VRHP Member Forum

[RonHarris]

Hi everyone:
I would like some feedback about how you pay your cleaners. Summer '06 I tried paying by the hour, and before I knew it, I had a 48% labor cost.....ouch. I then began paying by the unit and although my labor cosr dropped into the low to mid 30 per cent, it is very tedious and time consuming to keep up with. You guys who pay by the hour, how do you: 1) keep from losing your shirt with very "slow" cleaners (I know we all have them). 2) How do you account financially for all of the travel time between units, lunches, breaks, etc.? When I paid by the hour, I had people who would "milk" the clock....come back in at the end of the day having only cleaned 2 properties and they were scheduled to clean 4 or 5. Also, how do you pay your inspectors? By the hour or by the unit, and how much if by the property? Finally (then I promise I will shut up) for every 100 properties you clean on a summer Saturday, how many complaints, if any, would you receive? If you are able to respond, I thank you!
_________________
Ron Harris
H - 2 Cleaning
(910) 262-0573
harris716981@bellsouth.net
www.h-2cleaning.com

[Laurel Haight]

We changed from a piece rate to hourly over 4 years ago. After seeing how staff can manipulate the system. the cleans were completed very fast, but lacked in efficiency. The call backs were ridiculous.
Since I have gone to an hourly rate, I still use my piece rate times for the cleans our complaints have dropped to maybe 2 or 3 per season. Normally these are those owners that you could never please.
I write out the task sheets and give them the packet including keys, directions, linen description etc. each unit has been timed for cleaning and I tell them if the clean is going to take longer than on the paper a call is made to my office and an explanation is given. This only takes a minute and I can decide if it is a situation that requires a folio being billed for additional cleaning that was not included in the rental agreement.
I have 4 full time year around staff with one Part time on call person in Chautauqua and 2 full time staff with 2 seasonal in Ellicottville. During our summer season I hire 25 to 30 additional cleaners for 9 weeks of season, who committ to every Saturday from June 21 - Aug 23rd. Some of which will help during the week with office cleans, Private Owners and commercial cleans. It will take me 3 hours to fill out papers as we do about 80 cleans on any given Saturday in 6 hours. I offer a $200.00 bonus for all who make every saturday and starting pay is $8.00 per hour with a .25 cent raise after the first month. At the end of season I pick those who were really good with cleaning and customer service and if they return the next season they come in at the rate they left the season before and will get another increase of 25 cents.
I have found that I have a good number of returnees each season so it may take one time back in the feild, but callbacks are rare, clients are happy and thus I am Happier. All time should be billable. scheduling plays a big part in billable time.

[stevemagoo]

piecerate is the only way to go and then have the units inspected by others on the day of the clean