CBL EP 149 Heaven >Hell...Holiday Booking Without Burnout

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December can make a thriving cleaning business feel like a pressure cooker. We open the calendar, pull back the curtain, and show exactly how we protect quality, energy, and revenue when demand spikes and expectations soar. If you’ve ever said yes to an “easy” emergency cleaning that became a late‑night headache, this conversation gives you the words, workflows, and boundaries to keep your season sane.

We start by confirming client travel plans and preferred holiday adjustments well before the rush, then show how to turn released slots into wait‑list wins. You’ll hear why scope creep starts with “just one quick thing,” and how to coach techs to redirect add‑ons without damaging rapport. We break down realistic capacity—think 12 to 17 recurring homes per tech depending on size and drive time—and explain why training new hires in December rarely pays off. Instead, we share the hiring and onboarding cadence that sets teams up to succeed before the lights go up.

Flow control is the heart of the strategy. Like a great restaurant host, we stagger heavy jobs, protect route density, and prevent the end‑of‑day quality cliff that comes from stacking five homes per team. We also dive into team care: checking in on mental load, centralizing time‑off requests with HR tools, and deciding your Christmas Eve and New Year’s operating hours early so the whole org sings from the same sheet. Along the way, we capture the small lessons that vanish by fall—voice notes, quick logs, and a living “Holiday Playbook” that turns chaos into a repeatable plan.

If you want fewer fires, happier clients, and a team that still smiles in January, this one’s for you. Hit follow, share this with a fello

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Chapters

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 1:34

Is your December schedule booked solid? But your nerves are shot. Let's talk about boundaries, burnout, and smart holiday booking. So your business feels like heaven, not hell, this holiday season. Join us. Let's dive in. Welcome back, everyone. Miss Jamie. Hello. Long time to see. I think the weeks have been going by so fast. It's like it's really crazy. I can't believe it's almost the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00: 2:07

Well, it's because it's the holiday. We're right around the holidays. And we all know what the holidays mean, right? Right. Crazy schedules. Oh my gosh. If we make it through this, there's usually a big party at the end, and we all collapse and go to bed.

SPEAKER_01: 2:27

Yes. It's it's a hooray to the end, right? You just kind of tiptoe across the threshold, is what I always tell my mom. We're gonna walk through a little bit of scheduling for December and why December is the most dangerous month for overbooking, how to calculate real capacity and what you're able to handle scheduling-wise, how to set holiday boundary scripts that you can use immediately, how to structure holiday weeks without burnout, and scripts for declining last-minute requests. The caveat that I see the most, and I'm at the point now where I'm going to start advocating that we do not, as a collective, take on emergency cleanings anymore. It's too you leave yourself open to too many mistakes, and you end up biting it at the end, and the person is just ungrateful and or gracious that you spent the time taking extra effort to accommodate their weird and last-minute request. So I would not, if you don't have room for it, just politely decline it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:30

Don't be like Well, that should be already in your it should be, but I think we need to remind people who is it?

SPEAKER_01: 3:38

Donald Duck had uh, what was it, Uncle Scrooge, who's always, you know, he has his his vault full of gold, and you just you know, you get the gold stars in your eyes, and you're like, Yeah, this is gonna be and I say it every time.

SPEAKER_00: 3:52

Right. Um, and also, yeah, because you know, whenever our cleaning techs are inside somebody's home, you know, what do you tell the homeowner whenever they're like, can you just do that real quick for me? It's always real quick, and it's always whenever I'm not around.

SPEAKER_01: 4:14

That we we did, we're just gonna do this little thing for free, I believe is what it's called, or yeah, I'll do that for free. There's a whole podcast talking just about that. So make sure that you're not overindulging by taking on a last minute client. I would just politely refer them to somebody else, say I'm really sorry I don't have room on my schedule. Or another polite thing to say is I have a wait list going. You would be number 10 on the list. Would you like me to add your name, your phone number, and your address to that list? And they'll either say yay or nay. Just use caution if you're gonna add that on. And because I always say, and I'm guilty of this myself, this is gonna be easy money, easy peasy, and I'll be jumping up and down going, this will be an easy 1500 bucks, and it ends up being a nightmare every single time. And I'm like, why? Why did I do that to myself?

SPEAKER_00: 5:08

Yeah, I yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, we get overbooked, don't we? Or a lot, I see a lot of people overbooked, especially this time of year, and it starts burning you out. You get burnout.

SPEAKER_01: 5:26

People get a lot of anxiety around the holidays. There's a lot of like expectations to perform, like buying the right gift, buying the right, you know, hostess gift, buying the gifts for the clients and gifts for the cleaning techs. There's a lot of pressure, so don't add in more another layer for you to go, oh my god, what am I doing to myself? And you should have like already done this in September. I I've mentioned it a couple of times, but if you haven't now before December actually hits, you should have already confirmed with your client's base and said, Hey, this is Shannon from Maid Broker. I just want to double check the schedule for December. November and December is usually what I usually say. And I want to see if you're going on some special vacation, maybe to Tahiti. And surprisingly, I always have one or two who are like, Yeah, we're gonna go to the mold dives this year. And I'm like, Okay, well, um, do you want me to take you off the schedule? Do you want us to clean without you there? What would you, you know what I mean? So it kind of leads into the opportunity. Are we gonna do it? Are we not gonna do it? And if they don't want to do it, that's fine with me, but I want to fill that spot. Right. So calculating real capacity, just know that you don't want to overload your cleaning tax. And I would go over vacation schedules, like no vacations are allowed to be taken in the month of December, from November, from the end of November to the end of December is usually the no-go zone, unless, of course, you come and tell me that you won this Tahiti. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 6:56

Well, and and also, you know, you're so this every Thursday of November and in December, it's four weeks later, so it'll be on a Thursday. You need to make sure that with your clients that are on schedule for these days, they are do they want, and this is how I would say it would you prefer the day before or the day after, right? Or even sometimes two days before, so that you can have your schedule all set and ready to go. Right. Or because nobody really wants you there around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 7:44

They want you there for sure at Thanksgiving because that's when everyone's out of the two holidays. Well, the three, most people have family over for Thanksgiving or intimate for the holidays to have immediate family. So they don't really want you in their house. So make sure that you're crystal clear in what those expectations are and ask them ahead of time. Like Thanksgiving, a lot of schedules run from mommy to mommy schedule, right? Like my kids starting next Wednesday, they're off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's a five-day weekend. They were talking about it this morning, going, oh my God, we have five days off. What are we gonna do? Right. And it's so there's if you're one, if you're solo and you have no help, you're gonna have to double up on Monday and Tuesday or triple up and just suck it up. That's just the way it works. I spoke to someone the other day who is also solo and they're gonna take the two weeks off for the Christmas holiday. So she's doubling up. So everyone is getting cleaned, and then there'll be a two-week lull, and then she'll have to double up when she comes back. Please do not expect a client to wait while you figure out what your schedule is and don't come to me at the last minute going, I need to take this time off. How do I get someone in here to sub? Because that's not gonna go smoothly. You can do it, but it's not, it's not something that you want to transition with during the busiest time of the year. And then being able to say no, I'm really sorry, this isn't gonna work out, or you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

It's really hard. It's really hard to say no, and it's really hard to create those boundaries. That's why I feel just a reminder make sure to look over our terms and conditions. We are coming, the holiday season is upon us. Make your announcements everywhere, make them on your business page, email, do an email campaign. If you're still texting, which I hope you're not, I hope that you guys have a booking platform by now, then you need to do a texting campaign and send out just you know a reminder to all those clients that if you're going like if you're going off on vacation, you should still you should have all of this situated for when your kids are out for those two weeks.

SPEAKER_01: 9:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 9:59

Right?

SPEAKER_01: 10:00

Typically, that's typically what what the ideal situation is. And if this is your first year and you're not quite there, don't sweat it, but don't panic either. Just set clear boundaries with expectations, and that should help you get over the hump. And then make sure, and I know that we all say we're gonna remember, take copious notes. If you have an iPhone, open up your app, your notes app, and type in notes for Christmas of 2026. Because so many things happen in the cleaning industry on a day-to-day level. You're not gonna remember when next September comes what happened last December.

SPEAKER_00: 11:24

And you're gonna be like, well, okay, I wanna know. I'm guilty of this, y'all. Where in your iPhone? Because there's times I'm trying to structure some stuff for myself and my business, and it comes in your head while you're out there cleaning because you everybody knows that I'm in and out, I'm almost out, and then I'm back in 2026, and then I'm back in. But where what you put it in your notes in so you go, you pull up your iPhone, right?

SPEAKER_01: 11:57

Oh, okay. Here it is, and then you go it's you type in it that says search, right? Um, for those of you who are watching, it's the search bar. You type in notes N O T E S. This little yellow app comes up, it looks like a notepad.

SPEAKER_00: 12:09

Yes, look mine says continue, so you know I have never opened it.

SPEAKER_01: 12:14

So then you open it, and I have I don't remember how many notes I have. I have 5,488 notes in my note application. So then you you take you there's a little checkbox at the bottom right here on the bottom on the right hand side of your phone. You click that for a new note, and then you can actually, you don't even have to type. They now have the feature finally. You hit the little speaker button and you can talk into it, it will record what you say word for word. It doesn't have a voice memo capacity yet, but it will catch your words so that you can go back and go, I wrote that note, or you never know. Sometimes the shower gods don't deliver the stuff in the shower. They read as soon as you're doing the mundane thing, then that then all the ideas come and you don't have a notepad in your apron. So you just whip out your phone and you talk into your phone, and that's how that's how I remember. Like I have one for podcast ideas, I have one for book titles, I have one for short-term rental workbook.

SPEAKER_00: 13:12

I feel so silly right now because I've had this forever. I'm learning this in real time. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 13:20

You're welcome. So that's that's how you take notes, those bright ideas, and if they deliver in the shower, gods, do not take your phone into the shower.

SPEAKER_00: 13:28

But no, my ours, mine always comes whenever I'm cleaning. Oh, I need to tell them this, and then it's like, what was it that I was thinking of?

SPEAKER_01: 13:38

Right. Or I need to order more barkeepers' friends, I need to order an Amazon order with trash bags for the commercial building on 43. Just little notes and this make sure you delete it. I'm guilty of not deleting any of the notes, that's why I need any of them or pictures.

SPEAKER_00: 13:52

I have 17,000 something pictures. I'm just as guilty.

SPEAKER_01: 13:56

So yeah, it's for you to be hands off so that you can keep on doing what you're doing, so that you have um you can get a little further in your day. I'm not saying that every moment of your day needs to be packed, but that way, in case you're in the middle of a clean and you go, Oh my god, I got this great idea. Where's a pattern? So you're pulling open their junk drawers looking for a pin and a piece of paper. I'm gonna write this down. And they're like, What are you doing? I'm like, shh, shh, shh, shh, right? Exactly. I'm sorry, I took this post-it note, right? I took liberties, I'm sorry. Oh my gosh. And then how to structure holiday weeks without burnout? There, you guys have I've I've mentioned this story before. Way back in the day, I worked for retail. I worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the South Coast Plaza Mall. For those of you who are familiar with Southern California, you know exactly what I'm talking to, talking about. When the Metropolitan Metropolitan Museum of Art store was in its original location that had sat there for 20 years, it when I inherited the store and all of its problems, it also came with a woman named Pilar, who I love to death. Well, Pilar had a contingency that she had with a manager because she had been there like 15 years, and it was a handwritten note and it says, I give Pilar, I'm not gonna give her last name, permission to have off the holidays, which is the busiest time of year in retail, for forever, basically. And it was signed like I don't remember, John Bishop or whatever his name was. And so I, and this was handed down from manager to manager to manager. And when I got there, I'm like, dude, I need someone, I can only work so many hours. So I I got in a battle over do we obligate ourselves to this individual? Do we not obligate? So we came up with a hybrid the first year. The second year I couldn't do it because I was making the store grow. Um, and this is a very short version of what down. I don't remember which episode this is in, but I have mentioned this story before. So ultimately, I ended up losing a great employee because someone in the past from a decade ago made a promise to an employee about having holiday time off to spend with her family. And it it created a lot of animosity amongst the crew because she was the only one who was allowed to take time off. And I'm like, look, this is out of my hands. Corporate said that she can have it off. It's grandfathered in from blah, blah, blah, blah. If you have a complaint, and I kept sending them to my boss, and then he was getting mad at me, John Hopkins, and university, she's saying, right. So it's just you don't put yourself in a pickle like they did, right? So then I had to every holiday season, and I worked for them for five years, I had to finagle how I was gonna work an extra set of hands that I didn't have because she had to have the holiday off. And don't get me wrong, I love Pilar. I thought she was exemplary in her duties. She was a great employee when she was there. The only stipulation was that she had to have the holidays off. And it was, and she also got Thanksgiving. So the whole week of Thanksgiving, she'd be off and even on Black Friday, and then all of from like Christmas Eve all the way. I mean, I think it was two days before Christmas Eve. So like the 22nd, all the way until the third of July. Um, not July, January. And it was just like it was a long period of time to try to work my schedule around this company.

SPEAKER_00: 17:15

And this was paid.

SPEAKER_01: 17:16

This was paid. The Metropolitan always gave lots of, they were very generous in their vacation and personal time off. I don't know if that's still the same today, but don't put yourself in that situation and don't give yourself burnout. If you have someone it because everybody handles stress a little differently, like to this day, because I spent so much time in the retail industry, I can't go to Hobby Lobby without like I get anxiety. I can't, my daughter loves it. It is like a pre-teenager's heaven.

SPEAKER_00: 17:47

I'm in Hobby Lobby.

SPEAKER_01: 17:50

Yeah, I don't, I can't go into Hobby Lobby. I'm not, I send my husband in there. I just cannot handle, especially at Christmas time. I'm like, all of the decorations. And I'm like, oh my God, oh my god, oh my god, I'm gonna have it. So don't put yourself in this. If you notice one of your crew members, your cleaning techs having a rough day, pull them off the schedule and say, Hey, do you need some extra time off to recollect what's going on? Is everything okay? Check in with your crew. Don't just assume everyone's all gun-ho because they're not. Maybe their spouse has died and they never said anything. Maybe their auntie died, maybe someone's sick, maybe, maybe their dog is sick. Who knows what's going on? But you have to check in with them, or your office manager has to check in with them, or your lead. Well, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 18:35

I'm gonna uh share with you, and this is down the road, you guys. This is kind of off topic. Well, it's not because checking in with your team is really hard, especially once you get to a certain number of people, and you're sitting there private messaging all the time, and after hours, nothing structured. So I have decided to go with a a company called Connect Team that's purely HR, purely for time off. It's during work hours, it can send it. I I will be letting everybody know how that goes, Shannon, you too. As we go down, because the holidays are coming, because I know that this time gets crazy. So I uh told everybody, get your days in, get your what days can everybody work? When do you want me to switch? Because these these certain we have clients, we do banks and churches and stuff on Thursdays, and this year Christmas happens to land on a Thursday, and I'm like and New Year's, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 19:48

So when would you because I want that to have so you'll have to decide too if you're gonna be open on those days, like some some people are closed on Christmas Eve, and some some cleaning businesses will work all the way till four o'clock on Christmas Eve, some of them will work till noon on Christmas Eve. It just depends on your flow, but decide what it's gonna be, don't leave it up to chance because you will have people go, Oh my god, I need an emergency cleaning, blah blah blah blah blah, or the cleaning tech will be like well, I'm going on vacation with my family, it's already been pre-paid for year.

SPEAKER_00: 20:18

It's a place where you can add this. Is where I said no more tech, just throwing it there in jobber for and hoping that Jamie might see it, you know, that eliminates that. You have to, I have to approve whether or not that day is, and you have to be able that way it comes to me and I can see it. Some Chris. We'll take Chris for example. His birthday is on Christmas. Oh, how cool! That's why I call him Christmas. His name's Chris. So his birthday's on Christmas, he asked and requested Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday off. No problem. We got you covered. I approved it. There, there's I'm I'm I'm messing around with it. I have a booking call or a something on Monday. I didn't want to do it today. Uh, if you guys don't know, it's Thursday morning, but I I will keep you all posted on how that is starting to help me just everything. So because of what we're talking about right here, which is I don't want my cleaners to get burnout, whether that you're a solo cleaner or whether you have a tea burnout during December, it is is it's hard, but you know what? You're gonna forge through it and you're gonna do it. You're just gonna do it. I there's you have no choice in the battery and and that's what we're here for, right?

SPEAKER_01: 22:03

Right, yeah. Let's let's talk a little bit about capacity, like how many houses you should. You should, if you don't have and you've suddenly got an influx of business, just know that you know 12 to 17 homes per cleaning tech is enough for them to keep them busy. And then that's you know, so depending on how many cleaning techs you have will depend on it and what model, right? I'm an advocate for the solo method because it is the most profitable. You're talking about yeah, we're talking about whether you have a team or if you have a team of two or three, it it can be you could you can probably do a little more, but realize that you're when you have some a team of two doing four houses in a day or five houses in a day, that is a lot. Quality by the end of the day is gonna be right. So even teams of three, if when you get up there, it it's they're gonna have to do five or six homes. That's a lot of toilets, that's a lot of bathrooms in and out, it's a lot of houses, you have to drive around in one vehicle. We won't get in and out, but make sure you're trying to figure out what your capacity is. So if you're at 20 houses in a week and you suddenly jump up to 40, you're obviously gonna need more staff. And training someone in the middle of the holiday season is not ideal. It's you know, don't cut your nose off just by your face. We've all done it. I'm just speaking from experience.

SPEAKER_00: 23:20

I know.

SPEAKER_01: 23:21

Try to avoid situations like that. Try to control it. It's like when I explained, I worked in the restaurant industry for 17 years, and the hostess is actually the most important position in the restaurant. They control the flow of the restaurant, they control how the kitchen is slammed or not slammed, they control how many tables are sat to the servers, they control the bar, how many people are in the bar, depending on if they have seating in the bar or not. The hostess is actually the most important position in the restaurant. For those of you who've worked in the restaurant industry, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So make sure that that person in charge is controlling all of the situations so that you don't, because what happens is if a hostess comes in and they slam section two and give 10 tables all at once, and then they slam section one and they give 10 more tables at one, that's 20 tables going back to the kitchen all at the same time, which is gonna clog the kitchen. They're not gonna be able to expedite the food out fast enough, which causes wait times to be longer. So make sure that you're paying attention to what is going on on your schedule.

SPEAKER_00: 24:20

Right. Right. And I I will say that I am pre- I was subconsciously, now that it's we're talking about it, kind of like prepping for this moment. I didn't realize it then, but I I hiring. I'm in the hiring process and training. I want these people up and ready to go by themselves, and I still want to keep them at no more than two homes a day. You know, like like you said, it's burn and even whenever you do have a team, I'm gonna tell you guys, it don't really shave off anything. It adds to maybe maybe a half an hour, maybe 15 minutes. There are times whenever it's like you you just know that the other person has got you that I can understand, especially in a very large, hairy home. I get it. You you know that the other person's like, oh my goodness, I've only done this huge, gigantic bathroom. But you know, the other person is at least started on the kitchen or whatever. But we we've we've kind of prepped now that this is what my third, fourth, third or fourth Christmas in business. I think it's my third.

SPEAKER_01: 25:50

I think it is it your third or fourth. I'm trying to remember. It's been it's time has gone by so fast.

SPEAKER_00: 25:55

Oh yeah, it's gone so fast. So, but uh these are things that I see, and and this this little podcast right here, and the the group that we're in, the maids network, has helped me be able to pivot and understand that okay, this time of the year is better start hiring. So I started hiring in the beginning of November so that we are good to go through December. And then, you know, you got January and February, which are definitely so make sure you don't overbook.

SPEAKER_01: 26:37

Try not to have anyone go through training if you can at all prevent it. Sometimes we get it, life happens, but you're trying to eliminate as much chaos off your schedule to make it easier on everyone. You know, that you should, if you have a crew, you can have a holiday party. You can either have a holiday party during the holidays or you can have a holiday party in January when things are slow and it's more controlled. But definitely give thanks to your cleaning techs, they're the ones making the money for you.

SPEAKER_00: 27:03

They're they're your number one, your number one client. They're the best client you have because they're bringing in all this money. Yeah, all not just for for yourself, but for them, their families, they're taking care of, you know, definitely, definitely look to them to give them some lots of praises. And there is some place that I was looking at about what we should be spending for 2025 on our cleaning tax and and whatnot. I'll I'll look for that and and tell you guys that later. So definitely.

SPEAKER_01: 27:53

So there is one last little thing, and it says scripts for declining last-minute requests. So there I think if you and I've said this multiple times, I'm on my soapbox. If you offer any sort of customer service, that gives you a curve above everyone else. We as a society lack customer service. I have never seen it so bad ever. And every time I tell my mom, oh my god, it's hit rock bottom, it just goes even lower. Learn the right way to say no. If you don't know how and you're not comfortable, you can go to ChatGPT and I say, I need a polite response to say no to this. It'll say, Okay, and you just copy and paste it inside, then it'll spit something out in a couple seconds. If if you're not comfortable, if you are comfortable, you have to manage your clients. And people ask me all the time, oh my god, Shannon, you're just mean. I'm like, I'm not mean. I'm establishing my boundaries in a polite manner. We're not here to be subservient, we're here because we're the 23rd trade and we're the hottest commodity in the United States right now. Because you can see how booming this whole industry has been, especially the last 12 months. So make sure that you understand that you can say no and you can put them on a wait list. I I'll come up with a little script, I'll put it in a Google Doc. All you guys have to do is copy and make it yours in case you need to. I'll put like 10 of them in there for you.

SPEAKER_00: 29:16

But I think the best way is just honestly saying that you have a wait list. If you're like me and then you you're like, I don't want all that money to go away, you know, and either they'll sit there and wait for you or they'll won't. They'll go to the next person.

SPEAKER_01: 29:32

Don't be greedy and try to take on a last-minute client and go, this is gonna be easy cash.

SPEAKER_00: 29:37

Because it's always just not that we told you so, we told you so.

SPEAKER_01: 29:44

Right, yeah, you just don't do it. Speaking from experience, don't do what I did in the past. Make sure that you control the environment, just like the hostess in the restaurant. You they could control the flow of the restaurant, you control the flow of the business.

SPEAKER_00: 29:58

True, true. So if any of this resonates with you guys, please like, subscribe, share, and go out, go to Shannon's email, get put on her email list at Clean Freaks University, and that's Clean Freaks with a K, not a C. Yeah, and give us give us some comments back. Maybe we'll do a QA somewhere down the road.

SPEAKER_01: 30:28

But yeah, when you give us a five-star review, it tells the algorithm that we are worthy, and it actually will push the podcast to other audience members that may not have seen or heard what we talk about in all these crazy episodes. Again, we love each and every one of you. We couldn't do this without you. So thank you for being present with us, and we hope that you guys have a great holiday season. You guys take care. Bye. Bye.