How to Dispatch Cleaners and Contractors by Text

Written by Punn Kam, ex-Google AI engineer and Y Combinator repeat founder. He is the co-founder of Conduit, an AI agent platform built for hospitality, serving 300+ hospitality brands in 140+ languages. Last updated October 7, 2026.

To dispatch cleaners and contractors by text message, send each job as a short work order with the property, the time window, the task, and links to accept or decline. Have the reply update the task automatically, reassign on a decline, and keep a mobile app for in-house staff who work your properties every day.

Why dispatch by text instead of an app?

Dispatching by text reaches the cleaners and contractors who won't install your app. Most short-term rental and boutique hotel operators rely on independent cleaners, handymen, plumbers, and HVAC technicians who work for several operators at once. Each operator has a tool, each tool has an app, and a contractor with six clients isn't going to keep six apps logged in with notifications on.

A text lands in the thread they already check between jobs. The job details sit next to their other work, and replying takes one tap. You get a confirmed assignment back instead of a push notification nobody opened.

Apps still make sense for your own staff. A housekeeper who turns over your units five days a week benefits from checklists, photo requirements, and a schedule view. The split I'd recommend is text for outside contractors and an app for in-house teams, with both feeding the same task list.

What should a text work order include?

A text work order should include everything the cleaner or contractor needs to decide whether to take the job, with nothing they'd have to log in somewhere to read. Five short lines cover most jobs, and a contractor reading them between two other jobs should be able to answer in under a minute. Put them in this order:

• The job, in plain words, such as "Turnover clean" or "Replace kitchen faucet cartridge."
• The property name and address.
• The time window, with a start and an expected end.
• A short description, including what the guest reported if the job came from a guest message.
• A link to accept and a link to decline.

Conduit's work orders follow this shape. Each one carries the task, the property, the time window, and the description, and goes out by SMS or by email with accept and decline links. By email the links render as buttons, and by SMS they're appended to the message.

If you text a door code, make it one that expires with the job. A permanent code sitting in a contractor's message history works long after the job is done. The smart lock how-to covers codes scoped to the job.

How does Conduit decide who gets the job?

Conduit decides who gets a job from defaults you set per property and task category, such as a preferred assignee on each checklist. The turnover clean at the beach house goes to the cleaner you named for cleaning at that property, and the plumbing job downtown goes to the plumber you named for that building.

Conduit doesn't match on skills or route by distance. If one contractor is the only person you trust with hot tubs, or one cleaner lives ten minutes from a cluster of units, put that knowledge into the defaults for those properties and categories. An agent can also reassign a task when its instructions tell it to, for example when the default assignee declines.

How do accept and decline replies update the task?

Accept and decline replies should change the task's state without anyone retyping them. In Conduit, an accept confirms the assignment on the task, and a decline clears the assignee so the task surfaces for reassignment. When you reassign, the earlier work order's links expire, so a contractor who declined last week can't accept today by tapping an old link, and two people don't both turn up.

Every dispatch and response is logged on the task's timeline, so a manager can see who was asked, when, and what they said.

If the workspace has no sending number set up for SMS, or the recipient has no email address, Conduit doesn't switch to another channel on its own. It records the dispatch as logged instead of sent, so the operator can see the assignee was never pinged.

What happens when nobody answers?

When nobody answers a work order, the job needs a deadline and a next person. Write both down for each type of job before you automate anything: how long a turnover clean can sit unaccepted before you move on (for example, two hours for a next-day job and less for a same-day one), and who the backup cleaner is for each property.

Then pick how the next step happens. A manager can reassign by hand from a list of unaccepted tasks, or you can write the rule into an agent's instructions so it follows up and moves to the backup. Decide in advance, because 11am on a same-day turnover is a bad time to start looking for a backup cleaner.

Hospitable has a version of this built into its task rules. Its help center says the primary teammate gets the first accept or decline request, and backup teammates are contacted one at a time, in order, only if the one before them declines.

How do you give the contractor access for the job?

Give the contractor a door code that matches the job's time window instead of a permanent one. When a property has a connected smart lock, Conduit sets a code automatically for turnover and inspection tasks scheduled from reservations, active from 30 minutes before the task's start time until its expected end, and moves the window if the task is rescheduled. Inspector codes are one-time-use. For other jobs, an agent or your team can create a time-bound code for the visit.

Lock connections and access codes for guests and team come with the Guest + Devices package. The code stops working at the end of its window, so nobody has to remember to delete it after the job.

Should in-house staff use the app or text?

In-house staff should use the app when they work your properties often enough for checklists and photos to pay off. Conduit's mobile field view gives in-house teams the same tasks with checklists and photo capture, and those tasks are the same records outside contractors accept by text. A manager sees one list either way.

Text is still useful for in-house staff in one case, the urgent job outside their normal schedule. A text with accept and decline links reaches them even if they haven't opened the app that day.

What goes wrong with text dispatch?

Text dispatch goes wrong in a few predictable ways, most of them about the message thread and the task record falling out of sync. If a reply doesn't update the task, someone has to read the thread and update the task by hand, and sooner or later they miss one.

• Replies in free text. A contractor writes "yep can do Thursday" instead of tapping a link. Accept and decline links cut this down, but someone, or an agent, still has to read replies.
• Old links. A contractor taps a link from a job that was reassigned. Expiring earlier work orders on reassignment prevents the double booking.
• No sending number. SMS needs a registered sending number, and in the US that means carrier registration. Set it up before you rely on it.
• Codes in message history. A code texted for one job still opens the door next month unless the lock code itself expires.

How do the main tools compare on dispatch?

The table below compares how four property operations tools send jobs to cleaners and contractors and collect their responses. Each cell comes from the vendor's own page or help center, opened October 2026. "Not published" means I couldn't find it on their pages; the feature may still exist.

Hospitable's task dispatch is strong on text and email and worth a look if you already run on Hospitable; see our Hospitable review. Breezeway's and Hostaway's pages describe their own mobile apps for field staff. In Conduit, the work order, the guest conversation, and the lock code hang off the same task, so the guest can be told the cleaner is booked from the same event. For the wider field, see the best hospitality operations platforms.

What does it cost to dispatch by text in Conduit?

Text dispatch is part of Conduit's Full Suite package at $48 per unit per month, which adds tasks and workforce, scheduling and dispatch, agentic operations workflows, and inventory management to everything in Guest + Devices. Portfolios of up to 25 units can start on the $899 per month Startup plan, which includes the full feature set (see pricing).

The argument for keeping dispatch, guest messaging, and tasks together is in guest messaging and operations in one system.

FAQ

Property managers and hotel teams moving cleaner and contractor dispatch onto text messages usually ask the questions below about WhatsApp support, declines, no-shows, and door codes. Each answer stands alone, so you can read only the one that matches the problem in front of you.

Can I dispatch cleaners by text without making them download an app?

Yes. Conduit sends each job as a work order by SMS or email with accept and decline links, and the cleaner's tap updates the task. Nothing needs to be installed on their phone.

Does Conduit dispatch work orders over WhatsApp?

Conduit's work orders go out by SMS or email today. Guest conversations run on many more channels, including WhatsApp, but the dispatch work order itself uses those two.

How does Conduit decide who gets a job?

Conduit assigns from defaults you set per property and task category, such as a preferred assignee on each checklist. It doesn't match on skills or route by distance, so set the defaults with those factors in mind.

What happens if a contractor declines a job?

A decline clears the assignee so the task shows up for reassignment. When you reassign it, any earlier work order links for that task expire, so only the new assignee can accept.

How should I handle a cleaner who doesn't respond?

Set a deadline and a named backup for each property before you need them. A manager can reassign from the list of unaccepted tasks, or an agent can follow the same rule if you write it into its instructions.

Should I text door codes to contractors?

Text a door code only if it expires with the job. A permanent code in a text thread keeps working for anyone who reads it later, while a code scoped to the task's time window on a connected lock stops working when that window ends.