Opinion on Cleaners

[Susie236]

I wanted to get your opinion on this situation, I am an Airbnb owner myself.  Some really good cleaners work for me.  I have a three bedroom house, four beds and two bathrooms.  I pay my cleaner $150 per clean.  She checks the BBQ, cleans it if it needs it and tops off the hot tub with water - but I have a service that comes weekly.  I was asked by another Airbnb owner for my cleaner's name.  And her daughter is now cleaning for that woman.  So that house is an hour out of town, two bedrooms, and sleeps six with a couple pull out beds.  It was trashed, a hole in the wall, blood on the sheets, a huge mess.  A wedding party. It took her and her partner 17 hours to clean it, she took pictures for the owner.  The owner paid her $150, so $75 each for 17 hours.  The owner has also demanded that she check the hot tub, clean it, put the chemicals in, leaf blow the deck and set the spinklers - for her $75 per cleaning.  When that owner needed something done up there she asks the cleaner drive up to do it and pays her nothing.   This is a 5 star cleaner!   So I would pay her minimally $450, but more likely $500 for the cleanup,  I would submit the extra cleaning fee as part of the damages that I would submit to Airbnb for the guest to pay.  I would pay her $50 to drive up and back, that's a two hour drive, time and gas.  I would want her to do the BBQ, because guests don't even use it half the time, but I would pay her extra for the lawn, for the hot tub, those are services.  I hire a service on my hot tub weekly and a lawn service - I don't want my cleaner bogged down with those things, when we have a back to back she has to be able to get in and out.  What do you guys think of this?  I wanted some feedback.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Susie236 If I have understood correctly I would say it is none of your business.

[Susie236]

Thank you for replying- my point was process not a behavior condemnation. My understanding of this site was bouncing ideas off each other, you’re obviously new to Airbnb. Cleaners are the keystone to  no our business.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Susie236 But there is no process for things that are nothing to do with us. Its all down to the marketplace. Treat employees well and they will usually respond in kind. Treat them badly and they will likely fond other people to work for.

[Lorina14]

@Susie236 

I feel you and agree that that other host is taking advantage of the situation. You obviously value and treat your cleaner well, and it sucks that others don’t. I can understand @Mike-And-Jane0’s comment (and he’s a seasoned veteran in Airbnb hosting) as this is something that is between that host and the cleaner.

The cleaner should fire the host as what they are expecting and paying is ridiculous. And you can out of your care for your cleaner mention that you heard about this and feel that the other host is taking advantage of the situation and voice your concern. Other than that it is the cleaner’s business and how she decides to set boundaries with demanding unreasonable clients.

You could have words with the other host but in essence you could put yourself in the middle of a bad situation. That is why I believe he said it isn’t your business. Sometimes @Mike-And-Jane0 may be brief in his responses, sarcastic and funny other times (he’s made me laugh quite a bit), calls people out when they are being irrational but he is being truthful, helpful and does gives sound advice. 

You are right that this is a forum for sharing and asking for help, support or advice for guests and hosts. You could also search threads if there have been similar concerns and how they were handled.

[Susie236]

Thank you, I appreciate your reply.  I have been on here a few times, not a lot.  My cleaner is a five star cleaner, used to work at the Hilton.  She has become my friend, and this is her daughter.  So I wish I would have never recommended her daughter in the first place.  But who knows how other owners are going to treat their cleaners, pretty naive of me.   So yeah, I told her she's going to have to push back, get an itemization of services to present to the owner, what she does for the $150 and what are extra services and what the charge will be.  The reason I posted is because I just wanted to give her support.  She doesn't want to walk away because she's a single mom, but it would be great if she did.  Personally, after trying to find a cleaner like the caliber that I have, who is totally reliable, and we have crazy hours, never always changing.  I make it a point to not to have cleans on holidays so she can have family time,  I pay her for her drive and time if I ask her to come back for something - she's only 20 minutes away, but time and gas matter.  So thank you again, your input was what I was looking for.  

[Lorina14 · Accepted solution]

@Susie236 

Yes a contract is needed that clearly outlines what she will do for what payment. Most cleaners have an hourly rate, some base it on square footage, some a combo of both. Some cleaners do laundry, make welcome baskets, and others don’t. A deep clean definitely should be more than a standard clean. If there is excessive damage, the host can submit a request for payment in the resolution center (one must document well with time stamped pics, messaging through the Airbnb platform and requesting for damage of linens or extra time cleaning). If the guest declines, aircover should cover for those expenses (if they are properly documented and all guests names were on the reservation as I’ve read that several times they have declined if not all guests were listed on the Airbnb reservation (meaning invitation sent and accepted by the additional guests and verified through Airbnb with an ID, email or phone number)).

Maybe your friend can ask some other cleaners for a standard agreement form, you can look online for some general cleaning agreement forms or you could screen some cleaners for her and give her their agreements to help her out. 

In the end she needs to set healthy good boundaries of what she will and will not do for the set price as well as what additional cleaning will cost (cleaning the bbq grill, deep cleaning the stove, treated bloody linens, spackling any holes in the wall, doing laundry, deep cleaning the fridge, cleaning the oven (if someone left an oily mess), pet stains, cleaning out smoke/hard to remove odors, painting).

I’m glad she has someone looking out for her as a friend and someone who pays their cleaners well for their time and effort. Not all hosts are as conscientious or caring as you. 

[Susie236]

Thank you, that's really nice of you.  I feel like we do right by people and they do right by us.   But if they're not going to, and you feel you need the work you have to push back and set your boundaries.  Yeah, I sent her a sample invoice to bill the host and I told her it can be sent to the resolution center so no worries there.  I told her to set out her rates, the base rate for the agreed upon services, list them out.  If you said you would clean the BBQ on your bid, you do it.  Same with refilling the hot tub or putting a tab in.  New stuff itemize and immediately begin billing.  And if you are not happy with your rates, put your new ones out in January, My 2025 rates.   The stuff that cleaners don't know and maybe never are told, but we can put a two day delay on our rentals to give the house time to be cleaned.  If you need a clean immediately they can say yes or say no.  Nobody should feel they have to drop their little girl off and run an hour drive right away on a last minute call.  Or maybe they finished another cleaning and are exhausted.  I told them what we can do.  I checked with my cleaner and asked her what she thought and we work together on the time.  Thanks so much for the input, I appreciate it.  

[Lorina14]

@Susie236 

If they need a same day turn around at the last moment’s notice I would expect that to be an additional charge if it wasn’t already agreed upon. Like their normal cleaner fell through and they are scrambling to get it cleaned for the next guest. Her fee could include x miles from her home/area she is cleaning that day and anything over that is a set fee per x miles for traffic, gas and mileage considerations.

Hosts can share their cleaning calendar with their cleaning staff via google or some other platform (you can check the resource center on how to articles for this).

A cleaner can also be put as a cohost but some hosts say it is not ideal as then they can see the cost per night for the listing. I know some people do this as you can also pay your cleaner directly through Airbnb but most don’t do this. You can check what permissions you can set for cohosts too. 

[Cheri354]

By your description, the other Host is taking advantage of the cleaners and abusing their time. However, bear in mind, some cleans go really fast and that can help even out the longer ones ($ per hour). Also, the cleaners can say, "No". Every host has an idea of what they are willing to pay for certain services and what they expect their cleaners to take care of. Those expectations need to be outlined before hiring, imo.

[Susie236]

Thank you!  This is exactly what I wanted and what I told her to do, but I said I would ask for other owner's input.  On an exceptional clean, this was 17 hours, hole in the wall, blood all over the linens, place trashed, the host can put in a special request for damages and this cleaning could have been covered.  And if the owner/host is not doing it, she can provide and invoice to the owner for the extra time, and I think she should, but better yet produce a list of extras and the costs thereto.  When we are lucky enough to have reliable cleaners that will work our crazy hours and never let us down, we need to take care of them.  For me, if I have guests booked and they cancel last minute with a nonrefundable, and I get paid and my cleaner gets paid even if she doesn't clean.  If I ask her to make a special trip to the house, I pay her.  Gas is expensive and her time is worth money, and she's only 20 minutes away.   I recommended my cleaner's daughter for this job and that's why I'm interested in not seeing her treated poorly.

[Marie8425]

@Susie236 

Explain it to your cleaner like this

All Businesses succeed or fail because of profit or loo results of what they are selling

A cleaning businesses basically is selling skilled labor.

What is her opinion though my business is selling t-shirts for $20 each.

People are buying my $20 t-shirts.

Then someone, I don't really know he is a customer that bought a $29 e-shirt, demands I give him 17 free t-shirts and he pay for the 18th t-shirt $20 or I could take my chances that others will buy my $20 t-shirts but no guarantee.

What would she say is a good business decision for my t-shirt selling?

Is she following her own advice?

[Susie236]

Nice!  I don't know, have to run it by her!   Thank you for your response.

[Helen3]

This is between the daughter and her client @Susie236 

The daughter should have  a contract that covers additional cleaning and it's rather silly for her to agree to do work she's not being paid for.

[Susie236]

You know, I get that it's silly.  But it's really hard when you're young and not familiar with business - especially Airbnb business.  She was getting called last minute and expected to drive an hour up and back and clean and yeah it felt wrong to her but she wasn't certain.  And yeah, I know we're all self-employed under the umbrella of Airbnb and if the cleaner doesn't like it they can leave.  But it just seemed like it was right to let her know what we as hosts can and can't do for our cleaners - especially when they are excellent and earn us five stars every time - that we help them.  Thank you for your response.