Joanne Higgins

Joanne has worked in the cleaning industry for approximately two decades.

During that time, she has experienced the industry from several perspectives: as a cleaner, business owner, employer, operator and supplier to property and hospitality businesses.

She has created and managed multiple cleaning businesses and has subsequently sold most of those operations.

This experience has given Joanne first-hand knowledge not only of how properties should be cleaned, but also of the operational challenges involved in building and managing cleaning teams: recruitment, training, scheduling, inspections, quality control, staff supervision and maintaining consistent standards as a business grows.

Joanne is the Owner of Rely On Us Cleaning, an Edinburgh cleaning business serving property, hospitality, domestic and commercial clients.

A significant part of the company's work involves properties where cleaning quality directly influences the customer's experience, particularly short-term rentals and serviced accommodation.

Unlike occasional domestic cleaning, short-term rental housekeeping operates to strict turnaround schedules: a property may need to be cleaned, inspected, restocked and made completely ready during a tight changeover window.

Joanne has developed her expertise around managing those processes reliably at scale.

Joanne currently oversees approximately 40 cleaners and supervisors.

Managing a team of this size requires systems for allocating work, monitoring performance, checking cleaning standards, reporting property issues and ensuring that each property is ready before the next guest arrives.

Her experience covers both the cleaning itself and the management infrastructure required behind it.

This distinction is important when Joanne writes about professional housekeeping: her perspective reflects how cleaning standards can be implemented consistently across multiple properties, cleaners and supervisors.

Joanne is also a Managing Partner at StaysIn, an Edinburgh short-term let and property management company.

In 2023, she joined Angel Luis Almonte Perez and Solene Capaldi in combining their respective expertise across housekeeping, hospitality, guest experience, property operations, pricing and business development, working alongside digital acquisition partner Kiril Ivanov & TwoSquares.

StaysIn now manages more than 60 properties across Edinburgh, supported by a robust operational backbone ensuring turnkey full property management.

Joanne's involvement gives her direct insight into the relationship between housekeeping excellence and the wider commercial performance of short-term accommodation.

Joanne is also the owner behind the RelyOn Housekeeping app.

The platform was developed to improve the management and coordination of housekeeping teams, particularly within hospitality, serviced accommodation and short-term rental businesses.

The system brings operational housekeeping processes into a central platform and is designed to help operators manage cleaning tasks, team coordination, property readiness and quality control.

Rather than approaching housekeeping technology purely as a software problem, her perspective comes from many years of actually managing cleaning businesses and teams on the ground.

A recurring challenge in professional cleaning is maintaining consistent quality as a team grows.

Joanne's experience managing cleaners and supervisors has made quality assurance a major part of her work: cleaning checklists, supervisor inspections, photographic evidence of completed work, communication and clear responsibility for individual tasks.

She also emphasizes the vital distinction between simply completing a cleaning task and leaving a property genuinely guest-ready. For a step-by-step breakdown of standards, explore her published operational guide: Holiday Let Cleaning Turnover Checklist for Edinburgh Short Lets.