning or notice. And this rescission can be done as much as two weeks following the job’s completion. Because the cleaner is not notified, it’s nearly impossible for cleaners to defend themselves. If an owner is simply a jerk and a thief, the cleaner is out of luck.

While dishonest owners are surely a minority, several cleaners have complained to the Better Business Bureau that they’ve been back-charged hundreds of dollars without warning. Turno does not deny it. Instead, it mentions that this is part of its policy to ensure “a fair marketplace” for all.

In our opinion, this is not at all fair to cleaners, who have already done the work.

Payments

Once a cleaner marks a project as complete, the site sends the payment information to Stripe, which usually processes payments in 2 or 3 business days.

Commissions and fees

Turno charges cleaners a 5% fee on work booked through them. Stripe also charges processing fees.

Recommendations

This app has clear advantages for those looking for regular work. However, be careful about setting your rates at the outset. Also, there are few ways to protect yourself against the rare bad / dishonest client. So, it might make sense to restrict the amount of work you do for a single customer until you’ve built up mutual trust.

We rate this an average opportunity, largely because the promise of regular work is great. But the notion that you can be back-charged weeks after a job was completed is a significant risk.

You can sign up with Turno here.

Other apps where you can find cleaning work include Taskrabbit and JiffyOnDemand.

What about Handy, HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack, you ask? They all either charge high fees for referrals or have onerous terms, including fining cleaners for unavoidable problems like arriving late because of traffic.

What their users say (from the BBB)

I did several jobs for this customer and was paid in full through the app. A few months later September 2022, my personal bank account was charged $1000 with no warning. This charge was from turnover bnb. I DID NOT HAVE $1000. I contacted turnover bnb. Their immediate response was that they don’t get involved with my relationship with the customer. I let them know I was not asking them to do that but rather explain the charge. They told me the customer claimed to have paid me outside the app (which violates contact with turnover bnb) and made a claim to get credit card company to reverse the charge. This claim was shared with store and then with turnover but never with me. I was not given the opportunity to disprove this claim or defend my income.

No accountability

Hosts are allows to refund any clean with no investigation. Which puts us cleaners into debt, because they also charges us a refund fee. I had a host refund 4 cleans which put me back $500. The app had no accountability for it. I also had another host not pay due to insufficient funds which put me out $230 on top of fees. Turnoverbnb did not even notify me that the money never went through, I had to go through hoops to get an answer.

I’m missing numerous payouts from this 3rd party. They have been of no help. They place blame on Stripe, Stripe places blame on Turno. Also, they have without my consent or even awareness voided and refunded payments although I completed the jobs, with proof

(from Glassdoor)

You don’t have to go and look for rentals, the Turno app brings clients to you to bid on or not bid on.

I am offered 3-10 bids daily for cleaning airbnbs. So the marketing is good for me.

(from the Apple App Store)

I’ve used this app for several years and have definitely gotten my fair share of clients here. But there are a few things that need adjusting. First, the average cleaning prices are not correct. I have lost a few bids due to this error, a 2,000 sq foot home should not be priced between $90-$145 (this is less than .10 per sq foot which is my base rate). Second, the time it takes to deposit funds to my bank account has slowed down significantly. Deposits used to be made very quickly, usually within 48 hrs at most. Now it’s sometimes taking up to 5-7 days to deposit. Lastly, in the past I would see several cleaning opportunities each week, that’s no longer the case. I am seeing a couple every month. This is of course, bad for business.

Restricted access

I am unable to reach a wider audience unless I increase my response times to bids. However, I get notifications at midnight and 3 AM. Like so many others, I am trying to be more cognizant of going to bed at this time and am rarely up at those times if at all. I just don’t understand why this cleaning app has dating-esk features such as restricting access levels and not being able to reach a wider audience unless I go out and begin an LLC and get bonded and insured. Is there anyone who has read this review that is willing to provide some insight and clarity?

From Google Play

How on earth does the app give you an estimate for a job when you’ve done no formal walk-through for pricing? You’re taking a swing in the dark by bidding on jobs that they send you. And you are penalized for not responding rapidly.

I’ve been using this app off and on for a couple years now, and it gets worst and worst! I understand every app has to charge a fee, but this app not only charges the hosts membership fees they charge them when they pay as well then they charge the cleaner a percentage. Then they only allow you to use stripe to get paid which charges a fee as well! Signing up is a long process too!

Depends on location

I think this depends on where you live but very little job opportunities for me. The people posting jobs come first. They can accept and cancel your offer or just not pick anyone. Lastly they take a big cut from you and don’t want you to work with the client off of the app. Also restricts your messages sent to client if they feel in anyway you are trying to speak outside their app.

4/15/2024