Do you clean during a hurricane evacuation?

No. Under an evacuation order the coast is not accessible and our crews are not there. Turnovers pause and restart once access returns and bookings resume.

How quickly can a property be turned after a storm?

It depends on access, power and how many properties in the same market need the same thing on the same day. Capacity is the real constraint after a storm, which is why the sequence is worth agreeing before the season rather than during it.

Is a post-storm clean the same as a turnover?

No. A property shut up for days without air conditioning needs the refrigerator, damp textiles, salt film and every linen set dealt with, not just a standard reset. A property with standing water or roof damage needs remediation first — a different trade from cleaning.

What should I do with linens before a storm?

Store them sealed and above ground level, away from windows, and keep a spare set off the property if you can. Sets left in a closed unconditioned house through September come out smelling of the house.

Do cancelled bookings still get charged as turnovers?

Turnovers are scheduled off your booking calendar through FluffyOS, so a cancelled reservation drops out of the schedule rather than standing as a job.

Which coastal markets do you cover in storm season?

The same ones we cover year-round — the Charleston metro, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and Bluffton, Savannah and Tybee, the Golden Isles, Wilmington and the Outer Banks.

Hurricane Season and Rental Turnovers

In this guide

Timeline Before During After Linens

The timeline everyone actually works to

Atlantic hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November, with the Carolinas and Georgia coast most exposed from mid-August to early October. What matters operationally is not the season dates but the notice period: a hurricane watch is issued 48 hours before expected tropical-storm conditions, a warning at 36 hours. Evacuation orders for the South Carolina coast typically follow within that window.

That is the entire planning horizon. Once a watch is issued, guests are leaving, staff are securing their own homes, and roads are one-way inland. Anything not decided in advance does not get decided.

The practical point

Every decision below is worth making in May. None of them can be made well on the day a watch is issued.

Before the season

Know your par levels and where spare linens are stored — above ground level, sealed, away from windows

Decide in advance who authorises a cancellation and at what trigger: a watch, a warning, or a formal evacuation order

Photograph each property at its normal standard while conditions are calm; it is the reference you will want for any insurance conversation later

Confirm access details are current — codes, keys, gate contacts — because you will not reach an on-site manager during an evacuation

Agree with your cleaning company what happens to a scheduled turn that cannot run, so it is not a negotiation mid-storm

What happens to a scheduled turnover

Turnovers stop. Under an evacuation order a property is not accessible and crews are not on the coast, and no cleaning company should tell you otherwise. What matters is that the schedule is paused rather than lost, and that it restarts in a sensible order once access returns.

The honest constraint worth planning around: after a storm, every manager on the coast wants every property cleaned on the same day. Capacity is the binding limit, not willingness. Portfolios whose sequence has been agreed in advance get restarted first, because there is nothing to work out.

How Fluffy handles it

Turnovers are scheduled in FluffyOS off your booking calendar, so cancelled reservations drop out of the schedule automatically rather than sitting as phantom jobs. When bookings resume, the turns come back with them.

The clean after the storm

A post-storm clean is not a turnover. Even a property that took no structural damage will have been shut up for days without air conditioning in September humidity, which is its own problem: still air, damp textiles and a smell guests notice before they put their bags down.

Work through it in order — what came in, what got damp, what has been sitting still — and be realistic that a property with standing water or roof damage is a remediation job before it is a cleaning job. Those are different trades and it is worth knowing which one you are booking.

Sand, salt and debris at every entry, on porches and in screened spaces

Windows, screens and thresholds, where wind-driven rain leaves salt film

Refrigerators and freezers if power was lost — usually the single worst smell in the property

Soft furnishings and mattresses checked for damp; anything holding moisture in September will not simply dry out on its own

Every linen set laundered before use, whether or not it was slept in, because closed cupboards in humid still air pick up odour

Air the property well before the first arrival, and be honest with yourself about whether it is ready

Linens and the humidity problem

Linen is what most often makes a property unbookable after a storm, and it is rarely because of water damage. It is because sets sat in a closed unconditioned house for a week in September. They come out smelling of the house, and a guest reads that instantly.

A property with one set per bed has no recovery path: everything has to be laundered on site before the first booking, in a house that may still be waiting on power. Managers running a 2-par or 3-par system with sets stored off site keep an unaffected supply, which is the difference between reopening on the first available day and reopening a week later.