Is this normal with cleaners?

[Shesaidshelistened]

I have had such bad luck with cleaners. one cleaner terribly unreliable and one was just awful.

New cleaner started at the end of last year. She comes every other week. Is paid for 2 hours however keeps finishing within 1.5 hours. She does a good job upstairs but downstairs it’s hit and miss and it’s as though she is rushing. She works fast, I’ll give her that.

she’s just said that she’s upping her rates from 1st March to £20 an hour, which means that I’ll be paying her £10 for nothing. A friend has a cleaner and says this isn’t normal, so I’m not sure how to deal with it. Cleaners are incredibly hard to come by where I live. I am happy to give her £40 if she is actually working 2 hours but she isn’t. I don’t know whether I just say that I will reduce to £30 for the two hours or can I fill her time with extra jobs?

You could use this as the prompt to talk to her about only working 3/4s of what you are paying her for and that she isn’t doing a satisfactory job downstairs.

I recently read in here that cleaners much prefer weekly customers as it is easier to ensure a full week every week I.e. she might not have another fortnightly customer for the week you don’t need her.

You not might get a better service if you switch to weekly, maybe less hours and alternate tasks to be done.

But if she’s been consistently hit and miss and leaving early, I’d change cleaner and see if weekly works better with the next one

I'd tell her you are paying for X hours so don't expect her leaving early. Find her an additional list of jobs to do if she finishes early.

It's standard practice with key jobs but not when the home owner is watching you!

I’m just not sure what jobs to ask her to do?

I had this with a cleaner. I tried reducing her hours but she still left early. I just got a different cleaner, some just aren't very good

Why not just say that you notice she only takes 90mins and you'll pay her for that. Or ask her to spend longer on downstairs so she fills the full time.

I am lucky at the moment to have an excellent and hard-working cleaner who does 2hrs every fortnight. But over the years I've had various levels of poor cleaning/poor timekeeping/prices. Overall I would say you need to decide whether you're basically happy or whether you want to have someone else.

Skirtings, clean out microwave, fridge.

If she’s not cleaning well, that’s something to discuss.

Where I live, cleaners charge “per clean” and I’ve found that the first time or two, it takes them longer, but then they become more efficient and get the same job done in less time.

No one here wants cleaners/tradesmen etc who work per hour because there are too many lollygaggers who don’t get much done.

Cleaner here.
I price per job, head down, crack on. But I don’t rush to get out in the fastest possible time.

If you’re paying by the hour, she should stay for the full time. It sounds like she’d do a better job if she did the full time. Sounds like she’s being slapdash to get out quickly. I wonder if she has another job she has to get to.
Tell her you’re accepting of the price increase but she needs to stay for the full time that was agreed.

@Fynoderee is bang on.

I would say if you finish the usual clean before the two hours is up please can you rotate these jobs -

• cleaning inside fridge
• cleaning oven
• putting laundry in the washing machine
• cleaning windows
• cleaning the inside of rubbish bin

Etc etc

None of these things would fall within the scope of a weekly clean in my area. They would all be considered extras and have a separate charge. Most cleaners won’t do windows under any circumstances.

£20 ph is quite expensive, it's more,of a holiday let price IMO. I think you'll be better to either state what jobs you want doing to the cleaner and ask for an all in price per clean or find a cleaner who has a clear list of what jobs they do as part of a clean and will give you a price for the overall clean.
Upstairs is often easier to clean than downstairs, I know most cleaners start upstairs but it inevitably means the downstairs gets rushed, even holiday let let cleaners fall into this trap from my experience.