Is it unreasonable for a cleaner to charge more in pet households?

[Rareoccurrence]

Is it strange / wrong for a cleaner to have different hourly rates depending on the clients home circumstances?

I have recently been approached as one of my clients is friends with another yet I charge them a different hourly rate. This is because I charge differently if a household has pets or not. Should I have notified of this ? I have just applied the appropriate rate to pet/non pet clients.

I have allergies to cats and dogs so need to medicate myself before these sessions and also I find consistently that there is a deeper clean needed in pet households so it’s £5 per hour more.

Client isnt happy, but has been fine with my charge and work till now as they now think it’s unfair ?

It’s acceptable to say that there is a deeper clean in a house with pets so the rate is £5 more. The client can either decide she is happy to pay it or not. She’s probably angling for you to drop the price but I wouldn’t do that! I wouldn’t mention medication to clients because you are allergic to cats and dogs. You made the decision to take the job on knowing you’re allergic so that is on you to do what you need to do to prevent reactions.

If you’re charging by the hour, then surely you should charge the same hourly rate, but spend more hours in the home with the pets?

I would be happy to pay for a cleaner spend more time in my house (as required to clean up after pets), but I probably wouldn’t be happy if they were charging a higher hourly rate.

Yes, but that probably because it takes longer to clean, not because they are charging more per hour.

I don’t charge extra per hour for households that have pets, I have a standard rate but households that have pets may need extra time so they would be paying more than a house that doesn’t have pets. So a non pet house might be two hours per week but a house with pets might be 3 hours per week so it would cost more for the extra hour.

I have two cats, my house would be sooo much cleaner without them. Between the hair and brown cat sneezes on the walls, I despair.

Probably would have been easier to charge by time. A house with pets will just take longer so they need to hire you for more hours to get the same job done as a non pet owning household. I would expect pets to be kept out the way though!
But your self employed so you can set whatever rates you want.

I don’t get this if pet household need more cleaning surely you just charge more hours. So you actually work harder during the hours you work?

Cleaner here, I think that's insane! I would never charge more because someone has pets. Actually all my clients have pets 😂 an hour is an hour, assuming you charge per hour. If you were transparent then fair enough, if not it's extremely cheeky and I totally understand why she would be miffed.

Surely if it’s more work it simply takes longer to complete or are you suggesting you take it easy in a non pet household so that’s why they have a lower hourly rate?

The fair thing to do is to tell the customer the price you are going to charge them for a defined service before you start and then stick to it. You did that.
I am self-employed and I only ever give customers a price (for a clearly defined product) with no breakdown or justification and no details of what I charge anyone else. It is their choice whether or not they want to pay it. Some don't want to pay and that is fine, but I have never had anyone who paid then came back to me wanting to haggle over the price later on.
Putting you on the spot like this, after s/he had agreed your price and you have done a good job, is rather horrible, in my opinion.

Yeah it feels unfair which is why they’re unhappy, as others said, if it is more work then it’ll reflect in the time spent coming.

i have three cats and one cleaner I approached declined as she is allergic. That makes way more sense to me than medicating yourself tbh

No. I have had dogs and am currently dogless. Never realised how easier it is without them ( though I miss them). No need to get the hoover out 3 or 4 times a day or deal with the hairs everywhere.
I would have no problem paying more.

Well they can charge what they like and you don't have to use them.
Potentially they could charge people they think are wealthier more, or maybe people they know have a very dirty home. As long as you think they are worth what you are paying then it's fine surely. What they charge others doesn't really impact you.

Why is the dog under your feet while you’re cleaning? Tell the owner to take them out of the way so you can clean properly!

This boils my piss

Do you use your own vacuum, or the clients? Pet hair will cost more in filters, bags etc. Mops and cloths will need more rinsing as the hairs stick.
I have had pets. and have long hair

Definitely not unfair. You offer your rate for the job and they take it or not.

£5 an hour is a lot more though

I have cats and a dog. My home requires more cleaning. A higher charge is fair and 5 is too low.

i also think you should feel free to decline homes with pets entirely. You shouldn’t have to take medication to work.

So you quoted her a price, she was happy to pay it and you agreed the deal.

And only now she's getting mardy because she found out another client got a different price?

So if you start charging new clients a higher rate is she going to kick off because she should be paying more as well?

I think my cleaner charges also different people different prices, depending what she does. But I'm happy to pay her what we agreed and the rest is none of my business.

Most cleaners charge by the hour so if you do then I think it’s unreasonable. You’re not fitting more work in to that hour just because there is pets. If it genuinely takes you longer then that would be covered by the additional hours you worked.
I also think you need to be transparent about your pricing. I wouldn’t be happy to discover you charge more for pets if this had not been agreed beforehand

There's no law requiring you to charge the same hourly rate for all your clients.

Just make sure you're not charging more for those with "protected" characteristics of race, sex, disability etc without valid reason.

Do you charge for your time or for the end result? If it’s time then you tell them you need more hours to finish as it takes longer. If it’s end result you charge for pets as they make it take longer.

Your allergy isn’t really relevant as you could choose not to clean animal houses.

No not unreasonable at all. Don’t have pets but imagine pet households are a bit more challenging to clean.

I would expect a cleaner to charge per hour regardless of circumstances. If there is more cleaning to do due to pets you’d have to do more hours in that house or not get as much done in the allotted time. Do you charge less for those who tidy up beforehand and leave less clutter? Do you charge more for those who have cluttered houses? Some dogs don’t shed so I don’t see why you’d need to charge more for those regardless. I tend to lose a lot of hair which is always getting tangled in the hoover, do you charge people with long hair more or who shed more? Where do you draw the line?