FAQs

On 19 December 2020, we changed our name from Brilho Cleaning Services to SOAP Professional Cleaning Pty Limited. SOAP is a playful name that captures the joy we find in cleaning. Also, it’s easier to say than the Portuguese brilho — and our whole mission is to make your life easier.

Only our name changed. Your friendly cleaning and management team remains exactly the same.

We still employ our happy cleaners directly — we’re not an agency or an online platform connecting people to freelance cleaners.

Our founder Priscilla Sousa has extensive cleaning experience having worked in the industry for the past 19 years. Priscilla founded SOAP (formerly called Brilho Cleaning) in 2014. The business has grown rapidly and now employs a team of 22 cleaners.

There are many good cleaners and cleaning companies in Sydney who have the best intentions. However, you must do your research when deciding who you can trust to work in your home or commercial premises.

By choosing to work with a professional cleaning company like SOAP, you’ll have the peace of mind that your 5-star clean is guaranteed. If we miss anything and you let us know within 24 hours, we’ll come back to fix the problem.

We are not a cleaning agency or a service to match you with a freelance cleaner. Our team of 22 cleaners are all SOAP employees. We pay salaries and benefits, and we’re fully insured. Our prices reflect the quality of the service we offer.

We make some big promises about the standard of our house and office cleaning — sparkling like a hotel, every time.

We stand by our high standards. If we miss anything and you let us know within 24 hours, we’ll come straight back to fix it.

SOAP is not a franchise. We are a privately-owned company offering high quality, tailored cleaning services to our clients.

We care about our team and your property. All SOAP employees are fully insured.

We work every day aside from the following holidays:

New Year’s Day, Australia Day Holiday, Good Friday, Day following Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Queen’s Birthday, Labour Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day.

Yes, we do. Saturdays and Sundays are available upon request and subject to availability. Weekend rates will apply.

The only days we don’t clean are on public holidays. However, if you do need cleaning on a public holiday, please let us know. We will try our best to arrange a clean for you. Public holiday rates will apply.

Our operating hours are 8am to 4pm for our residential cleaning services. If you need cleaning outside of these hours, please let us know. We will try to accommodate your request.

For commercial cleaning services, we do work over weekends and after business hours. Please note that penalty rates will apply for weekend or after-hours work.

We always plan to arrive on time, but please allow a window of 30 minutes for your cleaner to arrive. This is just in case your cleaner is running late due to circumstances outside of their control (e.g. heavy traffic).

We don’t lock our clients into a contract; however, we do have an agreement.

If you decide to work with SOAP, we will provide you with a Cleaning Services Agreement to sign. This agreement covers areas such as the services we are to provide, payment terms, rescheduling and materials used.

Cleaning materials

Please note, for hygiene reasons we don’t provide cleaning materials for residential services. We will use your cleaning equipment and materials.

We will provide cleaning equipment and materials for commercial cleans (e.g. offices). We will store it all on-site.

We love it when our clients refer us to friends or family. To show our appreciation, you will receive a complimentary clean for each new client you refer to us who becomes a regular client.

Our referral guidelines are:

• Please only refer people you know personally
• A complimentary clean will be gifted to you when the new client you refer to us has booked three cleans
• To be eligible for your complimentary clean, please register your referral using the link below
• You’ll also receive a bonus gift if you refer five new regular clients to us.

To make a referral, please use the link below:

[REGISTER YOUR REFERRAL]

There’s no need to clean your home before we arrive. If at all possible, please pick up as much as you can off the floor (toys, clothes, shoes etc.) and clear your kitchen benchtops and sink of cups, plates and glasses. Your cleaner will then be able to arrive and to start cleaning straightaway and focus more on all the tough jobs like scrubbing showers, vacuuming and floor mopping.

When we have to pick up things before we can clean, our clean will take longer, which costs you more.

Yes, please choose a date and time for your clean that’s convenient for you. We can clean between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm Monday through Friday (and Saturdays by arrangement).

Once the date and time of your clean has been agreed, your cleaner will plan to arrive right on time. However, sometimes unexpected delays come up (your cleaner may get stuck in traffic), so please allow an arrival window of 30 minutes just in case of an unavoidable delay.

A tip isn’t expected. If you do wish to leave a tip or a small gift during the festive season to show appreciation for great work, it would be greatly appreciated by your cleaner.

An annual spring clean is a fantastic way to have your entire home sparkling. We can help with all those difficult jobs in hard to reach places that are not usually part of your regular clean. For example, we’ll get the inside of your kitchen cupboards or your fridge sparkling again.

If SOAP is your regular cleaner, a thorough spring clean will bring the entire home up to the standards we maintain.

SOAP is not a franchise. We are a privately owned and operated Australian company. We offer high quality, tailored cleaning services to each of our clients.

For hygiene reasons, we don’t provide the cleaning equipment and materials to clean your home.

After cleaning for clients with chronic illnesses or very low immunity who have specific requirements, we undertook further research into the best hygiene practices. Our research told us there are risks of germs travelling between homes when cleaning products and equipment are shared, especially when the cleaner does multiple cleans in a day.

That’s why it’s safest if we use your cleaning equipment (including a mop, bucket and vacuum cleaner) and your cleaning materials.

We will provide you with a list of our preferred eco-friendly products should you wish to purchase them. We are happy to use the products you have at home if they are similar brands to the products on our list.

We will provide all cleaning products and equipment, and we will need a place to store them on site.

The full terms and conditions for our gift vouchers can be found here Gift Card Terms.

The terms and conditions for our residential cleaning services can be found here Terms and conditions for your residential cleaning services

For our commercial cleaning services terms and conditions, please go to Terms and conditions for your commercial cleaning services.

• Payment is due on the days on which we complete the clean or issue our invoices (whichever is later).
• If you provide us with your credit card details, you authorise us to debit your credit card for our cleaning services on those days.
• We will request your credit card details so amounts due can be automatically paid via IntegraPay.
• If payment is late, 1.5% interest per month will be charged on the outstanding amount from the due date until the date of payment in full.
• If our cleaners arrive to clean your property but can’t gain access or access is limited, our service charges will be due in full.

Commercial cleaning services:

If a clean is cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice, our service charges will be due in full.

Residential cleaning services:

Any cancellation between now and 4 hours of your booked time will incur a fee of 50% of the service charge. Any cancellations in the 4 hours before the service will result in you being charged the full fee for the service.

Yes. We accept following credit cards. Please note the service fees applicable to these cards.

1. Master and Visa ($0.25+1.87%)
2. AMEX ($0.25+3.24%)
3. Debit Card ($0.88)

Please note that there may be additional charges for international cards.

Payment is due on the days on which we complete the clean or issue our invoices (whichever is later).

We use IntegraPay. Our accounts team will contact you to obtain your credit card details or bank account details to set up an account.

When you provide us with your credit card or bank account details, you authorise us to debit your credit card for our cleaning services on those days.

We will invoice you for our services. Payment is due in full the day of the service or the day we issue our invoice (whichever is later).

Below is a list of payment methods and applicable service fees.

1. Master and Visa Credit Card ($0.25+1.87%)
2. AMEX credit card ($0.25+3.24%)
3. EFT / Bank Transfer ($0.88)
4. Direct Debit
5. BPAYP

Please note that there may be additional charges for international cards.

Payment via cash or cheque cannot be accepted.

If paying by credit card, we ask our clients to sign a credit card authorization form through our accounts system. We will deduct the amount due automatically on the day of the cleaning. We don’t store your credit card details; our payment system independently manages this process.

We stand by our high standards and guarantee the quality of our clean. If you’re not happy with your clean, and you let us know within 24 hours, we’ll come back free of charge to fix anything that has been missed. Because we’ll quickly fix anything that’s wrong, we don’t offer a refund or a discount.

Yes, you will receive an invoice as soon as your service is finished. If you have not received your invoice, please call our happiness client experience team on 1300 669181 or email us.

SOAP directly employs our team of cleaners. All candidates are personally interviewed, and we undertake numerous checks, including references, background checks and police checks.

Our employees are trained to meet our 5-star cleaning standards. We pay salaries and benefits, and we’re fully insured.

Yes, background checks and police checks are a key part of our hiring process.

We offer a tailored 5-star cleaning service for our clients, so our employees must be able to speak and read English.

Not every employee is fluent in English. However, we make sure their English abilities are of a high enough standard to be able to communicate well with every client.

Our cleaners are our employees, many have worked with us for a long time. We take the hiring process seriously and conduct background checks and police checks as part of that process.

Safety and security are a key priority for our business.

The type and amount of cleaning required will determine how many cleaners we will send.

For regular residential cleans, we usually send one cleaner. This cleaner is reserved for your home on that particular day. You won’t find your cleaner rushing to finish because they have a number of other jobs to get to. Our cleaners are given the time necessary to clean to our 5-star hotel standards.

Where a job is too large for one cleaner, we will discuss this with you and provide a quote for the number of cleaners needed.

For our commercial services, we will discuss with you when quoting how many staff are needed to complete the work.

Yes. Our cleaners are employees (not contractors), so we will arrange for the same cleaner to clean each time.

However, over time, an employee may move on or go on holidays. If your cleaner resigns, goes on holiday or asks for leave from SOAP, we will immediately provide you with a replacement.

We have systems in place to ensure our quality of clean remains consistently high when a new cleaner takes over. Your preferences and other vital information will be passed onto your next cleaner.

SOAP’s cleaners are our employees, and we devote significant time and resources into training them to our standards.

That’s why all our clients are asked to sign our Cleaning Service Agreement containing a non-solicitation agreement.

The agreement outlines compensation due to SOAP in the event any of our cleaners are engaged directly or indirectly for private hire. This compensation covers costs we’ve incurred training and supporting our cleaners

Our cleaners are our employees and are trained to take great care when cleaning your property to our 5-star hotel standards.

However, we recommend that you personally clean any items of extreme value or sentimental value (for example, glassware, figurines).

Please let us know if you have any such items and we’ll let your cleaner know not to clean them.

If something is damaged by one of our cleaners, they will provide SOAP’s management with the details of the damage. We will contact you to replace, repair or cover the costs of having the goods repaired.

Our cleaners know they are to advise us of any damage promptly. However, if there is a delay and you have noticed an item has been damaged before we have contacted you about it, please email or call us within 24 hours.

If possible, please take a photo and email it to us. We can then resolve the situation or compensate you as quickly as possible.

We take no liability for damage where it is caused by:

• the age or condition of the property
• movement of items with no protection or inadequate protection to prevent damage to the item or other areas of the property.

Some of our clients are at home when we clean.

However, many clients aren’t able to be at home. They give us spare house keys, alarm codes or the passcode to access a locked key box so we can access their property.

We take the security of your property and possession seriously. Our cleaners are all employees, and we do thorough background checks before we hire an employee. We don’t use contractors.

If you provide us with a key, access card, garage opener, security code or other devices we’ll keep them secure.

Please call or email us with any requests before your clean.

Our cleaners are trained to take great care with special surfaces and to follow your specific instructions.

If there are specific products you need us to use, please let us know what they are and where we can find them or leave them out for us.

We also ask that you supply specific cleaners for surfaces that require a manufacturer’s recommended products. These surfaces include stone counters, marble floors and certain types of wood floors.

We need to follow the manufacturers’ recommendations to avoid harm and to maintain your special surfaces properly over the long term.

We’re more than happy to help with any extra cleaning or one-off special requests you may have.

Please contact our Happiness Client Experience Team with any requests with 24 hours’ notice so we can quote and arrange the right amount of time to complete the work.

At your request, we can arrange for any of these special requests to become part of your regular cleaning service. A flat fee will be charged.

For regular home cleaning services:

We use your cleaning supplies and equipment (including a mop, bucket and vacuum cleaner) for hygiene reasons. We don’t bring our own as there is a risk that we could bring germs from someone else’s home into yours.

One-off cleans:

For all our one-off cleans, we will provide the cleaning products and equipment.

Commercial cleaning:

We will provide all cleaning products and equipment. However, we will need to store them on your premises.

We’ve cleaned many homes with pets, and we have animal lovers on our team.

However, we ask that you secure all animals on your property before your property is cleaned for the most effective clean.

This will ensure the safety of our employees and will make sure your pets don’t try to go outside when the cleaners enter or exit your property.

We guarantee our work. We stand by our high standards. If we miss anything and you let us know within 24 hours, we’ll come straight back to fix it.

We do clean radiators, but we are not experts. Our radiator cleans involve removing dust that is easily accessible (to prevent harm to our employees’ hands). We’ll also vacuum underneath and behind the radiator as thoroughly as possible. We cannot guarantee to be able to clean your radiator completely.

We pride ourselves on our 5-star hotel cleaning standards.

To meet these standards, even if you’ve already been using a cleaner, your first clean by SOAP will be a deep clean. Not all companies provide the same 5-star level of service that we do or clean the same way.

An hourly rate will be charged for the first clean, and we’ll determine how long the job will take us to do regularly. Your second and subsequent cleans will be charged at a flat rate.

Our list of included services is anything but standard.

Everything from cleaning the range hood to scrubbing the inside of the bins is all included in every 5-star clean.

We’ll visit your home to quote to make sure our clean is tailored to exactly what you’d like cleaned.

However, you might like a little extra help. We can do the laundry, fold the clothes, wash the windows, do your ironing… Just let us know what would make your life easier.

We would be more than happy to help you with any extra services you need.

The additional home cleaning services we offer include:

• Fridge cleaning (inside and outside)
• Full oven cleaning
• Folding and organising laundry and linen
• Cleaning inside cabinets (kitchen, bathroom, laundry etc.)
• Scrubbing tile /vinyl flooring
• End of lease cleans
• Post-renovation cleans
• Post-construction cleaning
• Move-in/move-out cleans

The additional commercial cleaning services we offer include:

• Office cleaning
• Airbnb cleaning
• Strata cleaning
• Childcare cleaning
• Commercial cleaning

Our regular cleans involve wiping any woodwork (for example on skirting boards, door frames, window frames) with a cloth to remove dust and minor marks.

If you would like for your woodwork to be intensively cleaned, we can arrange this for an additional charge. It takes extra time and more than one wash to remove stubborn accumulated dirt.

Please also consider that there is a risk that some paint will be removed when woodwork or painted walls are cleaned. We ask that our clients acknowledge this risk and that we are not liable for any damages.

Yes, your regular clean will include blinds being wiped and dusted.

If you need a more thorough clean, we can arrange to quote for a full detailed blinds clean.

We’re not able to clean blinds if they need to be taken down or removed from their fixtures to be cleaned. This includes removing curtains from curtain rods.

Taking before and after photos is part of our quality control process to ensure you receive the highest standard of service.

We respect your privacy. We will not use these photos for any other purpose or take photos of any personal belongings.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns.

The time we have agreed for your clean is reserved just for you. If you cancel with short notice, we cannot fill this time with another job. This results in our employees working fewer hours than planned.

All cancellations must be made by contacting our Happiness Client Experience Team during our office hours of 8am to 6.00pm.

If you need to cancel or skip a clean and give us more than 24 hours’ notice, we will work out another suitable date to complete the clean.

If you cancel your clean giving less than 24 hours’ notice, the full charge for the service will be charged.

If you skip a clean, we may need to take extra time at your next service to complete the job to our 5-star standards.

Please contact our Happiness Client Experience Team during our office hours of 8am to 6.00pm.

We will endeavour to accommodate your request, subject to availability of our cleaners.

While you’re away on holiday, if you would like us to, we can do all those cleaning jobs that aren’t part of your regular clean. For example, we could clean inside your pantry, cupboards, fridge and oven. You can then come home from your holidays and relax in an immaculately clean home.