Cleaning Services FAQs
Six groups of questions, answered properly rather than in one line. If yours is not here, the office answers the phone during business hours.
Most cleaning FAQ pages answer the questions a business wishes it was asked. This one answers what the office actually fields on the phone, which is a different and much shorter list: how do you get in, what do you use, what happens if something is missed, why is the quote what it is, and will the bond come back.
The answers below are grouped into six topics so you can skip to the one you need. Nothing here is a summary of a longer policy held somewhere else. Where a question has a genuinely complicated answer, it gets a full one rather than a reassuring sentence.
A few things are true across every answer and worth stating once. Quotes are fixed rather than hourly, the scope is written down before any work happens, the same cleaner returns on a residential roster wherever scheduling allows, and if something inside the agreed scope was missed we come back the same day or refund that clean.
Each service carries its own detail, and those pages sit under our cleaning services, the way a figure is reached is on cleaning prices Melbourne, and longer how-to answers live in our cleaning guides.
Six topics on this page
- Booking, access and keys
- Products, safety, pets and children
- The guarantee and cancellations
- How quotes and prices work
- End of lease and bond questions
- Carpet, upholstery and drying times
How does booking and getting in actually work?
How far ahead do I need to book?
A regular roster can usually start within a week. Deep cleans and vacate cleans want a few days more in busy periods, and the last week of any month is the busiest in Melbourne because that is when leases end. Short-notice work does happen, so ask rather than assume.
Can I get the same cleaner every time?
On a regular roster, yes, wherever scheduling allows, and it is the arrangement we aim for rather than an upgrade. Familiarity with a property buys speed and accuracy that no product or machine can, which is why we treat it as the default.
When your usual cleaner is on leave you are told in advance and the replacement reads the property file before attending.
What time will the cleaner arrive?
You get a window rather than a minute, because Melbourne traffic and the job before yours are both real. Morning and afternoon are both available, and a fixed arrival can be committed where a building needs a booked lift or dock slot. On commercial sites the finish time matters more than the start, so that is what the scope commits to.
How do you handle keys and alarm codes?
Keys are tagged with a job number only, never an address, and held securely. Alarm codes are recorded against the job and changed at your request when staffing changes. Lockboxes, building intercoms, concierge collection and key-under-an-agreed-arrangement all work.
If you would rather hand over on the day each time, that is fine too, and plenty of clients do.
Do I need to tidy before you arrive?
No, though clearing surfaces changes what a visit achieves. Working around objects is slower than working on a clear bench, so five minutes of tidying buys real cleaning time. Nobody is judging the house. Where a property needs decluttering rather than cleaning, say so and it is scoped as its own job.
Are your products safe around children and pets?
Routine residential work runs on eco-friendly cleaners for general surfaces, bathrooms and floors. Heavier chemistry exists for two jobs only, oven degreasing and mineral scale on shower glass, because nothing gentle shifts carbonised grease or years of hard-water deposit. Those come out where they are needed and nowhere else, and safety data sheets go out on request.
Sensitivities are a common and entirely reasonable request. Fragrance-free products, no aerosols, extra ventilation and a longer gap before a room is used again can all be written into a scope. Microfibre and hot water already do most of the work in a routine clean, which is often enough on its own. Practical household guidance on dust and allergens is published by Asthma Australia.
You can also supply your own. Leave the bottle out with a note and that is what gets used, which households with sealed stone, natural marble or engineered timber often prefer. Where something you have left out is wrong for the surface, we will say so rather than quietly using it and hoping.
Pets get written into the property file along with everything else: the dog shut in the laundry, the cat that must not reach the front door, the bird that panics at a vacuum. We are not a pet sitting service, so nothing is fed or let out. Hair in carpet edges and along skirtings is the slowest recurring item in any animal household, and the quote allows for it instead of skipping it.
What happens when something goes wrong or changes?
Five situations, and exactly what each one costs you.
| Situation | What happens | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| An item on the scope was missed | A cleaner returns the same day where the roster allows, or at the next workable time | Nothing |
| You would rather we did not come back | That clean is refunded instead | Nothing |
| Something was never on the scope | It was not missed. We will quote it as an addition if you want it included | The quoted addition, agreed first |
| You want to change day or frequency | A message is enough. Weekly to fortnightly, a different day, a room added or dropped | Nothing, unless the work itself changes |
| You need to cancel a visit | Free up to 24 hours before. Closer in we try a new date rather than a fee | Nothing in almost every case |
| Your regular cleaner is unavailable | You are told in advance and the replacement reads the property file before attending | Nothing |
| Something gets broken | Reported to you the same day with a photograph, and covered by our insurance | Nothing |
Report problems sooner rather than later. A clean is a point in time and a house keeps being lived in, so a week on nobody can separate what was missed from what has happened since. For a vacate clean the window is the agent inspection, which is why we ask for that date before booking.
How do your prices and quotes work?
Why fixed price rather than hourly?
An hourly rate hands you the risk of a slow visit and makes care and sluggishness read the same on an invoice. A fixed figure turns the list into the promise: a long visit is our problem, and getting quicker at your place simply means a shorter interruption for the same money. Where hourly genuinely fits, such as an open-ended declutter, we will say so.
Why will you not give a price over the phone?
We will give a range on the phone and a figure once we know the property. The reason is condition. Two homes with identical floor plans can be a two hour job and a six hour job, and a number given before anybody has seen which one you have is the number that gets revised on the day.
Photographs of the areas you are worried about turn a range into a figure without a site visit.
Is there a travel or call-out charge?
Nothing is added for travel anywhere inside greater Melbourne, so the same scope costs the same in the west as it does in the east. Carpet and a few specialist jobs do carry a minimum charge, for the simple reason that a van, a machine and a trained operator have to get to you regardless of how small the job is.
Local notes by suburb, which affect parking and access rather than price, are on areas we serve.
Do your prices include GST?
Every quote says outright whether GST sits inside the figure. Households rarely need to separate it; businesses always do. A competing quote that stays silent on it is worth a direct question, since that one omission can make two near-identical prices look far apart.
The six inputs behind every figure are set out on cleaning prices Melbourne.
What do tenants and carpet clients most need to know?
The four questions that come up on nearly every vacate and carpet booking.
Will I get my bond back?
Nobody can promise that, because a bond also covers damage, rubbish and rent. What we promise is the standard a Victorian condition report is assessed against, and a free return if the agent flags cleaning.
Is carpet in the bond clean?
Quoted beside it rather than inside it, since area varies and not every tenancy has carpet. Many leases require extraction with a receipt, so both go in one quote and one attendance.
How long does carpet take to dry?
Two to six hours in normal conditions, longer in a closed-up house in July. Rooms are walkable in socks straight away. Still damp the next day means it was over-wet, which is a method problem.
Can you remove this stain?
Often, though a promise made without seeing the mark is a guess. Soil lifts; permanent changes to the fibre do not. Pet urine is decontamination in the backing rather than a surface stain.
Anything a clean will never fix, such as worn flooring or a grout seal that has given up, is photographed on the day so you can put it to the agent before the inspection rather than after it. Consumer Affairs Victoria publishes what a tenant actually owes at handover, and every item in order is listed in the end of lease checklist.
Still stuck? Business hours reach a person on +61 488 898 917, or put the question in writing and a written answer comes back rather than a call you have to wait around for.
Frequently asked questions about booking and working with us
The three asked most often of all.
Do I need to be home during the clean?
No, and most clients are not. We can work from a key, a lockbox, a building intercom code or a concierge, and whatever arrangement you choose is recorded against the job rather than held in somebody memory. Keys carry a job number and nothing else, so a key that goes astray tells nobody where it fits.
What cleaning products do you use?
Everything arrives with the cleaner, machines and eco-friendly products included, so you keep nothing in a cupboard for us. Surfaces that are fussy about what touches them, sealed stone and engineered timber especially, can have their own bottle left out with a note, and that is what gets used there.
What is your cancellation policy?
Free cancellation or rescheduling up to 24 hours before a visit, with no fee and no contract term behind it. Inside that window we will always try to move the visit rather than charge for it, because a cleaner whose day has already been rostered is the only real cost.
Still have a question?
Send the property details with your question attached and both get answered together: a fixed figure for the work, and a straight answer about whatever you are unsure of. The office line is open during business hours.