From time to time, we get questions regarding why we ask for this on the form when you’re setting up your cleaning service. There are a few reasons, but the most important is for our staff and any allergy considerations that might be present.
When the booking manager gets ready to assign the homes for the following day, several factors go into assigning team members to what jobs: location, drive time, the overall layout of the day’s jobs, time off/early leave, and allergies, among other things.
The crew understands that it’s not always possible for us to line up jobs with this, and they have any medication to help ease this, but if it is avoidable in the scheduling, we’d rather do that. It’s also nice to know that we can be mindful of not accidentally shutting pets out of/in rooms.
Now, cost does also play a factor in this. Beyond the first, there will be a small additional charge per pet after that. What constitutes as a pet? This is a good question, and when you’ve been in as many homes as we have, you start to see some unique and exotic animals. Any mess-producing animal would need to be counted.
Usually, we wouldn’t think much of small animals or rodents like rats, mice, guinea pigs, or the like as needed to be counted. However, we often find bedding and other miscellaneous items strewn about and need to be tended to. Some animals wouldn’t be an issue, like fish that are well self-contained. If you have any questions about this, our booking staff would be more than happy to help you.
This gives us a chance to review an important policy regarding pet accidents. Our insurance doesn’t allow us to handle these matters, so if the crew comes across this; they just inform the office that they cannot clean that specific area. We also don’t clean cat boxes or do anything about animal waste.
Lastly, if you do have pets that freely roam the home while the cleaners are there, which is great because we all love to see your animals :), do know that we try our best to keep them off the wet floors, as they’re drying…but this is not always possible.