How Much To Tip A Cleaning Company (Find Out Now!)

An excellent way to keep your home clean without sacrificing your free time and energy is to hire a professional cleaning company. Doing so will save you a substantial amount of time and effort throughout the week of cleaning by yourself, but one aspect of hiring a maid service seems to cause confusion among most homeowners: should you tip your cleaning company? And if so, how much and how often should you tip them?

Your maid works incredibly hard to handle all of the chores that you either lack the energy or the time to take care of yourself. You get to enjoy the benefit of a sparkling home, with less stress and more free time along the way. The rate that you pay the professional cleaning company is based on a number of factors including the type of work you need done, your location, and the size of your home or apartment.

How much you should tip your cleaning company depends on a number of factors including the condition of your home at the time of their visit, the services requested, the quality of work, tipping policies, and more. With that in mind, if you receive exceptional service from your cleaner, it’s recommended that you tip between 15% and 20% of the rate you paid. You may consider paying on the higher end for cleaners that go above and beyond or for especially filthy projects. Additionally, if you know the cleaners that work for the company you hire rely on tips to make a living, you may consider tipping more.

Like with any other service provider, maids appreciate being recognized for their hard work via tipping. In some instances, they might even count on tips from their satisfied customers. Although there is a general rule of thumb for how much you tip waitstaff, hairdressers, and food delivery workers, the guidelines for tipping a cleaning company are much less understood. That’s where we come in! To help ease any confusion, we’ve put together a complete guide on tipping your cleaning company, maid, or housekeeper.

When it comes tipping your house cleaner, you first want to consider the size of the cleaning company that you are hiring. Are you hiring a self-employed cleaner who owns and operates the business, or are you working with a large cleaning company that employs many individuals? Individual owners are usually able to establish their own rates and won’t lose a portion of the money to a larger corporation.

With that in mind, these self-employed cleaners often don’t expect tips. On the other hand, those employed by large cleaning companies don’t determine their wages, receive only a portion of the full-service price, and may be relying on their tips in order to make a living wage. Make sure that you take this into account when you’re deciding whether or not a tip is necessary, and how much you should consider giving.

Another factor to keep in mind is the specific tipping policy of the company that you are hiring. There are a number of cleaning companies that have started to pay their employees a higher wage, which eliminates the pressure for customers to tip the cleaners. Other companies may include the tips into their standard cleaning rates. Regardless, the service agreement should outline how the rates are determined and if a tip is included or not.

In some instances, companies may have a policy that states that cleaners cannot accept tips, and they will respectfully decline any tip that is offered. If you are ever uncertain about a cleaning company’s policy regarding tipping, it doesn’t hurt to ask. In fact, they may also be able to give you some information about what past customers have done and how much they tipped their cleaners.

Aside from the size of the company you’re working with and their tipping policy, you should also consider the condition of your home when it comes to tipping your cleaner. If you are giving that an especially difficult task such as an exceptionally filthy kitchen or an abnormally messy bathroom, or you simply know that your home hasn’t been cleaned it a long time, you may want to give your cleaner a tip even if you usually don’t.

Or, if you typically do tip your cleaner, you may consider giving them a little bit more because of the extra work involved.

If you’ve booked multiple cleaning sessions, or you have some sort of plan with the company, you also need to consider whether it’s the same cleaner that comes to your home each time or if the company sends a different person for each visit. If it’s a different cleaner each week, you should leave a tip each time you feel it’s necessary since you don’t know if you’ll ever see that person again.

On the other hand, if the same cleaner appears each time, it’s not expected for you to tip that after every single time they clean your home. Instead, you may choose to give them a larger tip once every month or every couple of months, instead of tipping a small amount of money after each visit. However, this “bonus” should be aligned with home many services the individual completed and the results you received.

At this point, you should understand whether or not it’s appropriate to tip your house cleaner and how often you should tip them. Now, the question is: how much do you tip your cleaning company? The amount will largely depend on where you live, the rates you are paying for the cleaning service and how they are determined, along with the condition of your home and the quality of service they deliver.

If you received great service from your cleaner, you should tip between 15% and 20% of the rate that you paid. You may consider tipping closer to the higher end of the spectrum if you feel that the cleaner went above and beyond or you hired them for an especially dirty job. Likewise, if you found out the cleaners employed by the company you hire rely on their tips in order to make a living wage and they’re not built into the rates, you may want to tip closer to 20%.

Generally speaking, you should think about the amount of work that your cleaner must complete inside of your home. If you keep your home pretty neat and tidy throughout the week with just a little dust and dirt that needs cleaning, you may not feel the need to fork of a large tip.

Whereas, if you have children and pets that are dragging dirt throughout your home, you should consider tipping more. Also, keep in mind, that if you have your home cleaned on a weekly basis, it typically requires less work than a home that is cleaned more infrequently.

If you’ve hired cleaners for a deep clean of your home, these projects require a lot of heavy lifting and extra labor. During the deep cleaning process, your cleaner will dust your baseboards, clean windows, scrub appliances, and even polish your doorknobs. As such, your house cleaners should be tipped more to compensate for the additional work and effort involved. As a general rule of thumb, you should consider tipping house cleaners twice as much for a deep clean than you would for a standard cleaning.

Should house cleaners be tipped with cash, or some other form? Cash is obviously the most common form of tip, and is often the most preferred among cleaners – especially those you hire for one-time visits. However, if you have a maid that visits your home on a regular basis and you don’t feel comfortable tipping with cash, there are other ways you can show your thanks.

If you’ve gotten close with your house cleaner and know them well, you could gift them with something a bit more personal like gift card to a local restaurant or one of their favorite shops, or a nice bottle of wine. Adding a personal touch to your tip is a nice, unique way to let your house cleaner know that you appreciate them as more than just your cleaner, but also as a person.

With so many people leading busier lives than ever, finding the time to clean your house can be quite the challenge. Thankfully, there are a number of professional cleaning companies who will gladly send someone out to take care of cleaning your house for you. The cost of house cleaning varies based on a number of factors, including the size of your home, the level of cleaning needed, specialized services, and where you live.

The national average is $150 to $250 for cleaning services, with most homeowners paying approximately $221 for a standard one-time clean of a 2,000 square foot home. Many cleaning companies charge based on an hourly rate, meaning the more time spent cleaning your home, the more you’ll pay. On average, you’ll pay between $25 and $90 per hour for a house cleaning service. Again, the size, location, and condition of your home has a major impact on the price.

It’s also important to note that you’ll often be paying on a weekly or monthly basis. For weekly house cleaning, you can expect to pay around $75 to $250 a visit. For monthly cleaning, you’re looking at about $300 to $700 per month. There’s often a slight discount for weekly cleanings, as less cleaning is required with each visit.

Tipping is never required and you don’t have to feel obligated to provide a tip. However, house cleaners certainly appreciate the gesture, as it lets them know that you are happy with their work. Considering things like the size of the cleaning company, how often you are hiring the services, the difficulty of the cleaning job, and the quality of the service will help you determine if and how often you should tip your house cleaner. When in doubt, 15% to 20% of the total rate is always an excellent place to start!