Cleaning companies: scheduling several teams online

A cleaning company with several cleaners or teams can take every booking on one Book page. Create services by job, such as "Regular clean, 3 hours" or "End-of-tenancy clean", and give each slot as many places as teams you can send at that time. Group visits by area on set days, use arrival windows rather than exact times, book regular clients ahead with the same cleaner, and move visits to another team when someone is off. The company pays €5/month in total.

Book gives one booking page per business. Each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on the page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own number of places. There's no staff field, so places do the work: if three teams are out on Tuesday morning, the Tuesday morning slot gets three places. Each online booking takes one place, and when the last one goes, the slot leaves your page.

Durations, places and prices are examples: set your own.

Sending teams across town between visits wastes the day. Give each part of your area its own days and say in each service description which towns each day covers. Open morning and afternoon windows rather than exact times, and say that the team arrives within the window. If you cover different areas on different days, one service per area, such as "Regular clean, north side", keeps bookings where you want them.

A weekly or fortnightly client wants the same person, who knows the home and where things go. After the first visit, book their next visits yourself from the calendar into the slots their cleaner works, for weeks ahead. First and last name are required, email and phone optional; with an email, the client gets a confirmation with a calendar file for each date. Write the cleaner's name in the booking note so the team knows whose round it is. Book repeats slots weekly only, so for a fortnightly client, book every second week yourself.

Some jobs, such as carpet cleaning, window work at height or a full deep clean, may need a particular person or equipment. Put the cleaner's name in those services and open their slots on the days they're free for it. Everything else stays shared.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note. Ask for the address, the size of the home, pets and parking. Keep key safe and alarm codes out of the note, since it appears in the client's calendar file; agree them by phone and keep them in your own records, with keys labelled without the address.

Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so a standard week of windows takes minutes to set up. On days when fewer teams are working, lower the places on those slots so you don't book more homes than people. When the rota changes, delete the remaining slots of the old series and create a new one.

Clients can't move or cancel online; the office does it from the bookings list. Rescheduling works across services, so a visit can move to another team's window the same day or to the next free day. Book doesn't email clients about changes, so call or message each one, and tell regular clients when a different cleaner is coming. All bookings sync with the company's Google, iPhone or Mac calendar, so the office sees every team's day. Book doesn't take payments; say how clients pay. Book costs €5/month for the company, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.