Do You Tip Stanley Steemer? Ultimate Guide

steemer

Stanley Steemer is one of the leading carpet cleaning companies in the USA with almost 300 business locations in 49 states.

In addition, they also provide tiling, grouting, upholstery, and floor cleaning services.

If you’ve engaged the services of Stanley Steemer then you might be wondering whether to tip them and what the industry standard tipping sums are for this type of service.

To help you with that, we’ve looked into this and will take you through exactly how much you should tip and why, when you should tip more and when you should not tip at all.

Keep reading to find out more…

Should You Tip a Stanley Steemer? The Short Answer

While there is no obligation to tip a Stanley Steemer, given their technicians’ fairly modest hourly rate, we recommend tipping around 10-20% of the bill and a minimum of $20. If the workmanship is poor then it would be acceptable to forgo giving a tip completely.

What Does Stanley Steemer Say?

We looked into this and the official line from Stanley Steemer is that tips are not required within the carpet cleaning business.

However, they do confirm that it is appreciated and we still think a tip should be provided if the workmanship is up to scratch.

Let’s look at why we think Stanley Steemer cleaners should be tipped.

Stanley Steemer Carpet Technician Salary/Hourly Rate

Before deciding on whether to tip and how much to tip, it’s probably useful to take a look at the typical earnings of a Stanely Steemer technician.

We did some digging and found the following:

RoleAverage Hourly Rate
Carpet Technician$14.58
Cleaning Technician$17.65
Carpet Cleaning Technician$17.80
Source Indeed

It should be noted that Stanley Steemer carpet cleaning technicians are also paid a commission for generating sales of add-on products whilst at their customers’ homes, so their actual salary will likely be higher than the above figures.

However, the abovementioned hourly rate is still fairly modest and is seemingly well below the US average which, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is $29.81 per hour as of December 2020.

Bringing all that together, this fairly modest hourly rate compared to the US average will likely convince most people that tipping Stanley Steemer technicians is worthwhile.

Indeed, this is the conclusion we reached when we looked at whether to tip Safelite auto-glass technicians.

Tipping Guidelines

While there are no official guidelines for the amount to tip, we suggest a figure of 10-20% is reasonable and is roughly in keeping with what you would provide other workers who provide services, such as barbers, delivery people, baristas, and waiters.

Given the fairly modest salary of a Stanley Steemer technician, we think this is a fair sum to offer.

If the job is small, say, below $100 then we recommend offering a minimum of $20.

If you’re wondering what a 10-20% tip might mean for your wallet, we’ll need to look at the typical costs of a Stanley Steemer service.

Stanley Steemer Costs

Job Per Square FootCost
200 to 400 $80
1000 to 1500$200
2000 to 3000$400
3000 to 5000$500
Source Pricelisto.com

A typical house in the US is around 2000 square feet so you will be looking at a cost of around $400 if you have your entire house done.

Accordingly, a 10-20% tip on that is going to set you back around $40-80.

If you only have two or three rooms cleaned, then you should probably be tipping around $20-40.

If it’s just one room, then we would suggest a minimum tip of $20.

How Should You Tip (Cash, Credit/Debit Card etc…)?

We recommend tipping in cash and giving it directly to the technician.

Whilst we do not know the policy of Stanley Steemer when it comes to tips paid via credit/debit card (i.e. whether they give them to the technician), it seems that it’s best to er on the side of caution if you really want the tip to go to the technician and not the company.

Handing cash money to the technician is the best way to do this.

Should You Tip More at Christmas or Around the Holidays?

Like with all tipping etiquette, there are no hard or fast rules when it comes to tipping during the holidays.

It will much depend on the individual, but we suggest an extra 5% or an extra $5-10 is typical.

Holidays put an extra financial burden on most families so it is in good spirit to tip that little bit extra during these times, especially given that Stanley Steemer technicians earn only a modest income.

When Should You Not Tip a Stanley Steemer Carpet Cleaner?

There are of course times when you should not tip and it’s probably worth going through them:

  • If the technician is rude, uncourteous or unprofessional
  • If the workmanship is of a very poor quality
  • If the job has taken a lot longer than expected
  • If additional charges are added over and above what was quoted
  • If anything in your property is damaged

As a reputable company, we would expect Stanley Steemer to provide a good quality of service most of the time but you can certainly justify withholding a tip if the work is not up to scratch.

On the flip side of this, if you feel that the Stanley Steemer technician has gone beyond the call of duty and has done an exceptional job, then you might want to offer more as a token of gratitude.

Final Thoughts

While tipping Stanley Steemer carpet cleaners is not compulsory, or even customary, we think most people will be minded to give them a tip in light of their fairly modest salary.

We recommend 10-20% as a typical amount you should tip as this is what you would expect to tip many other service-based workers.

It’s important to remember that carpet cleaning is a strenuous, manual job which can take some time to complete, especially if your entire house needs cleaning, so the technician is doing quite a lot of work compared to, say, a barber or bellboy who might only be providing their services for a few minutes. We think this provides extra justification for tipping carpet cleaners.

In another article, where we looked at whether Bob’s Furniture delivery guys should be tipped, we came to a similar conclusion that the heavier the work, the more a tip is justified.

Clearly, if you feel the technician has done a poor job or has been unprofessional then you will probably want to limit the tip or withhold it completely. We’ll leave that to your good judgment.

About the author

Oliver graduated from law school in 2008 and has practiced exclusively in the field of civil litigation for the last 10 years. He has a wealth of experience and expertise in litigation involving large financial losses and a special interest in consumer law. He has achieved numerous 7 figure settlements and has been involved in multi-billion dollar class-action consumer lawsuits against companies such as the Volkswagen Group. Away from the law, he is a consumer information and personal finance writer, having been featured in key publications such as Yahoo Finance, GO Banking Rates, NewsBreak, MEL Magazine, and many more.



-Chief Editor and Founder

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