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 ?

Sounds very fair to me. Just in terms of there being extra work to do, although I suppose, thinking about it, having children at various stages could be as messy as pets.

I mean it’s up to you as you set your rates but I think it’s weird. Surely you just charge by the hour and if it takes longer then you charge more.

We have two dogs and I don’t think they cause our cleaner any more work. We hoover twice a day anyway and mop regularly, that is just a small part of what she does. The dogs have no impact on cleaning of kitchen, bathrooms, cleaning mirrors, dusting etc

No I charge more too as not only is it a deeper clean but so is my equipment after which takes my time so understandably im going to charge more

I think it’s fair. Tradesmen wouldn’t think twice about charging people different prices on how easy/hard the job is, why should cleaners?

Your business, your rules. This may mean you lose a few clients (we have a dog and have never had a cleaner do this, in fact we actively find cleaners who like his company because he will want to say hello etc). However, you won't suit every client/every client won't suit you - that's ok, it's your business to run how you wish. You know this client isn't a fan, but that's for them to decide if they wish to go ahead. I've never known cleaners to struggle for new clients, so if you need to find another then I'm sure you're fab at your job and someone else will be super happy to have you.

Surely an hourly rate is an hourly rate? You should be putting the same effort-per-hour into all cleans but some may take longer and some quicker? If you have to clean a very dirty home then you either do a longer clean and charge more hours at the same rate, or you don’t finish the job?

Personally I can’t see why you’d change the “hourly rate” as I can see how that would cause issues with the clients. Your call of course.

Maybe I should get a discount for having a pet-free home! (I don't have a cleaner but I think it's an easier job if there are no dogs/cats or young kids).

I think the rates should be the same but if it takes more time to clean a home with pets, charge for more time.

You pay an hourly rate for a cleaner. Do you charge more if there are children? Messy husband's?

No you should have quoted for the time needed to do the job. If it takes you longer because of the animals then of course you charge for more time, but the hourly rate should be the same (why wouldn’t it be?) and no you can’t charge for your meds.. that’s your problem not theirs!

Why should a self employed person charge the same hourly rate for all the different kinds of work they may do or for different customers?

The cleaner should give a quote but most cleaners have a standard hourly rate unless it’s a one off deep clean when they give a separate quote. there’s no way I’d be paying more than my neighbour for a bit of dog hair!

I'd have thought a standard hourly rate would apply.
It may take longer to clean a home with pets, but charging by the hour covers that. I'm not really understanding why the hourly rate itself is higher just because a dog or cat live there.
I think being very transparent with charges in your advertising etc is key to avoiding situations like this.

If the cost to serve is higher for some clients than others then of course they charge more to cover the costs. Its also common for services to charge more for aggravation factors - you charge enough to make it worth taking the job, the client doesn’t have to take up the service. It may be commoner for the charge to be presented as extra time but its entirely up to the cleaner/service provider.

I would also not expect a cleaner to have to work around dogs getting underfoot - the owners should keep them out of the way.

I don’t think it’s particularly unusual for people to have animals. For dogs that don’t disturb them and let them get on with their job- why on earth would they charge more?

I actually don’t know because I’ve always wondered about hourly rates anyway- if you go to my house an hour of cleaning is going to be tougher than my friends fairly slick and span house- you’ll have actual scrubbing to do- nine with hers!!!

It's fine, pets create more cleaning.

I would have assumed it would take longer?

I've had two separate cleaners and neither of them charged more because I have a dog. Upto you though as long as your pricing is transparent.

Any private business can charge whatever they want. It’s up to the client to decide whether they want to pay it or not.

I do think the concept sounds a bit odd though. As a cat mum, I totally acknowledge that she creates a lot of fluff etc that you wouldn’t find in a pet-free house, and there are certain jobs that need doing more often. But surely the hourly rate is the hourly rate, if it takes two hours to clean my living room instead of one hour because of all the cat fur then yes I’d pay for two hours, but I’d expect it to be at the same rate.

But if you do have such severe allergies that you need to medicate, I just wouldn’t be doing it, I’d turn down homes with pets.

Oh and to add, I’d expect dogs to be shut away while you are there. Obviously it’s harder to clean around them so the owner should realise that shutting them away is for their own benefit, they’re going to get a better clean done if the dog isn’t there. I can imagine cats do stay away - mine would go and hide at the bottom of the garden until you were done!

Your business, your rules.

I would consider that unreasonable. If it is more work, then it presumably takes you longer so you would get it that way with the same hourly rate. However, you seem to be implying that you are working harder for the same length of time. If so, that sounds like you are stringing out the work you are doing for the house without the dog and taking longer than necessary to do the job.

I have never had a cleaner charge more because of our dogs. However, my cleaner now takes a lot less time to clean the house since the dc moved out. They were definitely muckier than the dogs.

All that said, you are self employed so you can charge whatever you want and it's up to your clients if they want to hire you. I do think being up front would be a good idea though.

Because the work is basically the same. Hoovering is hoovering. Dusting it dusting. Double the amount of hoovering = double the amount of time so double the cost but 10 minutes of hoovering in a house with a dog is the same as 10 minutes of hoovering without a dog.

I’d expect to pay more per hour than someone who didn’t have pets - did you say you charge an extra fiver an hour though? That seems a bit high to me BUT I don’t have a cleaner and don’t live in the UK so 🤷🏻‍♀️