A Short-Term Rental Management Checklist for Canadian Owners

Running a short-term rental well is not difficult in any single moment. It is difficult because the same twenty things have to happen reliably, between every booking, indefinitely. What follows is the structure we use.

Before the property is listed

• Confirm you are permitted to let short-term: municipal rules, provincial requirements, and the condominium declaration or strata bylaws
• Obtain any licence or registration required, and note where the number must be displayed
• Tell your insurer what the property is being used for and get confirmation in writing
• Fit and test smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms and a fire extinguisher
• Decide how guests get in, and what happens when that method fails at 11pm
• Photograph the property properly, in daylight, after it has been staged
• Write house rules that address your property's actual risks, not a generic list
• Set up a cleaning arrangement with someone who can cover a same-day turnover

Between every stay

• Full clean to a written standard, not to whatever the cleaner remembers
• Linen and towel change, with a spare set on site
• Restock consumables before they run out mid-stay
• Check that everything that plugs in still works, including the Wi-Fi
• Walk the property for damage and log anything new with a photograph
• Reset access codes where the lock supports it
• Send arrival information before the guest needs to ask for it

Every month

• Review occupancy, rate achieved and the nights that went unsold
• Look at the gap nights - orphan nights between bookings are the quietest revenue leak there is
• Read the reviews properly, including the middling ones, and look for repeats
• Check the listing is still accurate after any change to the property
• Reconcile cleaning and maintenance costs against what was charged to guests
• Check upcoming demand: local events, school holidays, long weekends

Every season

• Deep clean beyond the turnover standard, including appliances and soft furnishings
• Service heating and cooling before the season it is needed, not during
• Replace tired linen, cookware and anything guests have mentioned twice
• Review pricing structure for the season ahead, including minimum stays
• Re-check licensing and registration requirements, which change more often than owners expect
• For seasonal properties: complete the opening or closing routine in full, including water systems and outdoor equipment

The part most owners skip

Keeping a written record. Not for its own sake, but because patterns only become visible when they are written down. Three guests mentioning the shower over five months reads as three separate complaints in your inbox and as one plumbing problem in a log.

If you would rather not run this yourself, that is precisely the work we take on. It is also worth saying that this checklist is useful whether or not you ever hire anyone.