A Miami Beach turnover has a clock on it. The last guest leaves late morning, the next one lands late afternoon, and the crew drives over the causeway from Coral Gables with a bag of fresh linen, the host's restock list, and a turnover checklist that runs in one fixed order. The order isn't random. It comes from what takes longest in the unit and what can't be undone once it's done wrong.
- Beds stripped and remade with fresh linens, then staged
- Bathrooms disinfected, restocked, styled
- Kitchen reset: dishes, surfaces, appliance exteriors
- Floors, high-touch points, mirrors
- Consumables checked and restocked to the host's list
- Photo confirmation of the finished space before the next guest
What the city says about who can rent short-term in Miami Beach
Before any of this matters, the unit has to be allowed to host. The City of Miami Beach defines a vacation or short-term rental as a stay of less than six months and one day, and states on its vacation and short-term rentals page that these rentals are prohibited in all single-family homes and in many multi-family buildings in certain zoning districts. So the plain answer on zones is this: no house, anywhere in the city, and no apartment unless the building sits in a district that allows it.
The same city page keeps a list of apartment buildings authorized for short-term rental, each tagged with its zoning district (labels like RM-1, RM-2, CD-2 and MXE appear on that list), links a short-term rental zoning map, and requires operators to display the City-issued Business Tax Receipt number and the Resort Tax certificate number in every advertisement or listing (City of Miami Beach). The city's short-term rental requirements page adds an approved Certificate of Use, a letter from the association dated within 60 days confirming the building permits short-term rental, and resort tax registration. Illegal rentals get reported to Code Compliance at 305.673.7555, according to the city's rentals page.
We don't check zoning for you. We do ask which building and which unit, because a condo front desk in Miami Beach will ask us the same thing at the door, and we coordinate access with the concierge or property manager when the building requires it. If the building is on the authorized list, that conversation is short.
Beds come first, and the linen bag opens before anything else
We walk in, drop the caddy in the hall, and go straight to the bedrooms. Every bed gets stripped: sheets, pillowcases, duvet cover, and the mattress protector if it's damp or marked. Stripping first does two jobs. It shows us the mattress and the protector while there's still time to treat a stain. And it gets the used linen out of the room and into one bag before we start dusting, so nobody is cleaning around a pile.
Fresh linen goes on right away. Beds made, corners tight, pillows staged the way the host's listing photos show them. In a studio or a one-bedroom off Collins, the bed is the first thing a guest sees from the door, so it's the first thing we finish. Then the bedroom gets the standard pass: surfaces and sills dusted, mirror wiped, floor left for last.
Bathrooms, then the kitchen reset
Bathrooms come second because the product needs dwell time. We spray the shower, tub and toilet, then leave them and wipe the vanity, mirror and fixtures while it works. Back in for the scrub, rinse, dry. Towels get counted against the host's list and hung or folded to match the listing. Toilet paper, soap and shampoo get topped up. "Restocked and styled" is the line on our checklist, and styled means it looks like the photos, not just clean.
Kitchen is third. Dishes first: anything in the sink or the dishwasher gets run or hand-washed and put back where the host keeps it. Then counters, the stovetop, the sink scrubbed and polished, appliance exteriors wiped, and the fridge emptied of whatever the last guest left behind. A half-used bottle of ketchup isn't a welcome gift. Coffee pods, filters and sponges get counted here too.
Floors, touch points, the host's list, and the photo
Floors go last in every room because everything above them drops something. Vacuum first, edges and corners included, then mop. On the way out of each room we hit the high-touch points: door handles, light switches, the remote, the lockbox keypad, the balcony door handle. Sand in the balcony door track is a Miami Beach constant, and it gets vacuumed out before the mop touches the floor, or it turns into grit under the next guest's feet.
Restock runs off the host's list, not our memory. Paper, soap, coffee, water, and a spare set of linen in the closet if the host keeps one there. If the list says two rolls per bathroom, it's two, not three. Then we photograph the finished space, every room, and send the set before the next guest checks in. That photo set is the confirmation. It's also what the 24-hour window runs on: if anything was missed, tell us within 24 hours and we come back.
Two of our published exclusions apply to turnovers more than to most jobs. We don't do exterior or high-ladder work, so salt haze on the outside of a balcony glass panel stays where it is. And we don't move heavy furniture, so a sofa bed gets stripped and remade in place.
Stop asking guests to strip the beds and start a wash
Here's the position, and it comes from the bedroom. A lot of Miami Beach house rules ask departing guests to strip the beds and start a load of laundry before they leave. Drop that rule. It feels efficient. It costs the sequence.
A guest-started load is a load nobody on the crew can vouch for. We don't know what went in with the sheets: a bath mat, a beach towel full of sand, a pillow that shouldn't be washed, a phone. We don't know what setting it ran on. And when we arrive, the washer is mid-cycle or the linen is sitting wet in the drum, so the fastest part of the visit (bag the old, put on the new) turns into waiting. Stripped beds also hide what the sheets were covering. We'd rather see the mattress protector with the mark still on it, because that's the moment it can be treated.
What to ask guests instead: leave the beds as they are, leave dishes in the sink, put trash in the bin. That's it. The crew does the rest in the order above, and the order is what gets the unit to the photo before the next check-in.
A few things worth telling us up front. We can go fragrance-free or greener on request, which matters in a unit where the next guest's allergies are unknown. Tell us about pets, sensitive surfaces, and anything guests aren't supposed to touch. Nobody needs to be there; a code, a lockbox or the front desk is how most of our Miami Beach turnovers start, and hosts on a recurring schedule keep a standing slot.
If you host in Miami Beach, get an estimate at /quote in about two minutes and send your restock list to 305-338-8001 on WhatsApp.