I a cleaner - question regarding clients holiday

[SittingAtARailwayStation]

All my clients give me a weeks notice if they are away.
Many of my clients ask for extra hours so on the weeks when clients are on holiday I can generally pick up extra hours & this makes up the shortfall. Some are even kind enough to pay me if they are away.
I have a taken on a new client (8 weeks ago) . Week 3 , the night before their clean I received a ‘sorry we are on holiday & forgot to leave a key out so don’t come tomorrow ‘
I replied ‘have a lovely holiday but please can you give me notice the next time you are away’
Yesterday I turned up to work at 8, knocked & nothing. I sent a message to ask if anyone was at home & left after 10 minutes.
An hour later I received ‘ oh really sorry we had a nightmare getting back from holiday last night so stayed in a hotel over night. Sorry ‘

Do I let it go ? Obviously it was far too late to fill their slot & the ££ lost will leave me short this week

Presumably you are self-employed? What terms do you set in your contract with your clients?

If it is easy enough for you to find another client I'd be inclined to ditch them. They don't have much respect for you if they cannot be bothered to give you proper notice that they'll be away.

What have you put in your contract? I need to pay my cleaner if I don't give 10 days notice.

Don’t leave it. Tell them you want payment for the booked session. You were available it’s not your fault they failed to provide access. If you don’t they’re going to mess you about all the time. You might lose them as clients but they sound like they’re going to be more hassle than they are worth.

I do t think there's much you can do if you didn't get a contract signed. Even then it might not be worth the hassle. I'd agree that you should ditch them, they clearly don't respect your time or understand how it works. Imagine if they'd turned up at their office job to find it closed and told they'd get no pay!

I have keys to my jobs. A regular customer often leaves a key in the door so I can't get in. I charge him for an hour anyway.
I always get paid for their holidays.
Yanbu to replace them with courteous customers.

I do t think there's much you can do if you didn't get a contract signed.
True she can’t insist on payment if they say no but it shouldn’t stop her asking for one and terminating the contract if they refuse.

I might have to have a rethink & accept this is my fault as we don’t have a contract.
I advertise locally, go round to discuss their requirements etc & then we set a weekly time & ask them to give me adequate notice regarding holidays/changes etc.

I do some work through an agency- they find the clients & have a contract with them but the clients pay me directly.
I did have 1 situation similar to this & I went back to the agency who said that they suggest the client pays something but they have no obligation to.

I’ll have a rethink regarding contracts etc.
Thanks

If you have other options, ditch them. They’re not treating you with basic respect.

I think the problem is the word adequate is open to interpretation. You need to be clearer, eg, you must pay for the session if less than 1 weeks notice.

I’d still ask them for payment - the worst they can say is no.
Just a message like “ok, we won’t worry about payment for missing the first week but can you leave this weeks payment for me when I come in next week. If there’s a weeks + notice I don’t charge, but if it’s last minute I have to as I can’t fill the slot.
Happy to put something in writing if you like so we’re both clear on terms”

If they come back and say “well we didn’t know so not paying” then obviously nothing you can do about it. But I would be inclined to find something else and give them notice... they’re lacking basic respect.

Yes, I think you need to cover yourself with a contract. Do you have insurance?

I would definitely ditch them as clients...they are only on week 3 and already you have lost out twice in hours unpaid.

It's a pretty good indicator how things will pan out with these people going forward. It's not worth the stress and loss of income to you.

Being self employed gives you the right to have clients who actually respect what you do as a job. These people don't!

I would definitely recommend putting a contract together for any future clients.

I don't have a contract with my cleaners but I always pay for their booked hours, even if I cancel for whatever reason. Sounds like this new client is a piss-taker who thinks their time is more important than yours.

Yes fully insured.
I’m going to drop them a message regarding yesterday & see how they are respond.
I’ve actually got a waiting list so will have problem filling their slot.
I’m going to look at contracts this evening & be much more specific in my wording when discussing requirements

Definitely ask. That's really thoughtless and cheeky. They should pay you. Let us know what they say.