AIBU to think my cleaner is too expensive?

I pay £18 ph for my cleaner and she very good. She does 2 hours twice a week. She cleans far more quickly than I can. She has been with me over a year now and I no longer need to tell her what to do she just looks and does what she sees needs doing. She changes the beds each week too for me. I just leave out clean bedding for her. Sometimes she has finished 15 or 20 mins early but she always asks if there is anything else I want doing before she goes. Sometimes I ask her to do an extra 2 hours for specific jobs. She sorted out my airing cupboard last week. She's going to spring clean my conservatory in 2 or 3 weeks time. She'll clean all uPVC and take off cushion covers for washing, steam mop floor and cobwebs. She'll probably ask what else I want doing if she finishes early.

I would expect 3 hours for £75 so I'm sorry I do think she's taking the mick.

£75 for an hour! I pay £80 fortnightly for 4hours and im in a 4 bed too.

She was taking the piss. It’s been a while since I’ve had a cleaner as I got a bit fed up paying for something I wasn’t convinced I was getting full value from. Initially I used an agency and had a brilliant lady. She was thorough and did the exact time she was paid for. She didn’t last long at a the agency as she got a full time employee job and I was happy for her as it brought more security, pension etc. Next lady was also good- sometimes didn’t do the full time
but was like a machine. She also got a different job (her background was events). Last lady took the piss. Despite paying for 3 hours often did 1h30 and did a crap job. I gave my notice and left the agency.

I then had a wonderful lady who did a good job for a year. When she did 3 hours herself she was brilliant but she got into the habit of splitting the shift and bringing random people into the house with her to help. I didn’t get anywhere near the same quality for 1h30 with the two of them and I didn’t like not knowing who she was bringing. I gave notice and haven’t had a cleaner now for nearly 2 1/2 years. My kids are now a bit bigger and I don’t find it terrible to keep on top of. i’m not sure that I will bother again as I used to find it stressful tidying up for the cleaners coming in. For me it’s often the tidying that is harder work than the cleaning itself.

Parents have a cleaner. 4 bedroom house. Comes once a fortnight. She does 2 hours. In that time she cleans the bathrooms (3 - two with bath & seperate shower) and one large cloakroom. Hoovers down the stairs. Cleans the large kitchen and mops the hall floor (as well as bathrooms and kitchen). My parents keep it clean so it’s never dirty.

She does a proper job - they had different cleaners whilst she was ill (cancer) and honestly, took the same time but nowhere near as good

They pay £40 (not the South East!) and she does an amazing job

you are being ripped off. I cleaned for years, there is no way on earth you can properly clean a 4 bedroom house in 1 hour - anyone that says they can is not cleaning to a professional standard (if you’re paid to clean you make sure you do a bloody good job)

I have a fortnightly cleaner who comes for 2 hours. She does everything she can in that time as I prefer a set price, and she charges £34. I keep on top of everything else but her 2 hours is a massive help to me. What you're being charged is crazy.

I pay hourly - as long as it takes, sometimes I throw random extra asks of her a she’s said “3 hours today” it “3.5”. I pay £15ph. She charges friends £1 more but she’s been coming a few years and think she’s low the flexibility as she can switch times, has her own key etc. never fussed if she does last minute trips home to Poland. She now cleans for 4 referrals I have made. trust her completely. Has another cleaner before her, same rate. She was better in terms of the cleaning. One before her was good but became terrible over time so let her go.

Anyway, she’s taking the piss. An agency would never charge that and they charge more than independents.

Yes, not good. I pay £90 a week for a large 4 bed house. Officially it’s for 5 hours but she often stays longer to finish the job. I am equally relaxed if she very occasionally takes a bit less time for whatever reason.

Point is, I totally trust her to get the job done brilliantly.

I’d pay up to £30 an hour and expect this to be normal, £25 would be reasonable but I wouldn’t expect any less. £75 for an hour is crazy and there’s no way she gave a 4 bed house a deep clean in an hour.

When I worked for a cleaning company decades ago they always charge per clean as opposed to per hour, as then they weren’t beholden to an hourly rate which would have brought down how many houses could be cleaned in a day.

I guess if it’s a ‘per clean’ rate you have to grind into what expectations you have as to what needs to be cleaned each time. Then you get a quote and then you decide if it’s a good deal or not. It’s also then up to you to inspect and see if everything on the list was cleaned.

@BoldAmberCatOP, why on earth are you waiting until next week to talk to her about it? Today isn’t a bank holiday and if your conclusion after speaking to her, is to no longer employ her, then if you wait until next week, she might expect you pay her for one last clean due to lack of notice. I’d speak to her asap if I were you.

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!

8 hours a week?!?! Bloody hell do you live in an actual castle!? 🏰 Having cleaners in my house, all day one day out of every 7 would drive me up the wall, even if it was free!

That's not what i was saying though -I was saying that you should pay for cleaning based on an agreed standard, not on time.

Let's say it takes your 15 minutes to hoover your lounge to the standard you expect.

If I am your cleaner, it's high unlikely that I can complete this to the required standard in 2 minutes. However, maybe I am a better hooverer than you are or I have a more efficient hoover, and perhaps I can do it in 12 minutes. Or maybe I'm a bit slower than you are and it actually takes me 18. In both these cases you're not particularly bothered about how long it took me but how much dust I got up and how clean the carpet is.

However, if I spend 2 hours hoovering your lounge because I'm very slow and I take my time (my story, perhaps I'm really just looking at my phone when you're not checking on me), are you happy to pay for 2 hours as that's what it took (maybe the carpet is the cleanest it has ever been)? Or do you feel that you should really only be paying for getting the ?

I understand the ' as long as it takes' approach to some extent. Our current cleaners come as a team of 3. They've been us with for 3 years and because they know the house, the layout etc they can whizz round in 45 minutes (so 2 hours 15 minutes, rather than the 3 hours I pay them for). But they haven't raised their price in those 3 years, and their reliability and thoroughness makes them well worth hanging on to. I'm not going to quibble over 45 minutes when they do exactly what I wanted them to do.

To be honest they are a powerhouse, wiping down kitchen door fronts etc, always looking out (and upwards) for cobwebs or fingermarks. They arrive, get to work and don't stop until they leave. They have their blind spots (don't we all) but it's no skin off my nose to spend 5 minutes dusting an overlooked corner.

Our previous cleaner (with us for 6 years) was a lovely guy - came for the whole 3 hours but when he chatted to me his hands stopped. So I probably only got 2.5 hrs anyway.

I also think cleaners are more efficient in their work than I am. Before our cleaners come dh and I have a tidy up, so all surfaces are clear, clothes are put away, clean bedsheets are set out ready for them to change etc. When dh and I do the cleaning we are simultaneously cleaning and tidying (so it takes much longer), plus we get distracted by various odd but unnecessary tasks.

That said, @BoldAmberCat your cleaner is taking the piss charging £75 for 1 hour.

Were you clear about what tasks you expected her to do? Wipe down the skirting boards, mop the kitchen / bathroom floors, change the bed sheets, hoover under furniture, not just around it...

I had one who charged £80 for two hours!
She then asked me for petrol money!

I’m a cleaner. I charge by the hour (£16, London, products not provided) and make sure I work for the entire time. That means that if an area doesn’t need so much attention I will look for something else to do. I know that some cleaners choose to charge by house but 1. Surely the size of your house can’t be cleaned well in one hour and 2. I’d feel I were ripping someone off to take £75 for one hour. I would talk with her and say I didn’t realise that “takes as long as it takes” would be one hour. I’d suggest looking for a good cleaner who charges by the hour x

Mind the living wage has gone up this month.

When I had a cleaner I was just happy my house was clean. Monitoring the hoover, Jesus wept.

You're paying far too much. I pay £13 per hour. Better to have given her a set time she has to work otherwise she could take advantage if it's open ended.

Is your house clean? As in properly clean after shes been?
Do you leave her a list of things to concentrate on? Like inside windows/skirting/high dusting.
Theres no way you can clean a 4 bed house in 1 hour! It takes 30 mins to clean a bathroom/shower room.
It takes me an hour to hoover mine (I do have 3 sets of stairs).
I'd be tempted to buy 3 hours cleaning a fortnight from another provider.

I pay £60 for 3 hours cleaning. Large 4 bed / 2 bathrooms, older detached house. She does downstairs, hall, stairs and landing and our bedroom and 1 bathroom.

I pay £60 for 3 hours fortnightly , she cleans the whole of downstairs including down stairs wc, landing , both up stairs bathrooms and main bedroom .

Op tell her now you don’t owe her anything she’s ripped you off a tradesman would charge you this for 1 hour don’t be a mug. 1 text then its done.