BowReady has exactly two roles: Host and Cleaning Pro. You pick one at signup and it is permanent. But four different kinds of people use the app, because a host can invite another host to help, and a Cleaning Pro can bring a crew. This guide covers all four seats: what to do on day one, what each seat is allowed to touch, and the specific way each one goes wrong.
The short version
- Host: add the property, paste every calendar, then connect and assign a cleaner. Connecting alone schedules nothing.
- Co-host: sign up as a Host, get invited, then check which properties you were granted and whether you are a Viewer or a Manager.
- Cleaning Pro: install the app on a phone and allow notifications. That one step matters more than the rest combined.
- Team member: open your lead's invite link. You do the work, your lead keeps the job.
Two roles, four seats
The role you choose decides which side of the turnover you are on. The seat you sit in decides how much of that side is yours.
| Seat | Role you pick | Cost | The one thing that makes it work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host | Host | Free to 2 properties, then paid plans | A cleaner assigned to a property, not just connected |
| Co-host | Host, then accept an invite | Free, the owner pays | A per-property grant, and knowing your level |
| Cleaning Pro | Cleaning Pro | Free, always | The app installed on a phone, notifications allowed |
| Team member | Nothing, the invite link decides | Free, always | Knowing you execute the job, you do not own it |
Nobody needs a second account. A Cleaning Pro who joins a crew still has her own business inside the same login. A co-host is just a host who was invited.
If you sign up as a host
The setup wizard is two steps and it lets you skip both, which is why so many hosts end up half configured. Steps one to five below are the pipeline. Everything after that is quality.
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Sign up as a Host, and enter the referral code now
Pick Host and confirm. Roles cannot be switched later. If someone referred you, enter their BowReady ID in the "who invited you" field during signup, because it cannot be added afterwards.
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Add the property with a real address
Pick the address from the autocomplete instead of typing it by hand. The coordinates set the property's time zone, and every deadline and reminder is calculated in property-local time. A typed address is how a whole schedule ends up an hour off.
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Paste each channel's iCal export link, not the listing page
In Airbnb: Listings, then Availability, then Connect calendars, then Export calendar. In Vrbo: Calendar, then Import/Export. Copy the link ending in .ics. Add every channel the unit is listed on. The same checkout across two feeds collapses into one cleaning job and one ping, so more feeds means fewer missed bookings, never duplicates.
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Set "when to clean" honestly
Choose after checkout or before the next check-in, then set the checkout and check-in times, the delay before your cleaner can start, the buffer, and how long a clean takes. The 24 hour and 2 hour reminders are measured against this, so a wrong check-in time quietly moves every reminder your cleaner gets.
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Connect your cleaner, then assign them
Add them by BowReady ID, share yours, or scan theirs in person. They sign in, you tap Accept. Then open the property and pick them under "Who cleans this?". This second step is the one people miss, and a connected but unassigned property schedules nothing at all.
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Name a backup
The optional backup is what turns a decline into a non-event. The same job moves from primary to backup automatically, the backup is notified, and you hear "reassigned" rather than "at risk". Choosing a backup properly is worth ten minutes. Cleaning it yourself is a valid answer here too, and you still get the schedule and the reminders.
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Record the agreed per-turnover amount
No money moves through BowReady. The rate is what makes your spend report and your cleaner's earnings report true, and it is effective dated, so a raise later leaves old cleans at the old rate.
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Write down what you would otherwise have to text
Access info, the standing note for the cleaner, the checklist, the supplies you stock and the closet they live in. Build the master checklist once and it seeds every property you add after it.
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Allow notifications, then check your cleaner's
Turn on push for yourself, then look for the "cannot be reached" flag on your cleaner's card. Someone with no signed-in device receives nothing, and you would rather find that out today than at 11am on a same-day turnaround.
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Watch one real turnover before you trust it
Checkouts usually appear within the hour of adding a feed. Check the first one has the right date and deadline, and that it reaches accepted. The setup checklist on your Agenda tracks whatever you skipped.
Plans come later on purpose. Your first two properties are free, and nothing about the scheduling pipeline changes with the plan, so there is no reason to decide before your first clean is done. Once the basics have run for a couple of weeks, add the depth: recurring maintenance reminders, an inspection after a clean, and the notes you leave on a finished clean that resurface on the next two.
If you sign up as a co-host
There is no co-host signup. You create a normal Host account, and the owner grants you access to specific properties at a specific level. Almost every co-host problem turns out to be "I was granted Viewer and expected Manager".
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Sign up as a Host
Same role picker, same permanence. Do not sign up as a Cleaning Pro because you do not own the place. A co-host is a host-role account, and a Cleaning Pro account can never be granted co-host access.
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Send the owner your BowReady ID
It is on your Account screen and it is the only thing they need. They send the invite from their Co-hosts screen.
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Accept, then confirm what you were actually given
Accept the invite, then check which properties are granted and at what level. Access is per property, not account wide. A new property the owner adds later is not yours until they grant it.
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Turn on notifications
An active co-host receives the owner's turnover notifications for granted properties. That is the point of the seat, and it is worth nothing on a device that never asked for permission.
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As a Manager, act knowing everything is pinned to the owner
Scheduling a clean uses the owner's roster and the owner's auto-accept setting. Switching a property to self-clean means the owner cleans it. If you personally cover a turnover, you are added to the owner's cleaner roster to do it. The property's relationships stay the owner's, by design.
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Send calendar changes back to the owner
Adding or removing a feed is owner-only. Ask, rather than working around it with a second property.
If you manage at a desk, the web portal at my.bowready.app is the same account and the same data, laid out wide. The phone app is still where notifications reach you. Hosts who share access with a partner or a manager can also read how calendar access works for co-hosts.
If you sign up as a Cleaning Pro
BowReady is free for Cleaning Pros, permanently. Your whole job in setup is to make sure a new turnover can find you, and to record your working limits so you are not renegotiating them every week.
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Sign up as a Cleaning Pro
Business name is optional and falls back to your own name. City and postal code are optional too, and are only ever shown to hosts you connect with. Nothing in the scheduling pipeline reads them.
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Install the app on your phone and allow notifications
This matters more than every other step combined. The mobile app is the alert channel. If you only ever open the browser version, no device is registered and new-job pings have nowhere to land. Do this before your first host connects.
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Finish the profile a host will read
Business name and logo, phone, how you prefer to be contacted, and your payment instructions in your own words. No money moves through BowReady, so that text is what actually gets you paid. Hosts can then keep a clean record of what they owe you.
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Connect your hosts
Share your BowReady ID, enter theirs, or scan in person. They accept, then assign you to a property. Jobs only start on that second step, so if a host says you are connected and your agenda is empty, ask them to assign you to the property.
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Decide auto-accept, per host
This is yours, not the host's. They can see it, they cannot change it. On means new turnovers are taken automatically. Off means each one waits for you. On for a host you trust, off for a new one.
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Cap your cleans per day, and declare time off in advance
An away window is treated as a decline you made ahead of time: no auto-accept, no reminders, and your host sees a coverage gap early enough to move the job to their backup with one tap. Adding the window is how you take a week off without letting anyone down.
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Write your standards once
Your own reusable checklist and your standing instructions travel to every job you hold, merged with the host's list when a clean is first opened. Editing them later never rewrites a job already in progress.
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Run one job end to end on a calm day
Accept, start, mark done with completion photos, flag a supply low, file an issue if there is one. Learning the flow on a same-day turnaround is the hard way.
One thing worth knowing: if a host moves a job to you because their primary declined, there is no further backup behind you. Declining that one leaves the turnover genuinely uncovered, so treat it differently from a normal job offer.
If you join as a cleaning team member
You joined someone's crew. The job stays hers from start to finish. You are handed the work, not the responsibility, and the host never sees your name. Setup is short. Understanding the boundary is the real work.
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Open your lead's invite link, and do not pick a role
The link is the decision. Signup skips the role picker and asks only for your name, phone, email and a password. You come out as a Cleaning Pro on her team.
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Install the app and allow notifications
When a job is sent to you, the details arrive as a heads-up push. The deadline pressure sits with your lead, but you are the one who has to be there.
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Fill in your name and phone, and stop
You do not need a business name or an address. Your own business is created quietly in the background and stays dormant until you want it.
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Learn what a team job lets you do
Start it, tick the checklist, mark it done with photos, flag a supply as low, and file or withdraw an issue report. That is the whole field job, and it is all yours.
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And what it deliberately does not
No accepting or declining, no passing it to someone else, no resolving reports, and no host name or pay. Those belong to your lead's agreement with the host. As far as the host's app is concerned, the crew is one cleaner.
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Use "Can't do this job" early, not silently
It hands the job back to your lead while she still has time to re-route it, and she is notified. Acknowledging a job you can do is just as useful, because it tells her she does not need to chase you.
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Ask to be the default on the places you always clean
Your lead can pin you as a property's usual cleaner, and every new turnover there routes to you automatically. It saves her a step per job and you the wondering.
Your own side is already there. Your business is dormant, not missing, so you can take on your own host or start your own crew without a second account. Your agenda simply becomes one list: your own jobs with full control, team jobs tagged as team jobs. Leads who are building a crew can read more in managing a cleaning crew.
The four ways this goes wrong
Each seat has one characteristic failure. They are all quiet failures, which is what makes them worth knowing in advance.
Watch for these
- Host: connected but not assigned. The roster looks right, the calendar is syncing, and nothing is ever scheduled.
- Co-host: granted Viewer while expecting Manager. Ask to be raised rather than asking the owner to make every edit for you.
- Cleaning Pro: working only in the browser. It is a real portal, but it registers no device, so alerts never arrive.
- Team member: waiting for an Accept button that does not exist, while the clock runs.
If you are setting up for the first time and want the screen-by-screen version for the two main roles, the full BowReady setup walkthrough covers every field in order. This guide is the map of who sits where.
Give every turnover a clear owner.
Download BowReady and set up your seat in about fifteen minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a separate account type for co-hosts?
No. A co-host signs up as a Host, then the property owner invites them by BowReady ID and grants access to specific properties. There is no co-host role at signup, and a Cleaning Pro account can never be granted co-host access.
What is the difference between a Viewer and a Manager co-host?
A Viewer reads the schedule, calendars, notes, checklists, supplies and reports, and can take open inspections. A Manager can do everything the owner can do, with three exceptions that stay owner-only: pausing or deleting a property and anything billing, inviting or removing co-hosts, and adding or deleting calendars.
Do cleaning team members need their own BowReady account?
They get one automatically when they open their lead's invite link, and they never pick a role. The link decides it. They also get their own dormant business inside that same account, so they can take on their own hosts later without signing up again.
Can a team member accept or decline a job?
No, and that is deliberate. The lead accepted the job and stays responsible for it. A team member can start it, tick the checklist, mark it done with photos, flag a supply as low, and file an issue report. If they cannot make it, they hand the job back to the lead with one tap.
My calendar is syncing and my cleaner is connected, so why are there no jobs?
Connecting a cleaner is not the same as assigning one. Open the property, set the cleaner under "Who cleans this?", and turnovers start flowing on the next sync. An unassigned property drops every checkout silently, and this is the single most common setup gap.