The pre-arrival checklist for your Greek property.

There's a quiet luxury in walking through the door of your apartment in Athens or your villa on Crete and finding it already aired, clean, fully stocked, AC running, fresh flowers on the kitchen counter. There's a quieter version of misery in walking through the same door to find an unaired smell, a thawed freezer, a dead AC unit, a building-meeting notice you missed by three weeks, and dust on every horizontal surface.

The difference between those two experiences is roughly 30 days of preparation, distributed across four checkpoints. Here's the checklist we use for our own member properties.

30 days out — the structural checks

This is when the things that take time to organise get started. The visit itself is far enough away that there's no panic; close enough that delays still hurt.

• Confirm exact dates and travel plans. Sounds obvious. The amount of pre-arrival prep that gets wasted because someone arrived a day earlier or later than the property was ready for is significant.
• Book the deep clean. Greek cleaners book out fast in summer, especially May–September. A 4-hour deep clean of a 2-bedroom apartment runs €80–€120. Book this 30 days out for August arrivals; 14 days is fine in shoulder seasons.
• AC servicing. If the unit hasn't been serviced in 12+ months, schedule a service technician now. Cleaning the filters, gas top-up if needed, and a functional test before you arrive. AC failures discovered on day one of a Greek summer holiday are the kind of thing people swear about for years.
• Insurance check. Confirm your policy is current and the vacancy-clause documentation is in order. If you've gone more than 30 days without documented attendance, this is when to address it (or accept the risk). See our 30-day rule explainer.
• Building manager check-in. A WhatsApp to your διαχειριστής to ask whether there are any pending maintenance issues, notices, or building meetings during your visit window. This single text saves more property-trip surprises than any other thing on this list.

7 days out — the operational checks

One week before arrival, the property needs to be physically prepared. Most of these items take 10–30 minutes each, but the property needs someone in it to do them.

• Deep clean executed. Floors, bathrooms, kitchen, dust on every surface, windows if needed. For longer-vacant properties, this is the most labour-intensive single item on the checklist.
• Fresh bedding made. Beds stripped, mattresses aired if possible, fresh linens. Pillows that have been compressed in storage closets for a year benefit from a day in sunlight before use.
• Towels and bathroom essentials. Fresh towels, replenishment of basics — toilet paper, soap, shampoo, sponges, cleaning supplies. The supermarket run on arrival day is unpleasant and avoidable.
• Plants watered, irrigation tested. Indoor plants brought back to a watered state. Outdoor irrigation systems tested — drip lines for stress-test, garden zones for functional check.
• Pool prep (where applicable). Chemistry rebalanced, surface skimmed, equipment running. The pool should be ready to swim in on arrival, not three days after.
• Car start-up (where applicable). If a vehicle is kept at the property, battery check, tyre pressures, fuel top-up. Many absentee-owned Greek cars need a tow if they've been sitting for more than 6 months.

24 hours out — the comfort layer

This is the difference between arriving to a clean property and arriving to a hospitality experience. Each item is small. The combination changes the first hour entirely.

• Fridge restocked from your list. Greek yoghurt, eggs, bread, tomatoes, feta, fresh fruit, coffee, milk, bottled water, wine, beer. The €40–€80 spend that turns "I need to go shopping" into "I'm going to have breakfast on the balcony."
• AC pre-cooled. Run the AC for 4–6 hours before arrival on hot days. The property goes from "uncomfortable" to "actually pleasant" by the time keys turn in the door.
• Heating pre-warmed (winter arrivals). Similar logic. A cold Athens apartment takes 6–10 hours to fully warm; pre-warming saves the unpleasant first afternoon.
• Fresh flowers and a welcome touch. A €15 bouquet from the laiki market, a bottle of wine on the counter, a card from whoever set up the place. The optional layer — but the one that converts a clean apartment into something that feels like it was prepared for you.
• Airport transfer confirmed. If you've arranged a driver, confirm the time and meeting point. Athens taxi queues at peak summer times can run 30+ minutes; a pre-booked driver waiting with your name on a card is worth €40 in saved misery.

The first hour you walk in

You're tired from travel. The property looks good. What do you actually verify in the first 60 minutes?

1. Smell check. Does the place smell aired? Any suggestion of damp, mould, sewage from dry drain traps? If something's off, document it before unpacking.
2. Water test. Hot water functional? Pressure normal? Drains running? A 30-second test of every tap and toilet flushes out the small issues before they become long-trip problems.
3. Power check. All lights working? Outlets functional? AC and heating both cycling correctly? Refrigerator at temperature?
4. Walk the building common areas. Lift working, no notices on the entry door about water or power outages, no obvious issues with the entryway.
5. Check the mail and any notices. Three months of accumulated mail can include surprise bills, ENFIA installment notices, building-meeting summaries, and the occasional regulatory letter that needs response within 30 days.

Common mistakes

• Skipping AC servicing because "it worked last year." AC compressors fail after long dormancy more often than at any other time. The €70 service is the cheapest insurance against a €1,400 replacement during your two-week holiday.
• Doing the deep clean in the last 48 hours. Greek cleaners are booked solid in peak season. Last-minute cleaning is either expensive, rushed, or both.
• Forgetting the building-manager check. Surprise water outages, lift servicing, building-painting projects scheduled for your visit week — all things the διαχειριστής knows about and would tell you if asked.
• Not pre-cooling. The cost of running AC for 4 hours before arrival is roughly €2. The cost of arriving exhausted to a 32°C apartment is not zero.
• Trusting that "Uncle Kostas is handling it." Verify. Always.

What we handle for members

Pre-arrival service is one of our most-used add-ons. We coordinate the deep clean, the AC servicing, the fridge restocking, the airport transfer, the flowers, the final walkthrough. For members on the Premium plan, the visit before your arrival is already covered by the regular inspection cadence; pre-arrival prep is layered on top.

The full arrival & departure service covers both ends — the walk-in experience and the closing-up at the end of your stay. The closing-up is the underrated half. Properly closed-up properties are dramatically less likely to develop issues during the next vacancy stretch.