To ask how reliable is your cleaner

[Blueflag22]

Do they show every week and time? Are they good ? What would be your limit to cancelling cleans?

Yes totally reliable. Think she’s cancelled three or four in a decade.

On the other hand, I’m a good person to work for and pay her even when she cancels, so it goes both ways.

Ours are good and reliable. They haven't ever cancelled (had them
just over a year).

Mine comes two weekly. She's never cancelled. If she goes on holiday she will arrange for a friend of hers to cover if I want. She's brilliant.

A cleaner that cancels more than once in a blue moon for sudden emergency or ill health is unreliable. It's a service.

Are you asking about your cleaner? How many times has he/she let you down over what time period? Don't pay if they don't turn up

If it's a regular non attendance then same as any other unreliable service you reconsider and look elsewhere.

We count ourselves very lucky to have a Treasure who is reliable, efficient and able to turn her hand to almost anything that needs to be done around the house.

We pay well, including our holidays, when 'deep cleans' are undertaken and are flexible and accommodate any changes of date /time requested

We come back from holiday to a full fridge (emptied, cleaned and refilled) and freshly changed beds.

We know we are spoiled.

Cancelled just before Xmas as couldn't get childcare road child who has disabilities and last year 3 times for sickness for kids mainly. Usually is fine ,just not like clockwork like some on here! Wow never cancelled in a year.

My house is a one person 3 hour clean. It is uncluttered, clean and tidy. Before the cleaners come over I tidy, empty bins and usually go out. I am quite laid back about times and cancellations. I always pay the same day and tip at Christmas. In other words I am not a bad client.
I am on my 4th and last cleaner as I cannot take the unreliability of it anymore. The not turning up, no contact, suddenly texting and wanting to come over. Loads of personal issues and complicated reasons for cancelling. None of them are cheap.
so all in all op I have found it a nightmare of very expensive unreliable and emotionally high maintenance women. I seem to be constantly looking for a new cleaner.

So cleaner has cancelled 4 times in past year? That's not terribly unreliable at all. They shouldn't get paid when they are unable to provide the service but I wouldn't fret about on average missing a clean every 3 months unless there is a specific reason it causes you huge difficulties and if their quality of cleaning isn't great anyway.

So if they are a good cleaner then it's up to you whether keeping them is worth the occasional missed week as it sounds like with a disabled child and other DCs and no one to cover when their DCs are Ill that it'll likely repeat. If it gets more frequent then it's up to you whether you change to a different cleaner

Sometimes she has to cancel if she or her child are ill. I only pay her when she comes so it doesn’t make a massive difference.

Mine is brilliant, she's been with us about 15yrs over 3 different houses. In all that time, she's been off sick once and rearranged a second time, as she had an important personal appointment. She usually takes a month off in the summer to travel back to her home country to see family, we don't pay her that month, but we do when we're on holiday or don't need her for whatever reason. We also paid her in full during Covid.

Flip side of this….

I’m a cleaner. I take a few odd weeks off a year and clients are notified at least a couple of months in advance. I’m rarely off sick, took a week off when I had covid.

However, I often get clients cancel because they have a decorator coming, a child is at home sick, they have visitors staying, going on holiday or sometimes no reason is given.

These are long standing regular clients. All visits are followed up with opportunity to give feedback and no one ever raises any negatives. I’m confident my service is good. Each month I start with a full schedule but it doesn’t stay like this as someone will always cancel and I haven’t actually worked a full month since last June!

If it becomes too frequent or the reasons are too unlikely, I end the service with them. But there has to be give and take. If your cleaner is good and needs to cancel for a genuine reason, it would be harsh to cancel her.

My cleaner is pretty random, but her cleaning services are also pretty inexpensive so it's swings and roundabouts.

She cancelled quite a lot of times in a row and I ended up having a chat - I genuinely wouldn't have minded if she had said "the summer holidays are coming up, I can't get any childcare so I can't come for 6 weeks" but I'm already very flexible about the day (she's meant to come on a Wednesday, I would say she turns up on a Tuesday 1/10, Wednesday 3/10, Thursday 4/10 and Friday 2/10) so expecting her to come Wednesday, then her not turning up, repeat Thursday and Friday was just ridiculous.

But I had a chat, explained I really don't mind her changing her days round (I don't) but I do need to know the day before which day she's planning to come, and if she's off and it's not an emergency I need some notice. Seems to have worked, had a reliable arrangement (though definitely still with varying days) since then, so about 3 months now.

I wouldn't get het up about 4x a year though tbh.

Good cleaners are like gold dust. I'd always accommodate short notice absence in my cleaner as long as it didn't become habitual (unless of course there's a v good reason) We pay a fair wage, the house is always tidy, I think we're pleasant to work for and there's tea and biscuits in abundance!

That's really good points @Fynoderee

I would understand OPs cleaner needing to miss a cleaning session once every 3 months for genuine reasons like that and is really appreciate her not "bringing alone a sick child "'to my house to attempt to do childcare and share the hug into my house at the same time! Infact the latter would be a reason I'd end her service with me.

It is guve and take with a great cleaner but obviously cleaner doesn't get paid for service she misses

She'd get paid if I cancelled (less than 48 hours notice) at short notice but not if she couldn't fulfil it

I don't have a cleaner anymore precisely because I got rid due to unreliability. They were a big company with top reviews but they never showed up on time and were frequently cancelling. It was one silly excuse after another, they had a long list of clients that day, or had to pick up cleaning equipment, blah blah.

If the excuses / reasons sound reasonable and aren't too often then I would let it go but if it feels like they are cancelling for every little thing, maybe reconsider

I had a brilliant cleaner for a few years who always turned up on time and was fab.

We moved to a new area so had to get a new cleaner (two people) and they were never on time. Sometimes early, sometimes late, but it made it so difficult to work around as you could guarantee the day you nipped to the shop after the school run they'd turn up early and be waiting when you got back, or the day you made lunch plans they'd turn up late and you'd have to wait. I wasn't a huge fan of their work either so I got a new cleaner and although she's much better in terms of her work, after a few weeks she started turning up half an hour later than planned too. I messaged her boss (it's just the two of them) after 20 minutes the first time and never got a response and then the second time I messaged again after 20 mins asking if the time had changed. I got a bit of an abrupt reply saying sometimes she'll be late because of traffic. Obviously there's nothing she can do about that but if that's the case I'd at least expect some kind of apology/explanation when she does arrive. Anyway, she's been on time since then so no issues but certainly from my experience cleaners don't like to be held to a fixed time.

I don’t think 4 times in a year is that unreasonable assuming she comes weekly. And kids’ sickness is at least a plausible excuse.

We used to have the most amazing cleaner who was incredibly reliable and fantastic at everything. But she returned to her home country for personal reasons and I’ve really found out since then how spoilt we were with our previous cleaner. We currently have a useless one. I’ve asked all round for recommendations and can’t find anyone who has one they’re happy with. Good cleaners really are like gold dust so if you’re happy with her services otherwise then I’d let it go.

Mine's terrible. She's often found sitting down reading when she should be cleaning. She gets bored halfway through a job and takes a break, then forgets to finish it until much later. She is quite capable of cleaning round something left on the side rather than putting it away.
Her speciality is choosing to clear a cupboard, throwing away 4 bags of rubbish and finding having taken everything out the remainder won't fit back. Then she sits down in the depths of despair wondering why she was stupid enough to start.
And I can't sack her...

... because it's me.

Mine doesn’t turn up for 6 weeks at a time, ignores all messages until she fancies replying. Unfortunately cleaners (including the unreliable ones) are like gold dust where I live!

I was a cleaner in my early 20s when I first arrived in the U.K. I had fab customers some of which I call my friends 20 odd years later.

I was extremely reliable, never changed days/times, never ill, always agreed to do extra hours (for parties, etc). I would travel three hours both ways on the tube to do a two-hour clean...
Of course, I had no other commitments and work, earning money, was priority number one!

I think I must've sucked at cleaning at first but ppl were patient and guided me gently to meet their standards. I was trying hard and that seemed to matter more.

A mum with a (disabled) child will have their child as a priority. She's likely not able to get another work because she needs some flexibility.

I think you just need to take the person's circumstances into account, have a two way conversation at the beginning of expectations and limits and then just stick to what's been agreed.
Different set ups and will work for different people.

I doubled her pay and she's still terrible. 🤣🤣🤣

@MargaretThursday