Service Agreement – Airbnb and Vacation Rental Cleaning Service

Maid Mia do not require a contract! We work to earn your continuing business with each and every cleaning. However, we do use this Service Agreement to define the responsibilities and liabilities of Maid Mia and our customers. By scheduling service with us, you are agreeing to accept all of the terms of this agreement:

SCHEDULING THE SERVICE

Our office & cleaning hours are: M-F: 7 am to 4 pm and Sat-Sun: 8 am to 2 pm. Saturday service is limited and available upon request.

Closed: New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
Shortened Hours: Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Day After Thanksgiving

We provide a 2-hour arrival time window. All appointments are scheduled within an estimated two-hour arrival window. Due to traffic and changing schedule we do not provide exact arrival times. If a particular time is important to you, please request a “first” or “second” time slot, as these tend to be the most predictable.

Let us know what day of the week and frequency you prefer. Weekly (once a week) and biweekly (every two weeks) appointments are assigned your preferred day. The service day is not guaranteed for monthly (every 4 weeks) and custom scheduled clients.

Contact us with scheduling changes ASAP. Our employees count on your business and are paid only when they clean a home, therefore last minute rescheduling/cancellations can cause them financial hardships. With enough notice, we can find them another house to clean. Financial hardships can lead to higher employee turnover rates, which can lead to greater challenges in delivering high quality cleaning.

Scheduling changes can result in the following:

Price change. Changing frequency or suspending service for a while can result in price increase or decrease.
Fee charged‐ Cancellation or rescheduling with less than 48 hour notice can result in a $50 fee.
Different cleaner / team. Your “regular” cleaning team typically has a full schedule.
No availability. It is our goal to meet every cleaning request, however cleaning dates do sell out.

CANCELLATIONS AND LOCKOUTS

$50 Fee for Reschedule, Cancellation or Lock‐Out with less than a 48‐hour notice. We are happy to work with customers to reschedule and cancel services throughout the year to work around your schedule. This policy has to do with rescheduling service or canceling an appointment with less than 48 hours notice.

Please reschedule within 48 hours or more. There is no charge for rescheduling with 48-hour notice on business days. However, we charge a $50 fee for rescheduling with less than 48-hour notice. Monday clients must reschedule by close of business on the preceding Thursday.
Fee is paid to our cleaners. Maid Mia will use the $50 fee to subsidize the cleaners’ lost income. The $50 will not make up for their lost income, but it will help.

Maid Mia canceling your appointment. The following does not apply to cancellations due to foul weather. On the rare occasion that Maid Mia cancels/reschedules a scheduled cleaning appointment with less than a 48-hour advance notice:

Cancellation. If we have no available openings for another cleaning appointment within the next five business days, the next cleaning will be provided at half price.
Rescheduling. A $25.00 credit will be offered on the next cleaning. If our offer to reschedule is refused by the client for any reason, no credit will be granted.

Termination of Cleaning Relationship: Service agreements may be cancelled at any time and for any reason. If we are in possession of your key(s), it/they will be returned within seven days. Any records containing your alarm codes will be destroyed within 24 hours.

HOME ACCESS

Entry To Your Home: Client is responsible for providing cleaners access/entry to the home. We offer 5 entry options to choose from:

Client can be home to let us in (must be home during the provided 2 hour window of arrival).
Conceal a key on the property(e.g. mailbox).
Provide us with a garage, door, or lockbox code.
Give us a key to hold for the duration of service. Keys will be placed in a secure safe at Maid Mia office and issued to the cleaner/team on the day of your scheduled service. It will be signed out by the cleaner or team and signed in after each service and placed back in the safe. The keys are not marked with any of your personal information in case they are lost. If you provide a key to the cleaners, you must contact the office. The office will email you a Key Receipt. Keep this receipt as your proof that you have provided us with a key.
Leave a door unlocked. In the event the client chooses to leave a door unlocked or place a key under a mat or any other unsecured place for the cleaners to gain entry into the home, the client agrees not to hold Life Maid Simple liable for any damages or theft to the clients home.

Lock‐Out Fee. If our cleaners cannot enter your home for any reason, a $50 “lock‐out fee” will be charged. If we cannot reach you within fifteen minutes using the phone number you provide we will leave and the charge will apply. In the event that we reach you and are required to wait for your return, you will not be credited for time lost and any additional time spent will be billed our hourly rate.

Please turn off your security alarm or provide us with the code. Maid Mia is not responsible for any charges from a local police department which is called out due to an activated alarm which we are not able to turn off.

ESTIMATES AND FEES

Our estimated rates are based on: The size of your home and number of rooms, the amount of people who reside in the home, number and type of pets in the home (shedding animals as compared to fish), amount of decorations/ knick-knacks/furnishing (more decor requires more dusting), general condition of the home, extra services requested, and the frequency of your service.

HOURLY PRICING: First and one time cleanings are charged hourly based on number of hours client decides to book.

The clock starts when we arrive at your property and ends when we are ready to leave. This includes unloading and loading our equipment, any introductions and walkthroughs (so please be brief).
Our hourly charge is based on man hours not clock hours. Man Hours = Clock (Cleaning) Hours X # of Cleaners (e.g. 2 cleaners cleaning for 3 hours, equals 6 man hours).
We clean only for amount of time booked. If the cleaning requires additional time and we cannot reach the client during the appointment, cleaners will leave the appointment at the end of the scheduled cleaning time even if the job is not complete.
Let us know what your priorities are. We can work from a list of priorities provided by the client and get as much done as possible. Please be as specific as possible on your priority list to ensure your cleaning is ﬁt to your needs.

No Risk Booking Policy for hourly cleanings – Pay only for the time we clean. We encourage our clients to over book rather than under book the number of hours for a first time or occasional cleaning. There is no risk in overbooking because we only charge for the amount of time it takes to do the cleaning. You can book a cleaning for 10 hours and if we are done in less time, provided it meets our service minimum, you will only pay for the amount of time spent cleaning. However, the risk in under booking is that the cleaning may only be partially completed, which can be disappointing.

FLAT RATE PRICING: Starting with our 2nd visit, recurring service is priced flat rate based on an “average time” to clean.

Rate is locked in for a year after our 5th visit. During our first 5 visits we may reevaluate your rate based on: information provided by the client during the estimate, input of the team that comes to cleans your home, and average time it takes up to clean your home up to our standards. You will be notified if we need to decrease or increase the price.
On rare occasions we may have to charge for extra time or services. If for any reason during recurring visit, the home is not found in an “Average” condition (after party, construction or other reasons), or we need to perform any services requested by client, but not listed in our checklist we reserve the right to bill for the extra time spent cleaning.

PAYMENT FOR SERVICES

Payment is due in full at the time of the cleaning. Late payments made after the day of the cleaning will incur $15 Late Fee and interest will be charged at the rate of twelve percent (12%) per annum on all overdue amounts. A $30.00 Collections Fee will be assessed for all monies owed that must go to our collections office after 30 days of the service date and any discounts of coupons will not be honored. In the event an account requires legal or collection action, the customer agrees to pay all costs of collection without limitations for attorney fees, court costs and all collection costs including interest on past due amount.

First/ one time clients must pay with a credit/debit card by the end of business, 1 day before the cleaning. We do not accept personal checks from one time clients. Booking deposit of $50 is required to schedule any one time service in advance. These deposits are only refundable if the job is cancelled within 48 hours notice or otherwise the deposit is forfeited.

Recurring service can be paid for with a credit/debit card, check, or cash. If you pay cash, please have exact fee amount (we do not carry change) ready for us in a clearly marked envelope. Any money over what you owe Life Maid Simple will be considered a tip for our cleaners.

$25 service fee for returned checks is due immediately in addition to making good on the payment for services.
Pre-Pay Plan allows clients to be invoiced in advance for the entire months service and receive a 10% discount as long as the payment is received in our office by the 1st of each month.

HOME PREPARATION

Preparing the house you’re cleaning. To get the most value out of our service please get your home ready:

We ask that you take a few minutes the night before a scheduled service to “tidy up”(pick up toys, clothes, shoes) to allow the cleaners easy access to the areas/surfaces to be cleaned: floors, countertops, table tops, desks etc. Please empty your kitchen sink and leave trash bags out. If you requested changing beds, leave fresh sheets on bed. If for some reason you do not want a particular room cleaned, please just leave a note or close the door of that particular room. If you’d like our cleaners to do these tasks for you, please call us so your cleaning fee can be adjusted for the additional “cleaning preparation” time.
Please put away sensitive items such as: firearms, confidential items, syringes, sentimental items, jewelry, and other small valuables to minimize any chance of accidents (dropping an earring down a drain, etc).
Safe working conditions:We ask our customers to make sure that rooms are well ventilated and ask that you set the thermostat to 72-75, so your cleaners can work without overheating / getting sick. In the winter months sidewalks and driveways must be cleared so our cleaning professionals are able to gain access to your home.

Pet safety: We are a pet friendly company but we ask that if your pet(s) become stressed or aggressive when around unfamiliar people, we ask that you contain them in a locked area during the cleaning. We cannot be responsible for pets that “escape” when our cleaners are entering/exiting your home. Our cleaners cannot touch or pick up pet feces, including emptying litter‐boxes. If your pet has an accident or vomits, it will be your responsibility to clean it up. Our teams are advised to clean around these areas.

Preparing for Move In / Out Cleanings: To facilitate our Move In/Move Out service please make sure your water and electricity are turned on the day of the cleaning. We ask that you be completely moved out before the cleaning day. Anything left behind will be considered trash (please provide trash bags) and will be removed from the property (excluding large items and furniture). We will not remove any unreasonable amount of trash.

Oven cleaning: In order for a self cleaning oven to be wiped out, the self-cleaning option must be run at least 8-hours prior to the cleaning and must be 100% cooled down before Maid Mia will wipe it out.

QUALITY ASSURANCE & INSPECTIONS

Our Quality Assurance Program: Whether it comes to efficiency or attention to detail, we pride ourselves on having the highest standards in the business. Every single one of our cleaners is trained to use our unique and exclusive cleaning process. Please provide us with feedback often since it helps us monitor the performance of your cleaners and improve our services to you and other clients. You can also expect random inspections of cleaning teams after a cleaning is completed and when the cleaners have left, or during the final phase of cleaning or during the entire cleaning.

100% Satisfaction Guarantee: If you are not happy with any area we have cleaned, simply call the office within 24 hours and we will come back and re‐clean it free of charge.

Conditions: Please notify us within 24 hours, do not fix the problem yourself and allow us to come back within 2 business days to re-clean. We do not issue refunds since cleaning is a very personalized and subjective service.
Hourly clients. We can only guarantee that cleaners will stay for the specified amount of time. and we may not be able to complete all tasks if time runs short. Therefore, if the problem involves the time needed to complete the cleaning service rather than the quality of the service itself, we can only correct the problem if you purchase additional cleaning time.

During the dusting process, some dust becomes airborne and will not settle until we have left. This is more common in first time cleanings, and it may take several visits before settling dust becomes minimized. We dust small items based on the size and the number of items on a shelf or flat surface like a mantel. We are not able to dust items on shelves or hung on a wall that are higher than a maid can reach standing on a 2 step stepladder. We do use extension poles to high dust rooms but we will not high dust items that may tip over or hung on the wall because we are not able to hold it with one hand in order to secure it while we dust.

It may take two to three visits before showers and tubs become free of lime, calcium and soap scum deposits. Mold and mildew are organic and will grow deep into and behind grout or caulk. Surface stains will be minimized by our cleaning products, but completely eliminating it may require the homeowner to have their shower re‐grouted or re‐caulked.

CLEANING SUPPLIES & EQUIPMENT

We provide our own cleaning supplies and equipment including vacuums, mops, and cleaning products. The only item we ask our clients to supply us with is a toilet brush (hygiene reasons).

Client’s cleaning supplies. If you prefer to supply your own cleaning products or solvents we are not responsible for any damage associated with that product or solvent. Providing your own supplies will not in any way affect your cleaning rate.
We will not use bleach / ammonia products containing for health and safety reasons.
Use of homeowner’s vacuum. If you request our cleaners to use your vacuum, we will not assume or accept any liability for damage to the unit, since we are not responsible for maintenance or training with the unit.

CLEANING PROFESSIONAL

We make every effort to keep the same cleaner Pro / team assigned to your home to ensure consistency. Unfortunately, we cannot always guarantee it, due to illness, personal emergency, promotions, vacations, end of employment etc. In the event your assigned cleaner can no longer service your account, he or she will be replaced with another trained cleaner/team who has been briefed on the details of your home and cleaning services.To ensure that any cleaner changes result in a smooth transition, in most cases we will have a quality supervisor oversee your first appointment change.

Typically we work in 2 person teams. Based on the size of the house and project we may use 1-4 cleaner Pro.

Tips are very appreciated by your cleaning team but they are not expected or required. A recommended tip usually is about 12-18% of your total cleaning fee. Tips can be left as cash for the cleaning team or added into the check or credit card.

Employee Safety: If for any reason an employee of Maid Mia feels that their personal safety is in danger enough to leave the job site due to actions by the client, client’s guests or animals, the client will be liable for the full cost of the service.

Our clients may not solicit our employees to be contracted or employed by you or your affiliations for services of any kind. You are liable for an employment referral fee of $3000 per person, should you directly employ (either legally or on a cash basis) anyone currently employed by us, or employed by us within the six month period prior to such employment. You agree to pay this fee whether you notify us of your action or we discover this employment independently at any time after it occurs.

ACCIDENTS

Insurance, General Liability, Bonding & Tax Reporting: We carry a $300,000 liability insurance policy and a $10,000 fidelity bond. In addition, we hereby attest to our customers that Maid Mia collects and reports all employer‐required taxes for the maid services to local, state and federal agencies…protecting you from IRS tax‐liability with respect to income the maids receive. All cleaners are covered by State workers compensation insurance for any injuries occurring inside or outside of your home.

Damage or Breakage: Our cleaners exercise reasonable care when cleaning your home. We are not liable for damage that is caused by “normal wear and tear”, improper installation of an item in your home, or artwork, collectables or family heirlooms valued over $200 and not disclosed during the setup process. If you have valuables or heirlooms; etc. it may be helpful to keep them secured or put away to avoid any accidents. These items include but are not limited to the following examples: carpet & rug snags, broken blinds, improperly hung pictures/decorations/mirrors, artwork, collectables, family heirlooms and valuables over $200, and sensitive surfaces (all surfaces, such as marble, granite, hardwood floors, etc., are assumed sealed and ready to clean without causing harm).

“Do not touch items”. If you have items you prefer we not clean or handle, please call or email the office and we will arrange to avoid those items.

Maid Mia is not responsible for damages caused due to special instructions/procedures required by client such as excessive mopping of wood floors, wiping walls, woodwork with chemicals, scrubbing stone work, etc. If we are specifically requested to dust/clean inside of a hutch/china cabinet, dust any computer equipment or wash dishes, client agrees to not hold Maid Mia or any of its employees responsible for damage to any article or component.

In the event of an accident. Regrettably, though not common, from time to time something may get broken. Our employees are instructed to call our office at once if anything is broken, and to leave you a note advising you. In the event an item is damaged or broken, we reserve the option to repair or replace the item. A detailed dollar value amount of “one-of-a-kind” items must be demonstrated in order to determine a correct value.

For safety / possibility of damage / efficiency reasons we will NOT: move of any large furniture or heavy items over 30 pounds, use ladders higher than 3 feet, step on kitchen counters to clean the top of cabinets, work on the outside of your home, wash large areas of floors by hand, empty cat litter boxes, clean up pet feces, body fluids or excretions, empty diaper pails, or allow access to unknown people (please don’t rely on our cleaning teams to let in workmen / sign for mail). We won’t clean: barefoot, unfinished rooms (other than sweeping the floor), homes that have been infested with bed bugs or lice, inside of curio cabinets, fireplaces, outside of windows that do not flip forward or outside of larger than standard size windows (40″W x 60″H) or inside of toilets without a proper toilet brush. We do not do laundry or ironing or reorganize closets (we only clean the bottom of closet floors).

Privacy Statement

Maid Mia is committed to protecting the privacy of customers. We will not sell, exchange or otherwise distribute your personally identifiable information to outside parties.