Your first clean: how to get ready for a new cleaner

When you book

Most of the preparation happens in the booking form. A few minutes there saves time on the day.

• How the cleaner gets in: choose whether you'll be home, someone else will let them in, there's a key safe, or a concierge or reception. For a key safe, give its location and code. These details go only to the cleaner who takes your job.
• Parking: say whether there is free parking, paid parking nearby, a permit you'll leave out, or no parking, in which case the cleaner comes by public transport.
• Pets: say what you have and whether they'll be loose or shut in a room.
• Notes: write down the rooms that matter most, anything the cleaner should leave alone, and any surfaces that need care, such as natural stone, unsealed wood or antique furniture.

If you'd like the cleaner to use your own products on a particular surface, put them out and say so in your notes.

The day before

1. 1

   Clear the surfaces

   A cleaner can clean a worktop in a minute, but not one covered in post, chargers and school bags. Every minute spent moving piles is a minute not spent cleaning.

2. 2

   Put away valuables

   Cash, jewellery, important papers and anything fragile or sentimental. It protects you and the cleaner.

3. 3

   Plan for pets

   Some animals don't like a stranger or a vacuum. If the cleaner asks you to shut a pet in a room, please do.

4. 4

   Check the basics

   The cleaner needs running water, hot water, electricity and lights.

5. 5

   Tell us about anything unsafe

   Building work, damaged flooring, loose fittings or electrics that need care all go in your notes before the day.

On the day

Your cleaner arrives at some point in the arrival window you chose: morning (8am to 12pm) or afternoon (12pm to 5pm). We can't promise an exact time within it.

If you're home, spend two minutes showing them round: where the vacuum and products are if you're supplying any, which rooms to do first, and anything to leave alone. After that, let them get on with it. You don't need to stay in.

If the cleaner arrives and can't get in, they will try to contact you, so keep your phone nearby around the start of the window.

Afterwards: if something isn't right

Walk round once the cleaner has gone. If something wasn't done properly, open your booking page from the link in your confirmation email, choose "Report a problem", then "I'm not happy with the clean", and say what was missed. Photos help.

Within 48 hours of the start of your clean, you can also ask for a cleaner to come back and put it right, free. Report soon after the clean, while it is fresh for everyone.

Other problems can be reported until 30 days after the clean. We're responsible to you for the clean being done with reasonable care and skill. If it wasn't and it can't be put right, you get an appropriate price reduction.

If something is damaged, tell us as soon as you can, with photos. We get the cleaner's account and, where it applies, pass the claim to cleand's insurer.

After each clean we email you a short feedback request. A rating takes a few seconds and tells us how the clean went.

If your plans change

• One-off clean: move it to another date from your booking page up to 24 hours before, at no cost. Cancel more than 2 hours before for a full refund.
• Subscribe and save: move or skip a visit up to 2 hours before it starts. A skipped visit's credit goes back into your balance.
• If we can't send a cleaner: a one-off clean is refunded in full and a subscription visit's credit comes back, and you get a free hour on your next one-off booking.