We all know tipping is a great way to show support and appreciation! Which brings us to the question: How much do you tip for a house cleaning service?

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. The amount you should tip for a house cleaning service can vary, depending on a few factors.

Following our previous article, where we discussed how much should you pay (or get paid) for a cleaning service, this time we wanted to talk about tipping house cleaners and housekeepers.

We all know the average tip for other services (e.g., bartenders and servers) is anywhere between 15% and 20% of the total cost. But does that apply to cleaning services as well?

Let’s find out!

How Much Do You Tip for a Standard House Cleaning Service?

We frequently hear comments and questions from both our cleaning artists and our customers related to tips. In general, they all want to know a fair number or range to get/receive a tip, available payment methods, and the circumstances where they should give or receive a tip.

If you want to know the short, quick answer, a tip is usually between 15% and 20% of the total cost of the cleaning service. If your cleaning service costs $150, then $22 to $30 is appropriate.

That’s a fairly easy and straightforward way of calculating a fair tip. Some people do more, some people do less. Some people do not tip. Remember: tips are completely voluntary and our cleaners are getting paid for their work. Dallas Maids’ professional cleaners should (and will!) always deliver exceptional work, no matter if you give them a tip or not.

However, tips have a positive impact on any worker’s morale and confidence. Plus, it could become an extra cash flow after having 2 – 3 customers tipping each day.

If you are still unsure, here’s a trick that can help you: turn the situation around. If you were the cleaner (or any service employee), how much would you expect to receive from a tip? What would you think is a fair tip for the service you just delivered?

This exercise might give you some perspective and help you decide on a fair tip for your housekeeper without burning a hole in your pocket.

Related: Unhappy With Our Housekeeper? Meet Our New Team!

How Much Do You Tip for Other House Cleaning Services? (E.g., Deep Cleaning, Move-In or Move-Out Cleaning, One-Time Cleaning)

For any other cleaning service that is not a standard, recurring house cleaning service, you might take into consideration other factors.

Usually, these services are a bit more expensive. This is because they usually take more time and energy from housekeepers. If you follow the percentage rule, it means the tip should also be higher as well.

However, this amount might go up (or down) depending on the performance and the specific cleaning tasks they had to perform.

Did you notice they had an area or task where they had to work extra hard? Maybe they had to deep clean your carpet floors or your kitchen appliances after months of delaying this task.

Maybe they had to come to work on a Saturday or in a bit of a time rush? Or perhaps this is a one-time cleaning related to a holiday or special event and you want to be a bit more generous with your tips.

In any of these cases, or if you just feel extra generous, you can increase the tip to 25% or 30%, for example.

Take all these factors into consideration and, in any case, you can always stick to the 15% – 20% range.

Related: Want to be Happy? Hire a Maid, Study Suggests

How Frequently Do I Have to Tip for a Recurring House Cleaning Service?

The frequency of a cleaning service is another important factor. This is because, for many customers, tipping a one-time cleaning service that you hire once every quarter is not the same as tipping someone 3 or 4 times a month.

In this case, you have different options. The first one would be tipping them each time they come to your house. If you want to, you can stick to the shorter side of the tip range, so it would be around 15% of the total cost. Keep in mind that a recurring service is usually cheaper than a one-time service, so you are already saving money in a way.

The next option is to tip them at the end of the month. If housekeepers come to your home 3 to 4 times a week, you can use the final week of the month as a reminder to tip them for their hard work.

Related: Is Your Maid Stealing From You?

What Is the Tipping Etiquette? How Do I Approach a House Cleaner to Tip Them?

This question is quite common among homeowners, as they don’t want to feel out of place when tipping someone. We sometimes make a situation more awkward than it needs to be!

As we mentioned earlier, tips are not mandatory, so do not feel pressured at all to tip them, even if you were happy with your service.

Suffice it to say, if you were less than impressed with the results of your service or if there were issues with the cleaning, don’t forget to contact us! We will come back to your home and fix it as soon as possible.

If you do decide to tip, remember to give the tip directly to the cleaner, or leave it in a clearly marked envelope. A “Thank You!” would be the perfect touch next to the cash.

If you are not sure about the tipping etiquette for a cleaning service in particular, or if this is the first time you are hiring/tipping a housekeeper, you can always ask your cleaning company directly.

Related: 7 Things Your Housekeeper Won’t Tell You

Alternative Ways to Tip for a House Cleaning Service

Even though monetary tips are the norm, there are many ways to express gratitude and appreciation. And they don’t always have to come in the form of cash!

It’s ok to think of alternative presents or gifts if that is what you feel comfortable with.

For example, you can give them a present based on special events or holidays that are coming up this month. This article from The Spruce has all the holidays coming in March. Believe it or not, there is one for each day of the month!

For example, March is Women’s History Month and a big part of our staff are women. You could come up with a gift based on this event, to show appreciation for their hard work and contribution to society.

Some people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this month as well! This is a big nationwide celebration, including Dallas, of course. Some St. Patrick’s Day cookies will be the perfect gesture near that date.

Plus, you also get to know your housekeepers with a recurring cleaning service. You could ask them about their interests and hobbies to think of gift ideas. Maybe you’ve found there’s a scarf they’ve been dying to get. Or you know their birthday is coming soon.

These are the perfect occasions to think of a sentimental item that you can give them instead of the typical cash tip. You can make someone’s day with the smallest gesture!

Conclusion

We hope these tips help you decide on a fair tip to give as part of a house cleaning service.

Remember: the usual range is 15% to 20%, but this could change depending on the quality of the service and any personal factors.

Because tips are completely voluntary, it is up to you to set your own ‘scale’ of what factors to consider.

Perhaps your main deciding factor will be how fast and efficient housekeepers are.

Or maybe the attention to detail and care they show for your furniture and your home.

Even just how attentive and friendly they are to you could be the dealbreaker.

One last tip: some cleaning services already include a gratuity fee in the total cost. Make sure you check that first with your cleaning service because, in that scenario, tipping will not be necessary.

However, if you consider their performance was exceptional, you can always add an additional tip. If you contact the cleaning company, you can ask what the average tip looks like, to give you a better understanding and help you decide a fair amount.

As always, remember to visit Dallas Maids’ main page to find out about our cleaning services. No matter if you tip them or not, our cleaning artist will always deliver great service and they will be happy to return next time to your home and make your life easier and happier.

We will be back soon with more cleaning articles!

The post How Much Do You Tip for a House Cleaning Service? appeared first on Dallas Maids® | Maid Service & House Cleaning Services Voted #1 for a Reason.

Hello, we hope you guys are having a great week so far! Today we wanted to talk about a less-than-common topic which is hiring house cleaners for your maid service in Dallas.

This is why we wanted to create a special article where we discuss all we know about hiring new staff as a cleaning company. Not only we’re sharing our best tips to get professional, qualified, and highly skilled professional house cleaners, but we’ve also contacted several cleaning companies in the Dallas/Fort-Worth area for their input.

There are many maid services with plenty of experience in this field, and we find their knowledge and advice incredibly insightful and helpful.

Before continuing, we want to thank our fellow cleaning companies in the DFW area that collaborated with us for creating this article, with their invaluable insights and tips.

What Will You Find In This Guide?

In this article, we will discuss how many resources it takes for hiring house cleaners, including human resources, monetary resources, and time. We will compare different hiring methods and procedures to find out the most effective ones.

We’ve written articles in the past with tips for hiring house cleaners in Dallas but this is a more extensive guide with the collaboration of other companies.

Related: 7 Ways to Know You Are Hiring the Best Maid Service In Dallas

We hope this helps you, as a fellow business owner, because hiring new staff is always a challenge, especially if you’re just getting started on your cleaning company. You risk hiring employees that are unreliable, unskilled, dishonest, or just spending too much time, money, and energy in the process.

In this guide, all the methods that we mention will give you a better understanding of how much it is costing you right now to hire a new house cleaner and learn how to find the most cost-effective solution for your company.

We recommend that you grab an agenda, make a list of pros and cons for each method, and choose one or more methods that you will try until you find your best fit.

The Cost of Hiring House Cleaners in Dallas

We spoke to several cleaning services in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to see what their preferred hiring strategies are. And we also posed them with a question:

“What’s your acquisition cost for each new hire? “

This is a great question because if you know exactly how much it costs you right now to hire a new employee, then you will know if other alternatives are more cost-efficient than your current one.

Keep in mind that the recruitment process is long, and it has many steps before they start working: from creating the ad itself, to sorting out potential candidates, interviews, and training. Along the way, many of your potential candidates will not be able to continue through the hiring process for whatever reason.

Insights From Our Fellow Cleaning Companies

Thanks to the insights from our fellow cleaning companies, we’ve heard that the acquisition cost goes anywhere from $0 and goes as high as $1000. This depends mostly on the platform that is used, but each comes with pros and cons (which we explain below).

Now, this is obviously a huge margin! $0 or $1000 is a huge difference in your budget, especially if you are getting started with your cleaning business.

Based on the seven cleaning businesses that collaborated with us, the average cost we got was $264 for each new hire. A higher cost is usually associated with online recruitment platforms or external recruitment services, but this could end up being actually cheaper than free recruitment options.

Keep this in mind: time is also a huge money investment. Free alternatives usually offer a lot of applicants, but the pool is so wide that you will invest a lot of time and energy filtering the best applicants. Recruitment services can represent a monetary cost, but they do most of the filter process for you and offer potential employees according to your needs and requirements.

We will go through each recruitment platform down below where you can compare the pros and cons.

Using Hiring and Recruitment Platforms

There are many online platforms maid services can use for hiring house cleaners, such as Craigslist, LinkedIn, and Indeed. They have a massive reach and are well-known. Indeed and Craigslist are paid, while LinkedIn is free with a “promoted” paid alternative.

The cost for posting a hiring ad on Craigslist is $45 per category (you can choose more than one) in the Dallas area. LinkedIn uses a pay-per-click method, which means that they will charge you whenever an applicant clicks on your job ad.

Indeed was one of the most popular options for our fellow cleaning companies.

“We use Indeed exclusively, we run Indeed ads” says Ginger from Love My Maids, a home cleaning service in Arlington, Fort Worth. To Ginger, Indeed is more effective than hiring using word of mouth (i.e., hiring house cleaners that are friends or family of your current ones).

“We receive enough applicants through indeed, though the ad spend can be costly if we are trying to hire quickly.” Adds Drew from Prairie Maids House Cleaning, a cleaning service in Grand Prairie, TX.

As for DFW Cleaning Co., a premium cleaning service serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, “we’ve used Indeed in the past, Facebook posts, and Craigslist before, and word of mouth too”.

LinkedIn charges around 5$ per click, but this varies depending on the type of job, location, etc. However, LinkedIn is a platform that is oriented toward professionals with a higher level of academic education. Therefore, it is not an ideal platform to search for professional cleaners for your maid service.

Hiring House Cleaners With Social Media

Social media, mainly Facebook, is a great way of reaching potential employees. The most common routes is to post Jobs using the Facebook Jobs platform, or to post ads on private or public Facebook groups. You also have the option of paid Facebook or Instagram Ads.

On Facebook, you can find many groups that are created to help people learn about work offers in their area. In this case, search for Facebook groups in the Dallas/Fort-Worth area.

The demand can be really high. The profile of the worker you’re searching for does match the use of Facebook, both as a work finder and as a social media platform.

However, here is the downside: because pretty much everyone can apply to your job offer, you are going to have a massive number of applicants that you will have to sort out on your own.

This brings us back to the original issue because you will still have a significant number of resources for sorting out your applicants, either time and energy (doing it by yourself) or money (by hiring a recruiter to do it for you).

The cost of using Facebook or Instagram Ads depends on the number of people they reach. Same as hiring platforms, the cost is pay-per-click and it varies depending on the area.

“We hire people from Facebook groups, but it is a hit and miss”, says Samuel from HomeMaid Cleaners, a house cleaning and maid service in Dallas, TX.

While at Prairie Maids, they use “local Facebook groups and Facebook mom groups”, among other recruitment techniques.

Saul from Family Cleaning Services, a professional cleaning service in Grand Prairie, TX, uses Facebook posts as well as Instagram posts.

Using an External Recruiter Specialized in Hiring House Cleaners

Another option is to hire an external recruiter (whether that’s a person or company), especially one with experience in the cleaning industry. This recruiter is not part of your payroll, but it is rather a 3rd-party service.

No strategy is perfect, but this one offers many advantages when compared to cons.

Money is certainly an important factor to consider here. However, consider that hiring specialized services is, in a way, a much safe investment than trying to do it on your own. This is because they already have the experience and the optimized procedure for hiring.

An external recruiter takes care of both finding potential candidates and filtering them according to the profile you are looking for. You might be looking for housekeepers with certain years of experience in the cleaning business, or that have trained others, for example.

Next, if you decide on looking for an external recruiter, you come across the challenge of finding a good one. This is no different than any other product or service that you acquire: you have to make an informed decision first. Start by checking whether this person or company has an online presence. This includes a website, or a profile on Yelp, Google, or Angi.

Many freelancers work as recruiters, so check their services at Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer. In this case, it might be harder to find recruiters that specialize in cleaners. The good thing about these platforms is that they include ratings and comments from previous clients, just like Google or Yelp.

Make sure they are clear about what they offer, what they do not offer, and what is the cost of the service and the payment options (e.g., is it a fixed cost per new applicant? Is it a monthly subscription?

Having Your Own House Cleaner Recruiter

This could be helpful if you are growing very rapidly as a company. This means that your current workers are happy with your company and stay with you and that your growing business needs more people to hire on top.

However, if you are not expanding and are instead struggling to hire new people constantly in order to replace quitters, you should find out first why is this happening. In this situation, it is not ideal to hire a recruiter.

The turnover rate is extremely expensive for your company, in all areas: money, time, and energy. This also impacts your reputation as a company: no one wants to work with a cleaning company where cleaners don’t last more than a month.

The longer your employees stick to the same customer, the more trust they will have in your service. After having the same cleaners for months (or years) the chances of them switching companies are much lower.

Besides, the longer your employees stay with you, the more you will get to know them as professionals. This means that you will be able to work on their weaknesses and polish up their strengths. All with proper guidance and management, of course.

The other option for having your own recruiter is to have you or someone from your staff take the role of a recruiter. Although this has some benefits (you won’t have to hire someone new, and the role can be “active” only when needed), it will take some time nonetheless, especially if that “temporal” recruiter is not familiar with this process.

Besides, it will take time away from this person to fulfill their everyday tasks. Make sure that this person has plenty of time available to dedicate their time to this process.

The Process of Hiring House Cleaners

As we mentioned earlier, there are many steps that you have to consider for the hiring process. The purpose of this list is to remind you of every step of this process, considering that every part will demand resources from your company, whether it’s time, money, or energy. A basic hiring process includes:

• Creating the ad (whether that is written or with a flyer),
• Reviewing and sorting the first batch of applicants,
• Contacting them and/or interviewing them,
• Inviting the final candidates for training with a senior cleaner and/or supervisor,
• And, repeating the process.

Creating the job ad

Creating the ad is not hard, but you need to think carefully about what you are including here. You want to go straight to the point and let them know what you are looking for, what requisites are a must, and what you are offering as a company (in terms of salary and benefits).

Think of everything that is legally required for your applicants in order to be part of your company, and any other requirements (e.g., having a car, and/or a driver’s license). Be clear about your salary offer and working hours. You don’t want to waste anyone’s time here by being dodgy, dishonest, or suspicious about your job ad.

In the Dallas area, many cleaning professionals will be native Spanish speakers. Creating an ad that is in both English and Spanish is a good way to connect with them.

You can use an automatic translation service, but they are often inaccurate and can make your ad look unprofessional or not serious. If possible, have someone that is a native speaker translate the ad for you.

Creating a flyer is a good idea because we all know that a captivating image grabs our attention faster than plain written content. However, you will need someone with basic image editing and/or graphic design knowledge to create a customized job ad for your company.

Remember that even before creating the ad, you need to be very clear on what you are looking for. It might take you a few hours and a meeting or two to decide the requirements and benefits that will be included in this job position.

Reviewing the first batch of applicants

Even if you were clear about job requisites, you are still (hopefully) going to get a very large number of applicants, but many of them will not be ideal for your company.

For this step, you will require someone that knows the list of requirements and benefits from A to Z. Besides, they should have a clear understanding of the profile your company is looking for in an employee, both as a professional and as a human being.

House cleaners require a lot of positive personal traits (honesty, good communication with managers, fellow employees and clients, responsibility, and many more).

Keep in mind that, during the entire process, you will need someone capable of answering any questions your applicants might have.

Otherwise, they will either walk out if their questions are not being answered, or they will keep moving forward until they learn a work requirement that they were unaware of previously. This will force them to quit the hiring process, which means that you wasted resources on someone that was not a good candidate in the first place.

Many online services offer an automatic answer to the most common questions (mostly related to payment/work schedule/benefits/requirements).

Contacting and interviewing potential house cleaners

Now that you have a list of potential house cleaners for your company, it’s time to contact them and conduct one or two interviews. At this point, any automated sorting processes will not be effective and you will require human people to select your candidates.

This is because at this point you are trying to learn who they are as a person, their background, and the pros and cons of hiring them. You are probably going to answer many questions from them at the same time, and (hopefully) set the next interview and/or a training day.

Again, many of your applicants in Dallas will most likely be native Spanish speakers, so someone bilingual is a must for this process.

A hiring process is sustainable in the long term if you focus on quality, not quantity. Although understandably, you are trying to hire new workers and grow as a company, especially at the beginning, you need to be patient and not take rushed decisions or bend your own hiring rules too fast.

This next step requires a recruiter that is capable of learning a bit more about each applicant. Good workers do not necessarily mean that they are ideal for your company in the long term.

Besides training, this is probably the most demanding step in terms of resources. You will have to contact each applicant, set a time for an interview, conduct that interview and then discuss the results. You might even have to conduct a second round of interviews.

For this process, you will need someone in your team that is bilingual, has the time and energy to conduct interviews, and is quick on their feet to ask all questions that rule-out any candidates that are not ideal.

Inviting the final candidates for training with a senior cleaner and/or supervisor

This step is similar to the previous one. At this point, you will have ruled out most of your non-ideal applicants.

You will have to schedule a training day (s) with a senior cleaning professional and/or supervisor, that is already working with you, of course.

They will be in charge of assessing and teaching the trainees, which will take some time for them, of course, as they will perform a professional cleaning service, besides the added time for explaining and performing each cleaning task. You will have to pay the trainees for their time, of course.

At this point, it’s helpful to realize how many candidates meet the requisites for your company. Out of dozens and dozens of applicants, perhaps less than 5 end up being hired. And they still have to follow an evaluation period (you should have a three-month evaluation time for new hires).

Think of an estimate of hours it took from yourself, external or internal recruiters from your company, and the cost per hour. This will give you an idea of the cost that it takes you to hire a single cleaner.

David from The Maid Place, a house cleaning service in Frisco, TX and surrounding cities, gave us an interesting approach: they find new applicants by word of mouth, and they do not use external recruiting services. “Our employees were trainees at one point, then they got to being a trainer and found helpers, which then became trainers, and so on.”

What to Look for When Hiring House Cleaners

Knowing exactly what to -and not to- look for when hiring house cleaners is very important. Again, you don’t want to waste your time or your applicants’, and constantly confirm that your applicant fits the position and the requirements that you need.

Depending on the structure of your company, they might need to have their own car or drive someone else’s car, for example.

Even if they fit all the essential requirements, it’s still challenging to find good workers. Here are some tips:

First of all, look for people with plenty of experience in the cleaning & maid industry. This means they are already trained and know how to clean. However, they will need to follow training to ensure they are performing to your company’s standards.

Second, look for individuals that have stayed at the same company for a long time. Look for workers that are stable at their jobs, as this comes with many benefits which we already mentioned.

Third, look for people with good heart. Nothing is more valuable than having good people in your company. They will get along with employees, be respectful to customers, and will create a healthy work environment.

Besides this, remember that you, as a company, also need to offer good qualities.

According to Anthony from Maids 2 Match, a maid and house cleaning service in Dallas, TX, “Always be hiring would be a major key”. He also recommends to “find house cleaners that already have experience so they don’t need any further training”.

What to Avoid When Hiring House Cleaners

There are some red flags that you want to avoid when hiring house cleaners.

As we were discussing earlier, always look for quality before quantity. This is a common mistake among new companies and companies that are thriving and that have too much business. Don’t “settle” for cleaners that do not meet your standards.

Your company will last long if you start growing slowly but with top-quality workers. It takes so much time and energy to build a good reputation, and just one bad experience to tear down all that effort.

Cleaners that have cleaned on their own or for family members are not a good choice. This is because there is a higher chance of them “stealing” your customers, especially after forming a bond with them.

It is common to hear cleaners “suggesting” close family or friends as new hires. Again, bad idea. If there is a problem with one of them (or if things just don’t work out professionally), then the other one is likely to quit as well.

Last but not least, do not hire people that did not last long in their previous jobs. Remember that new hires are a significant cost of resources (training time, money, energy) and if they are likely to quit soon, it’s just not worth it.

What to Offer To New Applicants as A Cleaning Company

So far, we’ve mostly talked about what to look for and the steps to take during the entire recruitment process.

However, it’s just as important to think of what your company has to offer to these potential new members of your team. The recruitment, interview and training process is not only a process to see if your employee is a good fit for your cleaning business, but it is also a way for them to see if you are a good company that they want to work for.

According to HomeMaid Cleaners, some of the most frequent challenges you will face are “finding the right fit” and then “keeping and retaining the talent”. Here are some insights from our fellow companies:

It’s important to be clear about instructions and expectations from them. The owner of DFW Cleaning Co., says she prefers to “over-communicate if they don’t understand” and “be transparent about what they expect”.

No one knows how to fix their mistakes if they don’t even know what they are doing wrong in the first place.

Saul from Family Cleaning Services advises to “have good communication” as well, and “pay them for what they deserve”. From The Maid Place, David recommends this: “pay them fairly throughout the year, provide them with bonuses, give them weekends off. If you pay them better than other companies, they will stay. Simple as that.”

For Ginger from Love My Maids, it’s important to be understanding and patient with your applicants. “Sometimes the best employees do not have great interviews. Don’t judge a book by its cover”.

Last but not least, Anthony from Maids 2 Match suggests having an “online guide for trainers”. This will speed up the process and allow you to train them in a consistent way.

Conclusion

We hope all our fellow cleaning companies in the Dallas/Fort-Worth area enjoy this guide. Not knowing what the best recruitment strategy is can be frustrating and scary, especially if you are just getting started with your cleaning business.

After all you’ve read in this guide, you will have noticed by now that no recruitment strategy is perfect. We have so many different options now for hiring house cleaners, so don’t be afraid to try all of them!

They all have pros and cons. Some of them are free but might represent a pool of candidates that is too wide. You will need a lot of time and energy to filter them out.

On the other hand, you have paid services, whether they are job posting websites or recruitment businesses. They will give you a list of profiles with the exact requirements you are looking for, but they are paid, although the price range is big enough.

Take your time and do your research until you find the method that works best for your company.

Again, we want to thank all our collaborators for this article. It’s really important to support each other and we hope we have the chance to collaborate once again in the future. Thank you so much to DFW Cleaning Co., Family Cleaning Services, HomeMaid Cleaners, Prairie Maids House Cleaning, Love My Maids, The Maid Place, and Maids 2 Match.

Remember you can use the contact form to let us know if this guide helped you get new amazing house cleaners for your company! We always love to hear from both our customers and fellow cleaning services in Dallas.

The post Hiring House Cleaners in Dallas – The Ultimate Guide for Cleaning Service Providers appeared first on Dallas Maids® | Maid Service & House Cleaning Services Voted #1 for a Reason.

The Dirty Truth About Cleaning Fees: Travelers Complain as Charges Soar

Christopher Elliott, Special to USA TODAY – Jan. 5, 2019

If you hate paying cleaning fees on top of a hotel or vacation rental rate, then you have a lot in common with Laurel Barton.

Cleaning fees are Barton’s pet peeve. “Nothing annoys me more,” she says.

She recently had to pay a $150 cleaning fee for a seven-night stay in a one-bedroom apartment in the mountain village of Pontresina, Switzerland, in addition to the $1,230 rental fee.

“I pay very little more than that amount to have my 2,100-square-foot house with three bathrooms cleaned,” says Barton, a travel guidebook author who lives in Portland, Oregon.

I’m also irritated by cleaning fees. When I rented a home in Sedona, Arizona, last summer, the real estate agency added a surprise $375 cleaning fee after it quoted my monthly rate.

Here’s what I’ve discovered about cleaning fees: While they can vary, the actual cost to the hotel or vacation rental owner is usually low. The difference can add up to a tidy profit, but you can also negotiate your way out of some cleaning fees.

Why are cleaning fees an issue now? Because more hotels and vacation rentals are breaking out these expenses from their initial price quote. Doing that makes the property look more affordable, at least at first. Quoting a room rate minus a mandatory cleaning fee is a severe irritation to travelers, although it can make a property more profitable – at least in the short term.

How much does it cost to clean a room or vacation rental?

Cleaning a room isn’t that expensive. Hotels spend about $10 per room for cleaning, according to Emma Atanasoska, a former hotel manager who publishes the industry blog HotelReader.com. That includes the cost of hiring a housekeeper and the equipment and supplies.

“It really doesn’t matter what kind of property you manage,” she says. “The math and the expenses will always be the same.”

For vacation rentals, which are larger, the cleaning cost is also surprisingly low. Mashvisor, a real estate data analytics company, crunched the numbers and found that it costs about $50 per stay.

“Of course, cleaning costs will vary depending on your location and the size of your property,” says Daniela Andreevska, a spokeswoman for Mashvisor.

That makes you wonder why people are paying $150 or, ahem, $375 in cleaning fees for their homes. The actual cost appears to be dramatically lower.

The lodging industry denies it’s trying to profit from cleaning fees. Veronica Hanson, who runs an Airbnb rental out of her primary home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, charges $300 for a cleaning fee.

“We pay $150 of that directly to the house cleaning service, and the other $150 goes to a professional laundry service who takes care of bedding and towels,” she says. “Sometimes the laundry service is a little more and sometimes a little less, depending on the weight of the linens upon pickup.”

Can someone profit from a cleaning fee?

“From my experience, no,” says Greg Shepard, a landlord and an owner of Dallas Maids home cleaning company. “If anything, short-term leases are more apt to take a loss from cleaning costs unless they have hired their own housekeepers.”

Others say cleaning fees can be profitable. Sandra Bennett owned an ocean-view, two-bedroom condo in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for the past six years. Her cleaners charged her $50. “In turn, I charged renters a $75 cleaning fee,” she says. But, she hastens to add, her rental rates were considerably lower than the standard for the area.

Telling you about the cleaning fee

Disclosure of cleaning fees varies. Airbnb, for example, displays a low “nightly” rate initially but then adds taxes and cleaning fees. For example, a condo advertised at $66 a night on the first screen of your reservation will later display as $97 a night, after adding cleaning fees and taxes. VRBO operates in much the same way. Guests don’t like those kinds of price quotes.

“Of course the property has to be cleaned,” says frequent renter Anne Woodyard. “So why not include that in your rates? I detest finding out, after choosing a rental property, that there are more fees beyond the rental price. It’s ridiculous.”

Ridiculous, but alas, the way of the industry. It shouldn’t be. In Australia, businesses have to “clearly” disclose a full price at the beginning of the online purchasing process. Consumers can report violations to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the country’s consumer-protection and competition agency, which can lead to enforcement action. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission could require an all-in price, but so far it hasn’t.

It’s only a matter of time before a hotel or vacation rental comes up with a clever $100-per-night “cleaning” fee to pad its profits.

How to handle a cleaning fee

• Click to find it. If you’re booking online, don’t pay attention to the “per night” charge. Instead, scroll down to the “total.” That’s the amount you actually will pay. Now, look up. If there’s a cleaning fee, you’ll see it there. If you’re booking by phone, always ask about the cleaning fee – and never assume there isn’t one.

• You can negotiate a cleaning fee. I spoke with several owners and guests who said that cleaning fees are negotiable, particularly for extended stays. If the host balks, you can at least ask for a cleaning halfway through your stay. (On stays of longer than two weeks, a cleaning halfway through your stay is fairly standard.)

• If it isn’t disclosed, dispute it. Save your screenshots and confirmations, because if the cleaning fee isn’t disclosed – and if you paid by credit card – you may be able to dispute it with your credit card company. But that’s a last resort. Try asking politely to remove the fee. Remember, all cleaning fees should be included in the initial room rate. Anything else is deceptive

The post The Dirty Truth About Cleaning Fees appeared first on Dallas Maids® | Maid Service & House Cleaning Services Voted #1 for a Reason.

Hello! We have a new system for calculating the percentage/commission for employees using Service Autopilot. It’s always important to have an updated system to let you know exactly what you need to pay automatically and without room for error.

I hope you find the Service Autopilot Percentage Calculator Excel Sheet and Percentage Calculator Procedure (above) useful in calculating percentage/commission for your employees. It allows Service Autopilot users to easily calculate pay based on the percentage of the jobs.

For example, let’s say the revenue from three jobs is $100.00 per each job and the employee is paid 50% per job. In this case, the excel sheet will calculate employee’s pay at $150.00. I.e. ((100 x 3) x .50).
The excel sheet also allows you to add tips, mileage, employee percentages, etc.

Where to Find the Service Autopilot Percentage Calculator

You are welcome to distribute both the calculator and procedure for free. I know it would make the lives of many users much easier! I had paid a professional excel expert to create the excel sheet for Dallas Maids and it helped tremendously.

In order to make this excel sheet more accessible and easier to find, might I suggest linking back to https://www.dallasmaids.com/service-autopilot-excel-commission-payroll-calculator/

And remember you can always visit our blog for more cleaning and business management tips.

Best to your success,

Greg

The post Service Autopilot Excel Commission Payroll Calculator appeared first on Dallas Maids® | Maid Service & House Cleaning Services Voted #1 for a Reason.

Your people are not being paid enough?

Afraid you’re not paying your people enough using percentage?

A fellow maid service entrepreneur came to me worried that he was not paying his people enough in this reddit subforum. His pricing and percentage given to his staff was correct yet what was paid to his ladies (he was right) was not enough. So what was wrong?

I asked him “how long would one of your people take to clean a 2000 sq ft house with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths?”

When he answered “ 5-6 hours” I knew exactly what was wrong.

And I thought that the new guys starting out here may have this same issue, lacking the opportunity to have tried out enough staff to know the solution yet.

Though first…

Percentage is THE way to go

First, percentage is the way to go because:

• you are guaranteed a percentage of the job, thus containing costs
• percentage rewards your efficient and effective staff
• nurtures your new maids by giving them more time to complete the job (assuming you have flat rates for regulars as I do).
• keeps accounting simple. No need to waste time on recording hours. As with everything, keep things as simple as possible because as you grow, complexity will try to creep in and overwhelm productivity.

Initially, like most, I started paying per hour though quickly found percentage was the best way to go. When switching over quality got better and cash flow increased.

This is why the larger franchises such as Merry Maids and The Maids use percentage: they learned that it was the best way, too.

Find the Right Cleaning Staff

So the problem was not his pricing or percentage he was giving his people. The problem was…

His people.

They were to slow. Instead of 5 to 6 hours they should be completing the house in 3.5 or 4 hours. Completing a job quicker equates to a higher hourly wage. This is why percentage rewards your quickest people and allows time for the newer, slower one’s to improve if the pricing is a flat rate.

For Dallas Maids we do the first job at an hourly rate. However I take extraordinary effort to find the BEST people from the beginning. My interviewing process is more selective than some of the ones I went through while in the professional work force after university! And I dare say, more effective. THIS has been my secret to success.

Somtimes, I have too much work and am desperate for more people (which happens). However, I do not hire just anyone to take care of the extra business. Yes, sucks to lose business because you don’t have the staff to accommodate. However, you do not want to tarnish your reputation by sending just anyone. In these cases send the extra leads to your friends.

So when I send a team to work hourly for first time or one time jobs, they get down to business, go on automatic pilot, and rock the home, making it sparkle. Slow, idle individuals don’t work for me.

AND not only do they clean the house efficiently, they do it effectively. They may be fast, but they don’t do a rush job. These are the people you need to hire. These are the people you need to keep. And if they are making good money while be taken care of by you, your customers will be happy and your business will thrive.

The post Cleaning Staff not Being Paid Enough Using Percentage? appeared first on Dallas Maids® | Maid Service & House Cleaning Services Voted #1 for a Reason.