MaidBossPro Blog — Recurring Cleanings

Vacation Holds for Recurring Cleaning Clients: Move the Visit or Skip It

Every summer and every holiday season, recurring clients go away. A week at the beach, two weeks visiting family, a month somewhere warm. They text you: “We'll be gone the 10th through the 24th, can you hold off?” Handling that cleanly is a small thing that recurring clients remember.

There Is No Pause Button

Unplanned skips are covered in Skipped Visits on a Recurring Cleaning: Locked Doors, Sick Kids and Last-Minute Calls. A vacation is a planned version of the same thing.

To be plain about it: MaidBossPro does not have a “pause for vacation” button. For a client who is going away, you do one of two things with the visit that falls during the trip:

• Move it to a day before they leave or after they get back.
• Skip it and let the series carry on with the next visit.

In practice, those two options cover nearly every vacation, and a quick back-and-forth text with the client settles which one they want.

When to Move the Visit

Moving is usually the better choice when the trip is short or the timing works out:

• Before they leave. Many clients love a cleaning the day before a trip, so they do not come home to a mess they left behind. If they are leaving Saturday and their usual day is the following Tuesday, offer Friday.
• After they get back. Even more popular. Coming home to a clean house after a long trip is a real treat. Book the visit for the day after they return.

Moving a visit changes only that visit. The client's slot stays the same, so after the welcome-home clean, the next visit is back on their usual day, at the usual time, with the usual team. If the welcome-home clean lands just a day or two before a regular visit, ask whether they want to skip that regular one.

When to Skip the Visit

Skipping makes sense when the trip is long, or when the client would rather not pay for a cleaning of an empty house:

• A weekly client away for two weeks misses two visits. Moving both does not make sense, so skip them and move the next one, or add a cleaning, for when they get back.
• An every-two-weeks client away for ten days might skip one visit and pick up on their next regular day.
• A monthly client gone for three weeks may not need any change at all if the trip falls between visits. Since every visit is already on the schedule, you can see that at a glance.

After a skip, the rest of the series stays exactly where it was. Nothing else moves, which is why the next step matters.

Write Down the Return Date

The single most important thing with any vacation is recording when the client gets back. Put it in the client notes in plain words:

“Away Jul 10–24. Skip Jul 15 visit. Book welcome-home clean Jul 25.”

That note does three jobs. It tells anyone in the office why the visits were skipped, so nobody texts the client in the middle of their trip. It tells them exactly when the welcome-home clean is. And it reminds everyone that the client's regular slot picks up again after that.

Make the moves and skips on the schedule the same day the client texts, while the dates are in front of you. Do not use Change or Stop on the series for a vacation. Both reach every upcoming visit, and the client is only gone for a couple of weeks. The difference is covered in Moving or Skipping One Visit vs. Changing the Whole Recurring Series.

The Welcome-Home Cleaning

The visit after a vacation is a nice chance to go a little further. Offer an extra when you confirm the date: “Want us to do the fridge while we're there? It's probably been a while.” Inside Fridge and Change Linens are natural after a trip. Add the extra to the job, and the team sees it on their card.

Also confirm entry. Clients sometimes change codes, take the key with them or turn on the alarm before a trip. Ask in the same text: “Will the lockbox code be the same when you're back?”

Billing During Vacations

If you charge the card when the team taps Complete, a skipped visit is simply not charged, because no cleaning was completed. If you have a policy that charges for skips with short notice, vacations usually fall outside it, since clients tell you weeks ahead. Be clear about this in your policy so nobody is surprised.

For clients billed on a Monthly statement, like a property manager with several rentals, a vacant unit is just fewer lines on that month's statement.

Keep It Simple for the Client

Clients do not need to know how your scheduling works. They need to text you their dates and trust that you will be there when they get back. A quick reply, a note on the record and a booked welcome-home clean does exactly that. To see how vacations fit with the rest of recurring work, visit the MaidBossPro recurring cleaning software page.