Ideas? yes. She's probably had a 'treasure' who went in for about 8 hours a week (even though she was only paid for 4) and earnt about £4 an hour.
Happens ALL the time, the 'treasures' who are prepared to 'do' a few hours a week are now of rertirement age and the next-generation 'treasures' have been absorbed into 'proper' employment by cleaning companies and agencies. Well, thats my idea.
As such there is no reason why you should drop your price below what you would charge anyone else as the woman isnt going to find another 'treasure'. They hardly exisit now.
How do you charge normally? Hourly rate or by the job? How does she know she needs 5 hours if she has no idea how fast you all work? I've never been able to make sense of people asking for X hours, i mean it implies that all cleaners work at the same speed.
I've often wondered how it is that people are prepared to pay for cleaning by the hour, not when you consider that for more or less everything else in life you pay for a product or a job, you dont pay by the hour. Like recently when i had a new kitchen, i paid for the units, i paid an electrician to wire the kitchen, and paid a man to fit the kitchen. Each time i was given a single price for the job to be done.
I think if you could tell us a bit more about what kind of service you run, what you supply, what you normally charge, and what this woman wants then it may be easier to offer some more advice.
Cheers
Stephen