There is nothing pleasant about having to pay for cleaning service that you are not able to receive for one reason or another. So why do most reputable housecleaning companies charge a lockout (late cancellation) fee?

To understand the answer to that question, you need to try "walking in the sneakers" of your housekeeper, so to speak. Whether a single mother, trying to put food on the table and pay the rent or one who is supplementing family income, all of them are stretching their dollars to cover their many expenses. In the office, we are working diligently to keep their schedules as full as possible, so they won't be tempted to look for a steadier job elsewhere. If you are scheduled for Friday morning and a potential client calls asking for that spot on the schedule, he is turned down because of our commitment to you. Then, if you have to cancel for any reason (and mostly they are good reasons), you can see how devastating it could be for the housekeeper if there were not a guaranteed 2-hour charge to help alleviate the financial burden of lost work. We do everything we can to find substitute work for the house cleaner, and if we're successful, the lockout fee can be waived.

You may not be aware that there is actually a law that mandates 2 hours of pay for any employee who is scheduled for work and then finds out the day of the scheduled work that the work is canceled. However, we ask for a 72-hour notice to increase our chances of finding substitute work, thus allowing us to waive your fee.

We appreciate the fact that most of our clients are very understanding and compliant regarding this policy.