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Excessive Cleaning Issues

Use this article to know when a home is messy enough to qualify for excessive work pay, and how to request it so you actually get paid

Who this is for: Hosts and Cleaning Companies cleaning a Landing home.

Ask before you start cleaning

Request excessive work pay at the beginning of the job, before you start cleaning.

This matters because the request depends on before photos. Once you have cleaned, the evidence is gone and the request cannot be assessed.

How to request excessive work pay

  1. When you arrive and find the home in a state you think qualifies, start a chat with Landing before you begin work.

  2. Must send before photos or a video of the issues. If several areas are affected, send photos of each one, so Landing can see the full scale of what you are dealing with.

  3. Landing reviews your photos. This usually takes 15 to 30 minutes.

  4. If the job qualifies, Landing confirms in the chat that the excessive work amount has been added to your job.

  5. Clean the home to Landing's standard as normal.

  6. Before you complete the job, send after photos showing every area you reported, cleaned and up to standard.

After photos are required

If you do not send after photos, the excessive work pay that was added will not be paid.

Send an after photo for every area you sent a before photo of. If you reported four areas, Landing needs to see all four resolved.

What counts as excessive

Excessive work pay is for the worst messes, not for a home that is simply dirty.

Excessive trash, mess, or pet hair

Several large boxes, a lot of trash, dirty dishes on every surface, or extensive grime, dirt, and clutter. Any mess that takes a substantial amount of additional effort to clean.

Qualifying example of excessive trash and mess. An open plan kitchen and living room with large cardboard boxes and paper bags stacked on the floor, food containers and bottles covering the kitchen island, and loose packaging scattered across the floor into the next room. The scale across multiple rooms is what makes this qualify rather than ordinary turnover trash.

Qualifying example of excessive mess in a kitchen. Every counter surface covered with dirty plates, pans, mugs, food containers and packaging, with more trash and paper bags spilling onto the floor. Well beyond a normal amount of washing up.

Bodily fluids, not including stains

Blood, feces, urine, or vomit that is not on the linens.

Stained or soiled linens do not count as an excessive mess. A set stain takes longer to remove, and at that point the item most likely has to be replaced because the stain cannot be got out.

Qualifying example of bodily fluids. A fresh amber coloured puddle on laminate flooring beside a white baseboard in an apartment. The spill is still wet rather than a dried stain, which is what makes it qualify.

Pet waste, not including stains

Animal feces, urine, or vomit. This covers fresh or recent mess only. A set stain takes longer to remove, and at that point the item most likely has to be replaced.

If the home needs a full carpet or upholstery cleaning, that is added later as a separate job rather than as excessive work pay.

Qualifying example of pet waste. Fresh animal feces sitting on a green bath mat, with a pool of urine on the tiled floor beside it. Both are recent and wet rather than dried stains, which is what makes this qualify.

Pet hair

Pet hair qualifies in either of these cases.

  • There is a considerable amount of pet hair, enough to need abnormal attention to remove.

  • There is pet hair in the home when no pet was supposed to be there during the previous reservation.

Qualifying example of pet hair. A grey fabric sofa and the rug in front of it both coated in pale pet hair, thick enough to be clearly visible across the cushions, the arms, and a wide area of the rug. This much hair needs repeated passes to remove rather than a single vacuum, which is what makes it qualify.

Mold

Mold on walls, vents, carpets, furniture, or inside cabinets. This kind of mold cannot be wiped away the way it can on a washable surface such as tile.

Qualifying example of mold. Heavy black mold covering the corner of two painted interior walls, spreading down from the ceiling in streaks over a large area. Mold growing into painted drywall like this cannot be wiped off, which is what makes it qualify.

Drug paraphernalia

Bongs, pipes, used needles or syringes, burnt spoons, and similar items that have not been bagged up.

Qualifying example of drug paraphernalia. A glass water pipe, a spoon with burnt residue, several small empty plastic baggies, and a ball of foil left out on a dining table in an apartment. Items left loose like this, rather than bagged up, are what qualifies.

Medical paraphernalia

Used needles or syringes, oxygen tanks, used lancets, and similar items.

Qualifying example of medical paraphernalia. Several used syringes with orange caps, along with loose needle covers and a lancet, left scattered on a kitchen counter beside the sink

What does not count

These are part of a standard turnover, so they do not qualify.

  • Extra trash, or built up grime on surfaces

  • Stained or soiled linens

  • Mold on tile or another washable surface, which wipes off

  • Drugs or medical items that have already been bagged up

If bedding or another item is beyond saving

If an item is stained or damaged so badly that the stain cannot be removed, it most likely needs replacing rather than cleaning. Tell Landing in the chat.

If you are not sure

Send the photos and ask. Landing would rather look at a home that turns out not to qualify than have you clean an extreme mess without the extra pay you were owed.

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