January 15, 2022
The easiest way to make your house shining clean without spending all of your priceless free time is to hire a professional cleaning service. This saves your time and energy, everybody knows that already but one aspect of this may cause confusion among different house owners: how much to tip house cleaners? Or how often to do this?
The quick answer is that tips are never required, however, there are different factors that should help to decide whether to give a tip to your housekeeper or maid and how much to give. Our full guide to tipping your house cleaner is created to help you with your decisions.
House cleaners are always happy when they’re given tips for their quality of work. There are a few examples of this, like the state of your home and how well it’s been taken care of. A housekeeper might also get more out-of-the blue money if you hired one that had less experience or didn’t do such great jobs before – but in general, these things should be determined by what kind of service is coming into mind first!
Agencies vs. Self-Employed House Cleaners
The size of the cleaning company is probably the first thing to consider. Are you hiring a large cleaning company with many employees or are you hiring a self-employed individual who manages their own business? Individual house cleaners are most capable to set their own price and do not concede to a larger company.
In this case, they most likely have already included tips in their price. On the other side, employees of the cleaning companies get only part of the payment, and they can’t change rates, so tips could be helpful for them. This information could help you with the decision of giving the tip or not.
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Housekeeper Tipping Policies
If you think that the service provider is doing a good job and deserves to be rewarded, consider leaving a tip for the housekeeper on top of what was agreed upon in advance. Some companies offer an incentive for customers that do tip housekeeprs – this could include better rates or other perks like free services as incentives!
A lot of cleaning agencies are paying higher salaries than usual just so they don’t have too many bills coming from one client because most people won’t leave anything if there’s no mention of it beforehand. However, other companies may make up part or all money spent by giving back bonuses after certain milestones are reached.
Other cleaning companies may build the tips into their standard rates. In this case, the service agreement should clearly state how the rates are determined and whether the tip is included. Yet, some agencies may even prohibit their workers from taking tips. If you are confused about the company’s tipping policy – don’t be scared to ask directly. In doing so, you may also hear about other clients and what tips they give.
Work and Quality Cleaning Service
You should also consider the quality of work you receive from each cleaning service before you decide whether to tip your maid. If your cleaner has provided substandard work, then a tip should not be given, especially if you have to call the company to provide a follow-up cleaning. On the other hand, if your maid has done an extraordinary job and your home is left sparkling clean, you may want to reward their efforts.
Read also: How To Clean Shower Head At Home
The State of Your Home Prior to Cleaning
Additionally, whether it is a big or a small cleaning company or what tipping policy they have, you should also consider the state of your home, it’s an important factor. For example, you may have a complex task where your kitchen is extremely dirty or your bedroom is very messy. Or perhaps your summer house was untouched for many months in a row and is now covered in dust. If this is the case, you may want to tip your house cleaners even if it’s not typical for you.
How Much or How Often Should You Tip House Cleaners?
So you decided to give a tip to the housekeeping staff but you are probably still wondering how and what amount would be suitable to tip. Take into account what kind of cleaning services you have ordered. Maybe you have a different person or the same maid each time you order the service plus consider how your rates are determined.
Read also: Summer Cleaning: Keeping Your House in Order
Ordered Services
When you are still in the process of figuring out how frequently you should tip your cleaner, consider the type of service that you have requested. Maybe you ordered just a one-time cleaning, like kitchen cleaning, and don’t want to get a regular cleaning, then you can give a one-time tip or just don’t tip at all, it’s up to you. On the other hand, if you ordered a few cleanings you may tip when they are all complete, or after the first one; some clients prefer to give a tip after the first and before the last cleaning sessions.
Tipping Different Cleaners vs. The Same Cleaner
If you ordered regular routine cleaning, the next point to take into account is whether the same housekeeper visits your flat or house or if the cleaning agency sends different people for different kinds of services such as deep cleaning or bathroom cleaning. If a different employee comes each week, you will need to give a tip every time you think it’s appropriate because you don’t know if you will see this person next time. Alternatively, you can decide to tip with a larger sum once a week or every two weeks instead of giving a smaller amount each time.
Read also: How To Prepare Your Home For Summer Time
How Much to Tip Cleaning Lady
Once you’ve decided to leave a tip and how often, you are probably still wondering how much? The location of where you live is important because rates differ whether you are for example in Manhattan or not. Plus, consider everything that was discussed above. If you liked the service, it would be great if you can leave a 15-20% tip from the price that you paid to the cleaning lady, or it could be higher if you think that the job was outstanding or it was a very messy house.
Appropriate Housecleaner Tipping Practices
Some people are wondering how to properly give a tip to housekeepers, like should it be cash or maybe in other forms? For one-time services, cash is the most favored form and home cleaners prefer this too. Nevertheless, if the cleaner is a regular person who does the job in your home, you may feel uncomfortable giving them cash each time. It’s great if you know your cleaner well, and you may even know their tastes, for example, you can gift them a bottle of wine, or a gift card is a great way to show your appreciation too. Ordering food while a maid is cleaning? You can order some extra food for lunch, and eat it together, but the house cleaner could be limited with time so you should ask before.
What about numbers?
Working with the agency? You could ask them. $15-$20 per service would appropriate.
Hired them directly? $10-$20 per service, however if you hired them during the holidays – consider to tip more – $50-$100.
Remember that tipping is only up to you, so if you are not comfortable with tipping your housekeeper or you don’t think that the job was worthy of a tip, don’t tip. We at White Glove Cleaner are not expecting tips, we just enjoy what we do and we are great at what we do, but if you receive an extraordinary service, feel free to add on some extra bucks, our cleaners will greatly appreciate it!
P.S. And if you love cinema, probably you have seen this episode about tips from Tarantino.
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