Would you lose a £60,000 client over a small delay on a £2,000 invoice?
That’s exactly what happened to us a few weeks ago.
We’d worked with this housekeeping company for 2.5 years. Always paid on time. No drama.
We had a same-day checkout and check-in scheduled. To our surprise, the linen hadn’t been delivered the week before. When we asked for the usual delivery, we were told that unless we paid the remaining balance of a recent invoice, they wouldn’t deliver.
We were genuinely shocked.
You know why half had already been paid, even though we usually pay monthly?
Because mid-month, the company had asked us to pay early due to their own cash flow issues — which we happily did.
In fact, we were often among the first to receive invoices because we paid so quickly (their words, not ours).
We don’t respond well to being pressured, so we arranged a solution ourselves.
And then it escalated.
Without notice, they stopped servicing all eight properties they handled for us. No call. No email. No response to WhatsApps.
Guests arrived to unclean properties. We had to compensate them, find emergency cleaners, and secure a new housekeeping company – fast.
Needless to say, we stopped working with them.
They lost a loyal, on-time-paying £60,000 client over what was essentially a very short delay on a £2,000 invoice.
I’ll never understand why some entrepreneurs let ego drive decisions that cost them long-term relationships.
Business is built on trust, communication, and perspective.
Short-term pressure should never outweigh long-term partnerships.