To talk to cleaner about this and not use again

[betray]

We went away and paid our cleaner 4 hours to clean the house
She came and spent 1.hr 20 mins there and saw it on the door bell
We home swap and our last two guests said the house was not clean
We thought they were being fussy and couldn't understand
This home swap she spent 1hr 21 minutes there
I'm worried these guests will complain house isn't clean again
I need her to sort the house for our return
I want her to do the return clean as I haven't got any notice but she needs to unpack our groceries too
If we get another bad rating for cleanliness it's going to jeopardise our future swaps which is how we go on holiday
I'm so hurt
What shall I do? Say something or just leave and not use again? So so upset

have her do the work that’s booked, including the groceries and then let her go, like a pp suggested, telling her you can’t afford her any more.

she is an evil person, ripping you off by doing only a fraction of the work she’s paid to do. The fact that she is essentially stealing from you means that she is rotten and if you confront her, then she will probably be nasty and spiteful and have some CF excuse.

the best thing to do is to apologise to your guests and explain that you initially didn’t understand their feedback, but have just realised that the cleaner you have paid did a bit over 1h instead of the 4h for which you had paid.

She's got to be pretty dim to try and get away with this when you have irrefutable evidence that she is not doing the time you have payed for.

I would show her the evidence, pay her for what she has done (eg the actual hours she spent cleaning) and find someone else.

Oh and tell her that if she writes a bad review you will counter this with another saying she is unreliable and have evidence to prove.

Sorry I would just not stand for this- she is not doing the job you have paid her for and is taking you for a fool.

1. Pay her for 2 hours maximum (or have you paid up front)?

1. If she leaves a bad review you can explain it is a revenge review and why.

1. Ignore the ridiculous catty comments from some very silly people on this thread!!

Why would you? This is why CFs get away with it

@Warum

no worries!

hopefully Op will be able to find someone better and who is up to the job soon eh

I would go for a similar message to a previous poster. Message the cleaner to say you've noticed she's only managed to do an hour, is there a problem and when can she do the remaining clean as you will need to notify the guests when she's arriving. And, mention that, obviously with previous guests noting the cleanliness you're very anxious that it's spotless and everything you had spoken about is covered.

It might be helpful in the immediate short term.
Also, there are people with plenty of time who also employ cleaners.

Hi Op, I'd second the idea to pay up to date and let her go nicely, you won't change the integrity of her by calling it out and you will avoid make yourself vulnerable.

Just wanted to mention looking up reparenting. You said about hating the part of you that soft, reparenting might help with the root cause as it's about repairing that internal relationship with ourselves. Your cleaner certainly has those too. Nima Rahmany on FB is a down to earth source of info. Good luck

'To make a suggestion which might cause less stress, at least in the short term.
As for shaming anyone having s cleaner, why on earth would I do that?'

Oh giveover with the back pedalling WARUM, we can all see straight through it, evidenced via SUEVENEER's agreement with you, picking up instantly on your intent to shame and reinforcing it - 'it's a rich person's problem, she's failing her children' (utter nonsense) etc etc. Your comment in no way whatsover came over as a helpful suggestion, so grow up and own it.

OP this is about asserting yourself, not being confrontational, they are too different things. Get rid of her and see it as an opportunity to put in better boundaries.

?????

@Sueveneers your (probably wilful) lack of understanding is hilarious!! Do you not get that this is a way that thousands of people have had holidays for donkeys years!! Ffs my parents/grandparents/other relatives did it for years in the 1950s/60s/70s/80s. It’s a cheap ish holiday in a home from home situation, you’re not literally swapping where you live 🤣🤣🤣

@CHIRIBAYA no back peddling, my stance hasn't changed (I've just had to explain it to those looking for a pile on).
Also, I'm not 'shaming' anyone, unless they already feel guilt (which they shouldn't unless they're treating the cleaner badly in some way).

No one is fucking jealous pmsl

I was being ironic

@betray what do you think we're jealous of? You sound very stressed by it all tbh, and I hope things can be sorted out soon.

If she leaves a bad review for being caught out cheating you, you can leave one for her just as easily!
I'd tell her that you've had complaints and see that she hadn't done the four hours so will only pay her accordingly and then not use her again. If I was her I'd be super embarrassed and retreat with tail between my legs!

Still ????

No! 😬

I think that sometimes in situations like this it helps to be pragmatic.

Realistically given that you know she has done this at least twice (once from complaint, once from ring doorbell) and likely more times than that, you aren’t going to be able to trust her in future. So, you need to find someone else.

You know that you need a clean before you come home and shopping unpacked even if this isn’t done to a great standard and it’s too late to get someone else in. So, you need to let this clean go ahead.

You know that you have a business which is vulnerable to poor fake reviews, and you suspect that the cleaner is the sort of person who might well retaliate by doing this. So you need to not do anything to provoke this situation.

you know (I’m assuming from your post) that the amounts of money that we’re talking about here are small compared to overall income / potential cost of damage to house or business or house swaps and you had already factored them into your holiday.

So, the obvious solution is to suck up your upset, pay for the agreed cleans, explain nicely that you don’t need a cleaner anymore and ask for your key back. Everyone is happy and situation can’t reoccur.

Was coming on to say exactly this. The language you’re using is so passive and victim-y, OP. This is a business arrangement. She hasn’t ‘hurt’ you, she’s straight up ripped you off; you’ve agreed the conditions of her employment and she’s not fulfilled them - she’s defrauded you in terms of time spent, and delivered unacceptably poor quality work.

I can’t believe the number of posters saying just pay up. Why the fuck should you pay the CF for 5 hours work she didn’t do?! She’s also potentially jeopardising your future Airbnb income if your guests leave bad reviews.

I know you’re worried about her leaving you bad feedback re your business, but surely that works both ways?

You’ve said you hate conflict and it makes you anxious (same for most of people I think), but there’s no need to be anything other than matter of fact about it - ‘My guests were unhappy with the cleanliness of the house and I noticed on the security camera you were there for a much shorter time than we agreed. I’ll pay you for two hours per visit, which exceeds the the time spent, but I’m afraid I need to end the arrangement going forward. Thanks.’ She’s a lot less likely to kick off if she knows you have proof of her coming and going.

@betray That's really bad. Definitely sack (obviously, as she's not done what she was paid for) and hire someone else.

As someone who's worked as a cleaner, I can say that the standard of work you're expecting (mostly just actually doing the work she's being paid quite well for) is not unreasonable at all.

The reason I would recommend paying up is because it’s a notoriously unreliable industry- what has happened to the OP happens all the time both in homes and with managing holiday lets. And the world of cleaners can be small, as an employer you also have a reputation to preserve if you want to keep / hire good workers.

If you know it’s par for the course then you also know to do everything reasonable to keep a good reliable worker in your employ. And how to navigate the downside of the management of it all.

@User0000009

theres a bit more to cleaning to air b n b standard than running a hoover round Hun