Holiday/year end tip for housekeeper

[RiverRock]

@KKC

$18k a year is a good living for your housekeeper

I must have missed that, he said they make 1K a week for 20 hours, or can make 1k a week.

RR

[KKC]

@RiverRock

I must have missed that,

It’s early in the thread, post number 26:

@JohnnyLounge21

So I did a little exercise. One of our listings has a single housekeeper for all turns. The last 12 months, she made $17,780 (I was pretty surprised when I totaled it up). A 10% bonus of ~$1,800 seems absolutely massive

Later he added all the various scenarios justifying what various workers get in CA and more information about all the housekeepers. He said he had a single housekeeper doing all turns for one listing, but then he said he keeps his crews busy. I can’t follow all the details and seeming change of focus so I just decided to settle on the $50 an hour point that was made several times.

@RiverRock

1K a week for 20 hours

I can make $1k for 20 hours boarding dogs, but I can’t make $2k for 40 hours because the scheduling of the 20 hours prevents me from working another 20 hours. I can make $3k in 10 days around xmas/new year but I can’t make over 100k annually boarding dogs because not all days are holidays with high demand. I just had 3 nights with no dogs at all, but I can’t make up for that by accepting 3 extras over Thanksgiving. There is is just so much I can do per day.

If housekeepers are needed between 11 am and 3 pm and can’t reliably get jobs for other hours of the day then it caps how much they can make per day.

[JohnnyLounge21]

@KKC @Jefferson Really appreciate all your thoughts and summation of the discussion!

@RiverRock We only have a general idea what a hustling housekeeper makes on an annual basis. Anecdotal evidence is from hearing them chatting about it (when we have two of them at a site at the same time). Many of them also find ways to infiltrate private local host forums (Facebook groups) talking about making upwards of $1K a week. When you do the math I’ve discuss ad nauseum above, it adds right up to that $50K annual figure.

The “she made $17,780” gal from earlier is semi-retired and does other odd jobs when she feels like it. She probably makes $25K from total-hours-worked from various sources. She also draws some kind of pension (or likely government benefits of some kind, according to what my wife said she heard her mention on several occasions). It’s all good with us! She has truly became a friend of ours and we’re very lucky to have her.

$50/hr for housekeeping is a lot of money! I just wish we could all say “kumbaya” and agree on that! LOL!

[Jefferson]

What? They have work outside of your STR? Really? Gosh. Isn’t it more likely that she day trades on Nasdaq when she isn’t cleaning for you and your wife?

[NordlingHouse]

@JohnnyLounge21

Our housekeepers make $50/hour. Let that sink in. It’s a lot of fricken money for what they are actually doing and how easy it is to enter the field.

Then why aren’t YOU doing it yourself?

You really are a lounge lizard.

[casailinglady]

@JohnnyLounge21

$50/hr for housekeeping is a lot of money! I just wish we could all say “kumbaya” and agree on that! LOL!

Nope, you’ve boxed yourself into a corner and a LOT of math has gone either ignored by you or over your head. That $50 an hour does NOT include their taxes, expenses, labor, employees, SS payout, any savings, insurance… the list goes on and on.

I charge $100+ an hour for programming software applications. I don’t “make” $100+ an hour - I have to pay my programmers, pay myself (haha) for project management, and then there is overhead.

My mobile mechanic is barely breaking even these days with the increased costs of goods and services he uses plus feeding 5 kids.

End result, you don’t know how far that gross payout goes in their business. Take a basic business math course and figure out the BAM (bare ass minimum) they need to make in order to break even and don’t begrudge them.

If you think what they do is so easy then go out and do it.

[Notahost]

@Rolf

That is wonderful. Here in the third world country that I live in (the United States of minimum wage) this is, along with ‘tipping’ of service workers in restaurants etc, a ‘gift from the king’ that factors in subservience and deference as well as the politics of ‘lift yourself up by your own bootstraps’.

Remember, we invented the "Karen’ approach to menials. Bravo bravo Mexico.

LOL. Before you heap on the praise so much for Mexico’s wonderful protections of the working class, you should realize the people you’re referring to are being paid barely liveable wages the rest of the year. Those bent over crippled old women in the service industry in Mexico didn’t get that way by driving their Porsche after cleaning homes.

[JohnnyLounge21]

@NordlingHouse

Then why aren’t YOU doing it yourself?

I mentioned in post #58:

@JohnnyLounge21

Meanwhile, her and I turn the homes ourselves all the time on weekends, holidays, etc. Why? Because we essentially make $50/hour when we do. It’s good money.

@casailinglady

That $50 an hour does NOT include their taxes, expenses, labor, employees, SS payout, any savings, insurance… the list goes on and on.

So we’re having a gross/net payout discussion? Don’t you feel that kinda kills an attempt to talk about general compensation in an apples to apples way?

Let’s take your software development business you mentioned: You bill your clients $100/hour for programming. Got it. Then, you compensate your programmers (hypothetically) a blended hourly wage of $75/hour directly. However, you don’t think to yourself and others “I pay them $75 an hour,” but rather you say “I pay them ~$45-$55/hour net based on each on their taxes, expenses, labor, employees, SS payout, any savings, insurance, etc.” Seriously? It feels like you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing.

@casailinglady

End result, you don’t know how far that gross payout goes in their business.

Well, I kinda do. This is the amount that our crews asked for. And when we interview them, we have them dictate the terms of compensation (and we continue to employ them assuming they meet expectations). Blended across 6 listings at 0% vacancy, we roughly arrive at $50/hour.
Also worth noting is that staff gets compensated within 6 hours of services rendered (before we go to bed pretty much every single night). So there’s value in immediacy of compensation for each of them as well.

@casailinglady

don’t begrudge them

I think you’re skimming the content above somewhat (don’t blame you!). That is, I mentioned (#55) “we feel it’s worth it” and (#47) “We are truly happy for them.” These folks work hard and they do a terrific job (as long as they’re provided pretty aggressive training and oversight). We absolutely do not begrudge them. Quite the opposite. I value them as much as any cog in this business. Or even outright feel, besides the owners, housekeepers are the most important aspect of the business.

I stand by $50/hour being a lot of money. And as I continue to stand by that notion, I got to thinking:

Maybe this discussion isn’t about housekeeping? Maybe it’s about the fact that I see the value of “$50/hour” being more than others?

OK, so I guess the consensus (or vocal minority?) is that $50/hour is bad pay (for anyone) and the carrier of this discussion is the concept of housekeepers. No kumbaya here! Noted! But that MUST be because folks are paying their housekeepers more (or, in fact, much more) than I am.

So we need more hosts to tell us how they pay their crews way more than $50/hour. And let’s assume that we’re not talking about “taxes, expenses, labor, employees, SS payout, any savings, insurance” to make it easy on everyone, OK?

Let’s start with you, @casailinglady How much do you pay your housekeepers? $55/hour? $75/hour? Heck, $100/hour? Or more? I’m truly here to learn and be inspired.

[muddy]

Those Xmas bonuses (and there is also mandated vacation pay and severance pay if you let an employee go) are mandated so that employers can’t take advantage of their employees. Labor laws in Mexico are very strongly in support of the worker.

If you ask a local Mexican if they would rather work for a foreigner or a wealthy Mexican, they will always tell you the foreigner. Foreigners pay better, and treat the workers better. The upper class here tends to treat their employees like second class citizens and wouldn’t give them bonuses if they didn’t have to. There is still very much a class system here, a rich hacienda owner/ lowly serf mentality.

When foreigners build houses here, they are friendly with their workers, they will buy the crew a case of beer at the end of the week and sit around socializing with them, etc. Wealthy Mexicans have the “you don’t fraternize with the hired help” attitude.

Of course there are exceptions to this, as there are with all generalizations.

While the federal minimum wage in Mexico is shockingly low, and tomato pickers in the non-touristy areas may get paid those wages, in touristy areas, or those where there are a lot of ex-pats, wages are not particularly low compared to the cost of living here. The days of living in Mexico “cheap” are sort of a thing of the past, unless you want to stay in some inland area in a small village where you will be living a traditional Mexican lifestyle, surrounded by only Mexicans, with very limited shopping and eating out and entertainment choices.

The gal who cleans my house for me is, I can assure you, not a bent over crippled woman. She’s middle class, lives in a nice home with her husband and two kids, dresses casually but fashionably, has a motorcycle she gets around on. She could walk through a suburban mall in any US city and fit right in.

Yes, there are poor people here who are always wandering around looking for work. But like anywhere, the people who are well-employed are those who are reliable, and do their job well. The ones who are down and out in a town where everyone could make a decent living are those who don’t show up when they are supposed to, make lame excuses, who are lazy or do a half-assed job, leave a mess behind them, or are alcoholics or drug addicts.

I can actually eat out in Canada for about the same price as eating out in my touristy Mexican beach town and get better food and service.

[RiverRock]

@JohnnyLounge21

Also worth noting is that staff gets compensated within 6 hours of services rendered

Bravo. I Venmo the cleaners when I see them leaving on camera. Money talks, bullshit walks. They are doing this to get PAID.

[Alanmelsky]

$250 year end bonus. I pay my cleaning lady $100 per visit, occasionally more, for my 2 bedrm/1 bath rental.