Do I need to vacuum before carpet cleaning?

A light vacuuming in the traffic areas is recommended but not required. If needed, the crew can pre-vacuum the area to be cleaned.

I vacuum as a courtesy, and also because I'm not exactly Suzy Homemaker, so my floors usually need it. In 10 years in this house I have had only one SS associate complain that I didn't vacuum. Even though the policy says specifically that you don't HAVE to, I appreciated the complaint (okay, not his grumpiness, but I understood later why he was a little less friendly than your usual SS associate would be), because we have animals. Not vacuuming + animals = SS associate has to take much longer, plus the hair made a mess that he had to keep clearing out. That was over 5 years ago; nowadays it's possible the equipment can take the added stress, but in my opinion, if you have animals that shed, you should vacuum. Your SS associates may even tell you "Oh you didn't have to do that", but my guess is that they probably think to themselves "Thank GOODNESS, that's one hairy dog...and THREE cats!! 😲"