Cleaner’s rates - charging more if you skip a week

[Arewerrallydoingthisnow]

genuinely not sure if iabu.
we have a cleaner every 2 weeks.
she already charges quite a lot in my opinion (£18/hr) but she’s good enough and they’re hard to find where we are.
she has a new policy that if you have to skip a clean for whatever reason and it’s been more than 2 weeks since last clean, her rate for the next clean increases to £21/hr. Her justification is that it will be dirtier so it will be harder for her to clean.
My issue with this is:
a) it makes it sound like she wants an easy life so although she does 3 hours work usually, even though she’ll still only do 3 hours work, because it could be a bit harder she wants more for it. Either you work he’d and clean in your time or you don’t surely?!
b) it insinuates we won’t clean at all in between.
c) I could understand a rule of saying if it’s been longer than 2 weeks she’ll need an extra hour - I would like it, but I would understand the reasoning.

I’ve never had a cleaner propose this before and is this a thing?

I think she’s smart. It’ll discourage clients from cancelling her without good reason but by only charging a little bit more, it’s not outrageously cheeky.

She's free to set her own conditions, if you don't like it, you are free to employ another cleaner.

It's all well and good to "skip a clean" but she's trying to earn a living. Do you expect her to find a temporary client for the week you are missing to make up the loss of earning? Is that likely?

she already charges quite a lot in my opinion (£18/hr) that's quite irrelevant. She charges what people are willing to pay, good for her!

I can understand where's she's coming from. Cleaners are a luxury for most people (for bed ridden people, they are not), so they are the first to go or to be messed around with when people want to save some cash.

Fair - I’d only ever cancel when we’re on holiday and physically not there to let her in! I think she should be honest though and say it’s due to lost wages not cos “I’ll have to work harder” that leaves a bad taste

I’ve heard of it before and whilst in with you on the “she’s still only doing the same hours of work” point, if she’s good and cleaners are hard to come by in your area then I’d just pay up. Presumably you won’t be skipping an additional week very often, and it’s good “insurance” for her against people cancelling her at the last minute and for when clients go on holiday and cancel their regular clean with no impact on them but potentially financially lean weeks for her.

I don’t see how it leaves a bad taste.

Have you been a cleaner? While you may clean in between, plenty won’t and won’t want to pay her extra hours but will expect the same quality of clean.

So she has to work harder during the time she has and wants compensated for it. She has a blanket rule across the board.

She has done this to tackle something that’s clearly an issue for her. It’s her business. If you don’t like it, you can get someone else to do it.

I think she should be honest though and say it’s due to lost wages not cos “I’ll have to work harder” that leaves a bad taste

but she will have to work harder in most cases.

She is spot on. I clean for a relative (unpaid). If I miss a week the following week is much harder work.

You could suggest that if you miss a week she does extra hours the following week but she has you over a barrel unless you have a ready supply of cleaners.

Fair enough!
I accept IABU!!
a cleaner is def a luxury and for us it’s a huge one but we both work full time shift work with 3 kids so it’s the only way to keep on top of everything and have any time to spend with kids. And if the cost was £21/hr every time there’s no way we could justify it.
but clearly she’s just smarter than me!

It will be dirtier. She'll have to work harder. She's not wrong. She's also trying to make a living YABU.

I do this - regular customers who pay on time and don't fuck me around are golden so they pay less! My rack rate is the charge for a 1 off session and unless you book weekly you pay that.
Does it 'leave a bad taste' when you go to your local restaurant and are charged in full for everything? Because our local gives us loads of freebies due to being such great, regular, customers who tip well and pay in cash without any fuss. All businesses do this to some extent and you are viewing it as being charged more for infrequent use, but in fact it is the opposite.

Oh I wasn't trying to say there's anything wrong with employing a cleaner, there isn't, my point was that many clients mess them around.

If a good cleaner can ask for the top of the scale in term of rates, good for her. That's what we all do at work.

Not talking about you OP, but so many people seem to think cleaners and nannies should be satisfied with the lowest wage, barely legal.

I doubt it is to do with being 'dirtier' it'll just be massive hard for her to fill that gap in her schedule on the weeks you drop.

More than reasonable of the cleaner.

We pay our cleaners if we're on holiday etc and i think that's standard. I don't think it's fair to 'skip' a clean- they are counting on the income and can hardly just pick up a one off client to fill your regular spot.

This is a great way to think about it.

Assuming most people have 2 or 3 hours, it probably covers the extra half hour she needs to put in to get the house to the standard the client expects. And that removes any "between job" time she schedules in for a drink and loo stop, or traffic issues.

Different, but we looked at weekly cleaners and bi-weekly cleaners. The second lot all said they would need more time each visit.

I don't think the idea is wrong, but I think it has been poorly described.

My cleaner doesn’t do this and she’ll often stay an extra half hour after a cancelled week to make sure everything is as it should be. But, her contract is that I still pay for weeks that I cancel.

Theoretically I don’t have to pay for weeks which she cancels but it’s only usually 2 a year - holiday and Xmas - so I pay for those as well as a bonus. She reschedules for most other stuff.

Yes exactly, I thought it was standard to pay if you have cancelled.

I think it’s fair.

Our cleaner will only have clients that want her every week. Our window cleaner will only have clients that want a monthly clean. He says it makes his job harder when it’s every 2 months. They can do what they like, you can choose not to have them if the terms don’t suit you.

I think it's completely fair to charge more, but to me the reason is not because the house will be dirtier. She's paid for each hour of work she does so it shouldn't matter how dirty the house is. Charging more should be to make up for the lost earnings from the cancelled week.

Sorry, I know this isn’t what you asked but I’m curious as to why you skip a week/clean if you’re on holiday? We have a cleaner weekly, and we’re going away a few times this Summer so we’ll just leave a key with a neighbour or give her the key (with keyring attached so she knows it’s ours) and she can come whilst we’re away. Everyone’s happy then as the house is clean when we return and she gets paid. Could you do something similar?

That sounds like a faff to manage. If I cancel though, I still pay my cleaner (I don't if she cancels). Also, I do the clean myself and I am just as thorough as her if not more so. She has worked for me for 15 years so there's a lot of trust between us. I guess if none of the above is in place then charging more is her insurance policy.

I can sort of see where you’re coming from but this is MN so you’ll be told YABU for not paying your cleaner £40 an hour 😉

She's exactly right to do it. I'm a dog Walker and I charge people for a late cancellation as set out in my t and c's when they employ me.
If I don't walk then I otherwise don't get paid-and I can't just find a replacement dog to walk last minute. You

We never skip a clean unless the cleaning company aren't working as its a bank holiday and then we don't get charged.

We also give them a key so they can let themselves in

This is fair - 2 main reasons. One is that I had finished 6 days straight of shifts and finished at 7pm on the Tuesday. We were due to leave for airport at 3am (first trip abroad in 5 years) and I just couldn’t manage making sure the house was tidy for her at 3am as obvs with the kids it was chaos! Also and most importantly our door lock is broken currently so unless you know the exact angle / pressure / angle / light of the moon to do it under then it’s an absolute nightmare for anyone apart from us.

just to be clear, I always pay in advance at least 2 weeks so any cancellation under that she’d always kee the money and would always give at least a months notice of any holidays. And this is the only one we’ve ever had’