Cleaners hours

[bonnie1981]

I have a new cleaner. I've had her a few weeks and I'm very happy with how the house looks,

Neighbour has just said she was only at my house today for an hot and twenty mins. Although there were two cleaners.

Neighbour thinks if I'm paying for 3 hours I should get 3 hours. Dh argues that if two cleaners are keeping the house as clean as it would be in 3 hours with one cleaner then there's no issue.

I'm paying £30, so £10 ph

Neighbour is an ex cleaner, now retired, hence her interest. I didn't want to ask neighbour to clean as she's elderly now and it would be too awkward.

What do other MNetters think?

[bonnie1981]

Hour not hot! Stupid autocorrect

[123rd]

But you rec'd three hours of cleaners labour - well nearly three. If there is one person or two you still got the job you paid for. The only issue I would have is, have you met the other person... Would you feel comfortable with them in your house.

[tofutti]

So you had cleaners for 2 hours and 40 minutes (according to your neighbour) and paid for 3 hours.

You're mostly getting the manpower you're paying for, and you're very happy with the cleaning, so I would be counting my blessings.

[idontlikealdi]

You are paying for three hours between two people - so 1.5 hours each, they finished 10 minutes early. If the job was done I couldn't get worked up about it.

[phillipp]

You paid for 3 hours and got almost that. And the job was done.

I would be more concerned the neighbour was taking such an interest.

[IDoAllMyOwnStunts]

I think 2 cleaners taking half the time for £30 is fair enough as overall it's the same as one person for double the time.

The only thing is they were 10 mins short (so in effect you lost 20 mins when they could've been cleaning). I can get loads done in 20 mins so that would pee me off.

[QuiteLikely5]

If your happy why rock the boat? It will not achieve an increased level of happiness will it?

[Misselthwaite]

Yes the leaving early would annoy me. We had the same problem. Three cleaners came for an hour to do total 3 hours cleaning but left after 45min. I was in effect short 45mins which is loads of time in which they could have been doing stuff.

[KP86]

If the job is done well then I wouldn't worry. As others have said, you aren't /that/ short your three hours once you allow for two people working.

Don't annoy good cleaners, they are a rare breed.

[redskytonight]

I think with cleaning that what they do is more important than the time spent.

If they'd spent 1.5 hours there and done the same job would you be any happier?

[donajimena]

I'm a cleaner and I also have my own cleaner. I'm more than happy if she goes 10 mins early because she achieves so much. She goes through my house like a whippet.
I clean to as high a standard as she does (she's worked with me on some of my end of tenancy cleaning) but I am not as quick as her. I'm not slow either but she's phenomenal.
So you could pay me for 2hrs and be happy or pay her for 2hrs get 2hrs 15 mins worth of work but be unhappy because she left 10 mins before her expected finish time?
I know a mn'er who charges per job rather than per hour with her cleaning company. Would it help to view it differently?
That for 30.00 you get xyz? Rather than 3 hours where 20 mins of that time could have been spent facebooking?;

[datingbarb]

2 cleaners total half the time!

If I'm doing a 3 hour job alone then I'm there 3 hours, if I'm working alone side someone then it would be half the time so yes it's right they were there for less time

[lalalalyra]

If there's two cleaners then time time being halved is understandable. Although you should have known, and agreed, to the second person imo.

20 mins wouldn't bother me if the cleaner doesn't leave on the dot every week. My cleaner is supposed to be here for an hour. Some weeks she'll leave after 45mins, but other weeks she'll be here 90mins. She works her time out and I'm never left feeling short changed.

If you are happy then it's nothing to do with your neighbour. Especially if there's a chance your neighbour is a bit miffed she didn't get the gig.

[HereIAm20]

I also find that if there are two of them they are not tailing off towards the end - so possibly 2 doing 2 hours 40 minutes would actually be more productive than 1 doing 3 hours but who will have tired by the last half hour if you get my drift.

At my old house my cleaner and her sister did an hour and they worked like whirling dervishes. there were times when they were done a bit early but sometimes they went over 10 minutes (so 20 in real terms) because they were doing skirtings etc. which didn't happen every week. Personally if you are happy with what they have done I wouldn't say anything. As time goes by if you think stuff is getting missed just leave a passive aggressive note saying (for example) can you make sure you flick the feather duster round the coving this week as I noticed we have a few cobwebs forming.

Don't upset good cleaners! They are like golddust!

[YelloDraw]

You pay for man hours so you more or less got what you paid for.

2 cleaners for 1h20 = 2h40 so short changed out of 20 mins