Are you supposed to tip a maid service?
As adults, we spend most of our time working–time away from our families, friends and the activities we love. So when it comes to spending that hard-earned money, we usually want to think about it first. When choosing to hire a cleaning company, customers need to decide who to work with, whether to leave a tip and if so, how much. There are a lot of expenses to consider.
Tipping your maid service always comes down to a personal choice and preference. It is always appreciated but never expected. Some customers tip home cleaners a customary 15%, while others tip lower at 10%. The average range for tips are 10%-20% and range between cash and checks. Tip your maid service what makes you feel comfortable. Any gratitude shown toward the cleaning team will be appreciated.
Of course, there are so many benefits to hiring a cleaning service. Disinfecting your home is a crucial part of keeping it safe from viruses and bacteria and cleaning makes your house look beautiful…but it’s more than that. Having a clean space also makes a house feel more like a home.
Reasons to Tip a Maid Service
A clean kitchen is where you pack your kids lunches in the morning. The living room is where you spend Christmas morning and the bathtub is how you unwind at the end of the day. These moments and memories are the real value of using a house cleaning service to get a cleaned home.
When you’re looking for cleaners, you’ll want to consider if these are people you can trust to clean your home. Well known cleaning services like Tucson Maids who are the top rated Tucson maid service are companies you can trust. Usually, these are not one time services. Housekeepers will often be there once a week and can come to feel more like friends than employees. In this case, tipping your house cleaner is something that shows them how much you appreciate their hard work and makes them feel valued.
So how do you tip your house cleaner? Your house cleaning service might provide answers, but if you’re on your own, this guide to tipping should give you a baseline for deciding on your own personal tipping etiquette for your cleaner.
The Benefits Of Tipping House Cleaners
Once you find someone you like working with, you won’t want to have to switch to a different cleaner. Over time, your cleaning person will feel like an essential member of your household (even if they’re just there to do their job). Tipping is a way to build trust and bonding when the cleaning service first starts, encouraging the cleaner you really like to come back week after week.
A tip, whether it’s a bottle of wine, gift card or a small amount in a Christmas card, is a nice way to let your cleaner know that you love your clean home and their hard work. It’s a gift to show your appreciation and rewards a good job. Tips can be based on the quality of work or (if you know that what they make per hour), you might consider tipping based on whether or not their minimum wage has them rely on tips.
Guide To Tipping Your House Cleaner
No matter what your feelings are on tipping, we all have the same basic questions: How much should you put aside to tip house cleaners? Should the tip be in cash? Does the cleaner rely on tips, or is this just an extra way to show your appreciation? Should you always tip every week? Or is an end of the year gift more appropriate? This guide will answer some of the most pressing questions on how to give a tip to your maids and cleaner.
Should You Tip Your House Cleaner?
If it’s not done gracefully, tipping can feel really awkward. After all, we never want to talk about money, right? But it’s worth thinking about it. Tipping is a nice way to reward your maid for doing a good job, even if it’s not required.
Deciding whether to give a tip to your house cleaners will come to a variety of factors, but when you consider tipping, it’s a personal decision. Yes, they come to clean your home as a job, but this is still your home. Before you go to leave a tip, decide how much you’ll give in tips, what you’d like to pay and whether this will be a one time gift or a recurring one each week.
Consider These Factors Before Tipping Your House Cleaner
1. How Much Do Others Tip In Tucson
Tipping expectations vary depending on where you live in the U.S. In some places, workers are paid a full wage when employers hire them and they don’t need as much in tips. How much you tip your house cleaner in Tucson will be different than tipping for a home cleaner in Los Angeles. Start to find out how much to tip house cleaners by asking friends and neighbors how much they give for a tip, and use that to build your own tip amount.
2. Does Your Budget Have Room For A Tip?
Before tipping your cleaner, consider what you already pay per hour (or week). Even if you want to tip a house cleaner, you’re not helping anyone if tipping will mean you can’t afford to hire them in the first place. Find out the rate for different cleaners (including all taxes and service costs) and then decide how much you’d be able to tip a house cleaner. Remember a tip is always a nice extra, whether it’s large or small.
3. Does The Cleaning Company Pay A Living Wage?
Customers have a right to ask what house cleaners are getting paid. When you’re trying to determine how much to tip your house cleaner, ask the cleaning service what the cleaners are already making. Tipping shows appreciation and thanks, but they won’t do much to change how a company operates if the companies won’t pay a large enough amount.
4. How Big Is Your Home?
House cleaners might require an extra maid if you live in a large, sprawling house in the suburbs of Tucson. On the other hand, your small downtown condo might not take a long time to clean. Take a moment to think about what needs to be cleaned. Is it two bathrooms or six? A 1,000 sq. ft kitchen or a galley kitchen? Consider how long your house takes to clean and tip based on that.
5. Will You Be Tipping Each Cleaning Service Or One Time?
This comes back to how you use your cleaning service. Do you only use a maid or cleaning person for those special Christmas parties you throw each year, with a different cleaner each time? In this case, tipping is nice but probably not as important. If you’re always relying on the cleaning service to maintain your home, you might want to give a tip each time they get paid.
6. How Many House Cleaners Are Needed Per Job (And Should You Tip Each Of Them)?
Cleaning companies usually have an idea of how many employees they’ll need once they know how much they need to clean. For example, here at Tucson Maids, we’ve cleaned every sized space in just about every scenario. We have a house cleaning checklist and we know (roughly) how many employees we need to give for each job to maintain our high quality of work. Customers don’t always know how long it takes to clean properly, so give your cleaning company or maid service the benefit of the doubt.
How Much To Tip House Cleaners
Should You Tip In Cash?
You might decide to tip your house cleaner in cash and they might prefer it depending on your relationship with the person. You can decide to give cash tips for each weekly or monthly service. Or, you might want to leave a cash bonus. Consider your relationship with your cleaner and when in doubt, it’s better to ask someone than to guess.
What Amount To Tip House Cleaners
Now that you’ve thought through the hard parts, it’s time for numbers. How much should you tip house cleaners?
For cleaning services, a good tip “rule of thumb” for customers to follow is to leave 15-20% for each cleaning service.
But, as we’ve discussed, tipping is about more than just getting paid. A tip also helps to show appreciation to your cleaners for their cleaning services. If your cleaner goes above and beyond what you and your maid service require, an extra cash tip is always welcome.
For example, let’s say it was your daughter’s 7th birthday party yesterday and your house is a disaster. You call your cleaning service and ask for a deep clean outside of your regular house cleaning service. Your cleaner comes, scrubs sprinkles out of the carpet and grilled cheese off the counter.
In this case, you might adjust your tip to be based on this specific cleaning. Tipping can (and should) change depending on the service, that’s ok!
How much to tip house cleaners comes down to what you’re tipping for (is this outside of your regular cleaning or a part of your routine), how much extra cleaning is needed and whether the tip is being used to show thanks or if your tip is to make sure they’re getting a living wage.
For tips, something is always better than nothing. You might want to choose a standard tip for your usual cleaning and then award one time bonuses as needed for an extra tip. It’s really up to you.
How To Leave A Tip For Your House Cleaner
So you’ve decided that you want to tip your house cleaners, now what? Here are some ideas to actually give a tip:
- Leave the same cash tip in an envelope in your home every time it is cleaned.
- Provide a tip with your credit card payment (not all cleaning companies allow this, ask first).
- Hand the tip directly to your house cleaners after they’re done.
- Write your house cleaner a check for a tip.
- If you know them well, leave your house cleaner a tip in the form of a gift instead of money.
- If you’re using multiple cleaners, hand each one a tip instead of grouping the tips altogether.
- Tip your cleaner for one time special occasions (events or holidays).
- Lump your tip into the fee you pay your cleaning company for one flat rate.
How you tip a house cleaner will depend on your relationship with them, how you prefer to tip and how your cleaner prefers to receive it.
Still Not Sure? Talk To Your House Cleaning Service
All maid services and cleaning companies are different when it comes to tips. If you’re still not sure what’s appropriate for a tip, it might be time to speak with your cleaning company. Some house cleaning services always charge more to you (the customer) to pay their cleaners a living wage upfront. In that case, they might prefer that you don’t tip their cleaners. Other house cleaning companies encourage tipping to show their cleaners how much their work is valued. Hop on a quick call with your cleaning company and find out: should you tip? And if so, what is the usual tipping rate?
Whether you decide to tip or not, you’ll get more for your money by choosing the right maid service. Tucson Maids has an expert team of dedicated house cleaners who are here to provide the highest quality cleaning services to our customers every single time.
The housekeepers and maids at Tucson Maids give one hundred percent to their cleaning services and won’t quit until the job is done right.
Discover the Tucson Maids difference.
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