Does Cleaning Count Toward Material Participation Hours?

Cleaning you do yourself

Turnovers, laundry, restocking, and deep cleans are exactly the kind of hands-on operational work the participation tests are built around. Log them the same way as anything else: date, property, duration, and a description specific enough to be meaningful.

For many owners this is the single largest category of hours, simply because turnovers repeat. Forty bookings at two and a half hours each is 100 hours from cleaning alone.

Cleaning someone else does

This is where it matters. Every hour your cleaner works counts toward their total in the “more than any other individual” comparison inside the 100-hour test. Hiring out your turnovers therefore does two things at once: it removes hours from your side and adds them to theirs.

That does not make the position impossible — it makes it something you have to measure. Plenty of owners clear the test with a cleaner, because they are also handling guest communication, maintenance, listing management, and supply runs across the year. But you cannot know without tracking both.

What to record about your cleaner

Keep it simple and consistent, and write down the basis you used:

• Number of turnovers, from your booking calendar.
• A realistic per-turnover duration you can justify — ask them, do not guess low.
• Their invoices, especially if they bill hourly.
• The same for any co-host, handyman, or manager who works on the property.

Watch the comparison during the year

A running comparison is worth far more than a year-end reckoning, because in September there is still time to take more of the work back if you are behind. STR Tracker tracks other participants alongside your own hours and shows the gap as it moves.