Scheduling, Cancellations, and Logistics
Quick Answer: This page covers Nook & Cranny’s operational policies — scheduling windows, cancellation and rescheduling terms, supply and product policy, payment, access requirements, and our satisfaction guarantee — for homeowners across Newport Coast, Yorba Linda, Newport Beach, and the rest of the Orange County. For general service questions, see our main FAQ page.
Beyond questions about what’s included in a cleaning, most homeowners also want clarity on the practical logistics of working with a cleaning company — scheduling, cancellations, payment, and what happens if something goes wrong. This page covers those specifics directly.
Appointments are booked in scheduling windows rather than exact times, since realistic travel time and the natural variability of prior appointments make precise time slots impractical to guarantee reliably. Your confirmation will include your scheduled window, and we’ll communicate proactively if timing shifts significantly.
We understand that plans change — Give us 48 hours’ notice, and there’s no extra cost and we’ll simply move your booking to the new date. Ask any closer to your appointment than that, and we’re not able to shift it without opening a new booking, which comes with its own 25% deposit to hold the new slot.
Our team arrives fully equipped with professional-grade cleaning products and equipment for every visit. If you’d prefer we use products you provide instead — for specific brand preferences, allergy concerns, or personal preference — just let us know, and we’ll follow your instructions. See our Eco-Friendly Cleaning and Allergy-Friendly House Cleaning pages for product-related specialty options.
If something was missed or didn’t meet the standard you expected, contact us within 24 hours of your cleaning and we’ll make it right. We’d genuinely rather hear from you directly and have the opportunity to fix an issue than have it go unaddressed or turn into a lingering frustration.
Before anyone leaves your home, the job gets checked against what we consider “done right” — not just a quick glance on the way out the door. Our team walks the space and confirms that everything in the visit’s scope was actually covered, not just the easy parts.
That said, it’s worth being upfront about what happens if something still isn’t right. We don’t send someone back out for a re-clean — that’s simply not part of how we operate. If you were home during the visit, that’s exactly why we’d rather you flag anything on the spot, while the team’s still there and can address it directly. If you weren’t home and something’s bothering you once you see the place, you’ve got a 24-hour window from when the service wrapped to let us know.
Tell us specifically what didn’t sit right, and we’ll actually look into it — not just log a complaint. When it’s warranted, we’ll credit up to $25 toward your next visit. It’s not a blanket guarantee, but it is a real process: we inspect before we go, and we take it seriously if something still slips through.
In the rare event something is damaged during a cleaning, contact us immediately. As a bonded and insured company, we have a defined process for addressing damage claims fairly and promptly, rather than leaving you to absorb the cost of an accident that occurred during our visit.
We’re careful — genuinely careful — but nobody can promise accidents never happen, so here’s how we handle it when they do.
There’s a difference between something we damage and something that was already at risk. Items that weren’t properly secured to begin with — a mirror that wasn’t mounted right, a shelf that wasn’t stable, anything with a wobbly base — aren’t something we can take responsibility for if they’re disturbed during a normal cleaning. That’s less about avoiding blame and more about being upfront: our team is moving through your home doing real work, and inherently unstable items are a risk regardless of who’s in the house. If you’ve got pieces that fall into this category — or anything with real sentimental or monetary weight, like antiques, collectibles, fine glassware, or curio pieces — the safest move is putting them away or somewhere secure before we arrive.
Now, if our team is responsible for the damage — something properly secured that we broke or mishandled — we don’t ask you to just eat the cost. We’ll cover the replacement value or up to $100 per item, whichever number is lower, once we’ve confirmed what the item was actually worth. One thing we do ask: hold onto the damaged item rather than tossing it, since we need to take a look before we can process anything.
We know handing over a card number online means trusting us to handle it right, so here’s exactly how that’s protected. Every connection through our booking page runs on SSL encryption, and your information gets transmitted with 256-bit encryption on top of that — two separate layers before your card details even reach a payment processor. From there, charges are handled through Stripe, which is the same infrastructure a lot of major companies rely on for exactly this reason.
Here’s the part that matters most: we don’t actually keep your full card number on file anywhere in our system. What’s stored instead is a secure token — basically a stand-in that lets us charge your card for authorized amounts without ever holding onto the real number ourselves. So even in a worst-case scenario, there’s no full card data sitting around to expose.
Provide entry instructions ahead of your scheduled appointment — a key, door code, lockbox, or plan to be home during the window. For recurring clients, access instructions stay on file so you don’t need to re-confirm them before every visit unless something changes.
Every cleaner on our team is background-checked, bonded, and insured before working in a client’s home. For recurring clients, we prioritize consistent team assignment, so you’re not working with an unfamiliar person at every visit.
Let us know about any pets in the home, along with any specific handling instructions, when you book. See our Pet-Friendly House Cleaning page for more detail on how we approach homes with pets.
Frequency changes, temporary pauses (for travel, renovations, or other life changes), and permanent cancellations of a recurring plan can all be handled by reaching out directly — see our Recurring Cleaning page for more on how frequency adjustments work.
Safety comes first when conditions turn unsafe for our team to travel or work — severe storms, wildfire smoke advisories, red flag warning days with extreme fire risk, or a power outage affecting your home. If conditions like these affect your scheduled appointment, we’ll reach out as early as possible to reschedule for the next available date. These situations are treated differently from a standard cancellation — since they’re outside anyone’s control, the usual cancellation fee and rescheduling window don’t apply, and your deposit carries forward to the new date rather than being forfeited.
We close for a handful of major holidays each year — New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. If one of these lands on your regular cleaning day, we’ll reach out ahead of time to move your appointment to the nearest available date, rather than skipping your visit or leaving you to remember to reschedule it yourself. Want a different date instead of our default shift, or need to move things around the holidays for your own reasons? Just let us know, and we’ll sort it out together.
For homes in gated communities like Coto de Caza and Newport Coast, or multi-unit buildings with front-desk or elevator access requirements common throughout Laguna Beach and Tustin, let us know your building or community’s specific access procedure in advance. This information stays on file for recurring clients so it doesn’t need to be re-confirmed before every visit.
Same-day cancellations come with a cost, and it’s worth understanding why before it happens to you. Once a team is scheduled for your home, that slot in their day is essentially locked in and can’t easily be filled on short notice — so canceling the day of your appointment means a fee equal to 50% of what the service would have cost. That’s on top of the 25% deposit you already put down to reserve the booking, which stays non-refundable regardless of timing.
Put the two together and a same-day cancellation runs you 75% of the total scheduled price, even though no cleaning actually happened. The way around this is simple: the moment you know you need to cancel, let us know — don’t wait until the day of.
Yes — reach out to arrange a pause, and your plan will resume on your preferred schedule when you’re ready.
Rare, but worth being upfront about: if our team runs into something that makes it genuinely unsafe or unworkable to continue — not just inconvenient, but a real safety concern — they’re allowed to end the appointment early rather than push through it. In that situation, the scheduled cost still applies, the same way it would with a same-day cancellation, since the appointment slot was still committed regardless of how far the work got.
Contact us within 24 hours and we’ll make it right — see our Satisfaction Guarantee section above.
No — once a cleaning has been completed, we don’t issue a cash refund on it. That’s not us dodging responsibility, though: if something about the visit didn’t meet expectations, the right move is telling us directly and quickly, not asking for money back after the fact. Reach out as soon as you notice an issue, walk us through what happened, and we’ll figure out the right way to make it right — that might mean a credit toward a future visit, depending on the situation. The faster you flag it, the more we can actually do about it, so don’t sit on a concern hoping it resolves itself.
Yes — 25% of your quote, due at booking, and it’s non-refundable.
Think of it less as a hold and more as a down payment: whatever you put down comes straight off your final bill. On a $150 remaining balance after a $200 job, that $50 deposit is already baked in — not sitting separately on your card.
Contact us directly or update your account details before your next scheduled visit.
Life happens, and we’d rather you move your appointment than skip it entirely — but timing matters. Give us at least 48 hours’ heads-up and rescheduling costs you nothing extra; we’ll just find a new date and carry your existing booking forward. Inside that 48-hour window, though, we’re no longer able to simply shift things around — it becomes a new booking altogether, which means a fresh 25% non-refundable deposit to hold your new time slot. Bottom line: the earlier you know your schedule’s changing, the easier and cheaper it is to handle.
Just keep them secured somewhere during the visit — not because pets are a problem, but because a stranger moving through the house with equipment isn’t a normal day for them, and it’s safer and calmer for everyone if they’re settled in one spot rather than underfoot.
Whatever room our team is actively working in should stay clear until they’ve moved on to the next one. It’s a small request that helps keep the visit efficient and safe for both your family and our team.
