You have realized that your life was overscheduled, and something had to give, so you took the plunge and hired a house cleaning service. You reviewed cleaning service prices, compared all the different house cleaning services in your area, and decided which one you thought would be best for your home and budget. They came and did a stellar job – now, what about tips for the house cleaner? Is that a thing?
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Why Do People Tip?
Before we broach whether you should tip your house cleaner, let’s look at why we tip, in general. When broken down, there tend to be four reasons that people tip:
- To show appreciation
- To reward for extra care provided by the cleaner
- To thank the cleaner for taking care of special requests
When we are in restaurants, paying a tip to our server is clear-cut, at least in America. In the past 10 years, tip jars in other businesses, such as fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, and when we pick up take-out, have become more commonplace. However, when discussing tips for house cleaners, it becomes more convoluted. You’ve agreed on set cleaning service prices, so why and when would you give a tip for house cleaning?
What Considerations Should There Be When Deciding to Tip Your House Cleaner?
There are several different considerations when deciding whether or not to tip your house cleaner for their house cleaning service, including:
- Loyalty
- Distance
- Special Requests
- Appreciation
What is Your Relationship? – Have you moved to a more remote location and your house cleaner has committed to follow you, even though it takes them an additional 30 minutes to get to your new home?
Distance Makes a Difference – With gas prices rising, it makes a difference how far house cleaners need to travel to their client’s homes. Majority of the cleaners report driving one hour or more to their client’s home.
Are Special Requests Handled When Needed? – Your in-laws just called and they are arriving this weekend or it’s poker night with the neighbors. Your house cleaner is ready and willing to put in the extra effort to make your home shine.
Recognition of the Peace of a Clean House – When you come home, do you immediately notice how clean your home is? Do you benefit from having a house cleaner and feel relief knowing you can spend more time with your family, read, relax, and do what you want to do?
Generally, Tips are not Built into the Cleaning Service Prices
Majority of house cleaning services do not build tipping right into their standard cleaning service prices. To know for sure, tipping should be detailed in your service contract. More and more, house cleaning services are paying premium and highly competitive wages to retain top talent. Providing your beloved house cleaner with tips goes a long way to maintain cleaners’ job satisfaction and commitment to a quality and hard work.
When in doubt, if they’ve gone above and beyond, it is always a good idea to tip your house cleaner.
The State of Your Home
When the house cleaning service arrived at your home, was it in a general state of disarray, or was it tidy and ready to be sanitized? Tips can be a way to say “Thank you” when they have to come in and do some heavy lifting for a particularly dirty or unkempt house. Perhaps they had to do a deep clean or help with an organizational task – if so, rewarding with a tip for your house cleaner is an excellent way to acknowledge that they went above and beyond.
Work Condition Can Tip the Scale
Above all, tips should come down to the quality of the work. Did the cleaners provide a sparkling cleaning of your home or business? Is this a job worth the cleaning service price and more? If so, you will want to provide a tip for your house cleaner to let them know that you acknowledge and appreciate their hard work.
How Often Do You Provide a Tip for House Cleaners?
Now that you’ve decided that you would like to give tips to your house cleaner, how often do you give a tip?
There are a couple of items to consider:
- Frequency of the cleaning services
- Same cleaner or rotating cleaners
Type of Requested Cleaning Service
Choosing how often and how much to tip your house cleaner can come down to what type of house cleaning service you have requested. For example, are they coming to do a deep clean? A one-time move-out clean? Or will they be coming for weekly cleans? One-time cleaning services, which include Deep Cleaning, Spring Cleaning, Move-Out Cleaning and Post Construction Cleanings, are taxing, physically intensive cleans and, therefore, more expensive. For one-time cleaning services such as these, we recommend tipping at a minimum of 15%.
If you have regularly scheduled cleaning services and your cleaner cleans your home on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis, most homeowners choose to tip once per month and on special occasions and holidays. Cleaners have reported tips ranging for the recurring maintenance home cleanings from 10 dollars to 20 dollars. Many homeowners enjoy showing their appreciation to their house cleaners on popular holidays such as Thanksgiving and during the Christmas holiday season. During these holidays, cleaning professionals report receiving tips in the amounts ranging from 20 dollars to 100 dollars.
Repeat Cleaner vs. Rotating Cleaners
Are you signed up with a house cleaning service that sends out different cleaners every week, or do you have the same house cleaner every week? If you have a different house cleaner each week, you may want to leave a tip for the house cleaner whenever you see them because you won’t know when you will see them again. However, if you have the same house cleaner each visit, you may want to leave tips periodically and make it a more significant amount.
Ultimately, How Much Should You Tip Your House Cleaners is Your Decision
The age-old question is: how much should you tip for house cleaning? A few items come into play, so it isn’t a straightforward answer. This can depend on your state, your cleaning service prices, and the quality of your cleaning. If you believe you received good service, you may want to tip your house cleaner between 20 to 40 dollars, tipping on the higher end if you feel you received an exceptional job.
To help you decide on the tipping amount or whether you want to tip at all, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you want to show appreciation for the hard work?
- Do you want to reward your cleaner for extra care provided to your home?
- Do you want to thank the cleaner for taking care of special requests?
- Do you want to help out financially?
- Do you want your house cleaner to go the extra mile next cleaning?
If you answered “Yes!” to any of the above questions above, we strongly recommend tipping your house cleaner. Your monetary appreciation will go a long way!
What Form Should the Tip for Your House Cleaner Take?
Now that you know the amount you would like to tip, you must decide what form you would like your tip to take. What is the best method? Most people agree that cash tips for house cleaners are generally best. More recently, more and more clients use Venmo or Zelle.
However, if you know your house cleaners well enough to know their preferences, you may get them gift cards to a favorite restaurant or store or a nice bottle of wine. A personal gift lets them know that you appreciate them as individuals, not just as house cleaners.
When you feel like it’s time to call a house cleaning service to assist you with getting your house in sparkling condition, give Pure House Cleaning a call. Pure House Cleaning serves communities in and around Seattle, Bellevue, and Kirkland and will help keep your home stunning and feeling its best with cleaning that fits your schedule and budget. Browse our website to discover more about our cleaning process, cleaning service prices in Seattle, other coverage areas, and more.