I know it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that house cleaning should come dirt cheap.
I did when I first started in this industry.
I mean, it’s just manual labour right? There isn’t much to it.
But as I learned more and more about what really goes on in the house cleaning service world, it was amazing to me to see just how unregulated it is, especially when it comes to independent cleaners on Craigslist or other job posting sites.
So I wanted to quickly share with you 5 points that you should consider before hiring an independent maid or professional cleaning company to help you understand the differences.
But before I do, I just wanted to quickly talk about the big range in prices and why things are priced the way they are.
A Big Difference in Pricing
Look online for house cleaning help and you’ll very quickly notice that there are generally 2 price ranges when it comes to house cleaning:
a) the independent cleaners that are really cheap at $10 – $20 per hour
b) the professional cleaning companies that can range from $40 per hour up to $80 per hour (and sometimes even more)
With such a big difference it makes you wonder – are the more expensive cleaning franchises that much better at cleaning your home? What’s so great about going through a professional house cleaning company?
To help you answer that question, we’ve highlighted 6 main reasons why you should choose a house cleaning company over an independent house cleaner.
5 Reasons to Choose a Professional House Cleaning Company Over An Independent Cleaner
Trust-worthy cleaners readily available
The most important thing to consider when choosing a housecleaner is hiring someone you can trust.
This isn’t something you should easily brush off.
These cleaners will be inside your home and in close proximity to your valuables so you want to make sure that the cleaners are people you can trust.
They should also pass a police background check and preferably have had more than a few clients already.
Going through this process can take hours upon hours to find the right fit.
Just for a frame of reference, we have to sift through more than 250 applications just for our Calgary operations whenever we post a job opening. And out of that, maybe 2 or 3 go on to become a regular maid for us.
When you go with a professional maid service, all the background checks and interviews are already done for you. For example, at Scrubbi, every cleaner we hire gets a complete background check and goes through a series of interviews and tests to ensure that whoever is in your home is someone who is reliable, respectful, and knows how to clean.
(Cleaning fast and efficiently takes more planning and organization skills than you think).
Back-ups when you need it most
Imagine this scenario: Your in-laws just called to say they’re coming over for a surprise visit on the weekend. It’s Friday and your cleaner is supposed to be at your house at 8:30am and it’s now 9:45am and they still haven’t shown up. You call their cellphone to see what’s going on but all you get is their voicemail. You try calling them again and again over the course of the day but get no response.
Now what do you do?
The advantage of a maid service is that they usually have a roster of maids that can, more often than not, fill in when another maid calls in sick. Many times you won’t even notice unless you were home and saw that it was a different maid.
If reliability and having cleanings done when you need it are important to you, you should definitely consider going with a house cleaning service.
At professional house cleaning companies (like Scrubbi), you get a customer support system in place for anything that goes wrong. It comes in hand for things like:
- Cleaner hasn’t shown up or is sick? Call customer support and they’ll find a back up or on-call maid to come clean your home.
- The cleaner showed up but missed a few things during the cleaning? No problem, just call support and, if they have a service guarantee, they’ll send someone back to clean what was missed at no extra cost to you.
- Want to reschedule your appointment? Give proper notice and any cleaning company will gladly reschedule your appointment for you.
- Have some comments or suggestions for the cleaner but don’t want things to get weird with your cleaner? Let customer support know and they’ll relay your concerns in a way that doesn’t lead back to you.
When you have a million other things to worry about, this kind of support comes you can’t live without.
**Note: At Scrubbi, we make house cleaning as easy for you as possible. In fact, we’ve based major part of business model on providing a great clean with an amazing support system for our customers.
Cleaning Service Guarantee
Very few independent cleaners (and even professional maid services) offer a Cleaning Service Guarantee. Basically, if our cleaners missed anything or if you’re not happy with the cleaning service that you received, let us know within 24 hours of your appointment and we will gladly send out another cleaner to clean what was missed or not properly cleaned – at no cost to you.
At Scrubbi, we of course have a 24 hour service guarantee and are more than willing to fix areas that we miss or didn’t clean properly at no cost to you.
Peace of Mind
The bottom line is that if price is your main and only concern, you may be setting yourself up for a costly mistake later on. What a professional maid service provides is convenience and peace of mind with a strong customer support system if things go wrong.
Anyone in the house cleaning industry who tells you that they’ve never had a problem come up last minute either has minimal experience or is just flat out lying to you. Things happen all the time. Cleaners get sick (or their kids get sick), cars breakdown, people getting lost looking for an address – things you can’t even imagine happening happen for us on a regular basis.
If you’re prepared and have the time to deal with it then great; but if you want someone to take care of that for you while you’re busy at work, running errands, or taking care of other things that life has to throw at you, a cleaning company is probably better for you.
Final Thought
Choosing a house cleaner is something that you should take very seriously. They’ll be working within your home and in close contact with your most precious valuables. That means not only will you want someone who’s fast and efficient, you’ll want someone you can trust as well. You could find that type of cleaner by going the independent route, but that takes time.
By going with a cleaning company like Scrubbi, you can feel assured that the cleaner in your home has already undergone a background check and has been closely evaluated on their cleaning ability. Not only that, but if for some reason a problem came up, there’s actually a system in place to find a solution to the problem, fast.
It basically means peace of mind, and for many people, that’s worth the extra cost.
Related Articles
52 Comments
I like that you mentioned that choosing a maid service over an individual cleaner will give you the opportunity to have backups do the cleaning if your cleaner is sick or away. That is something that could be really helpful. My wife and I have been thinking about getting some help around the house. I will definitely keep these things in mind.
This is actually helpful, thanks.
Thank you for the great post
Fantastic Website. Very much enjoyed reading.
I’m glad that you mention how a cleaning company will have already taken care of background checks and interviews in order to find reliable workers that will provide the best service. Since this is the case, all you’d have to do would be to find a business with the right employees. In order to pick the best option, you’d probably want to research the different house cleaning companies online and by talking to people you know, such as friends and family, so you can figure out the types of services they offer as well as if they treat their customers well.
It really helped when you mentioned how you should take the time to consider the type of insurance a cleaning company can provide in order to find the best company for your needs. I understand that taking the time to do some research and read online reviews in order to find the best one for your needs. A friend of mine was talking about how he needed to find a good cleaning company in order to keep his house tidy as he is too busy with work, so I’m glad I found your post.
I’m glad I came across your article on choosing a maid service. I like how you talked about the importance of having trustworthy maids. It’s comforting to know that the maids you let inside your house are honest and will take good care of your valuables. Checking if the maids have passed a police background check is also a great tip. I’ll be sure to follow your advice next time I get a professional cleaning service.
Informative post…I am looking for a temporary house cleaner for about a month, weekly. They would help me with vacuuming and cleaning two bathrooms once a week.
Maid laundry service Cedar Hill TXHow exciting. Cant wait to see the rest of the house! Deep cleaning house is something that we do when we decide to thoroughly clean every little portion of our house. Thanks for sharing.
Maid laundry serviceCleaning is really a big deal and dealing with cleaning services is more than that. Thankyou for this great post and I am very greatfull.
I read your article it’s very nice and very interesting one. You made this site is awesome and giving us such a great tips they very useful to us. Thanks for sharing the best posts they amazing I am very satisfied with your articles and your site it’s amazing.
Carpet cleaning ArlingtonWow…this is a very nice site and very helpful for those who are searching a maid for different types of works. thank you so much for sharing this site.
Home cleaners Cedar HillI agree that you need to consider if a home cleaning service that is trustworthy. It would be good to consider this because it would ensure that they are qualified. My brother is looking for a home cleaning service, so he’ll have to consider if they are trustworthy.
These are some good reasons why one should hire professional cleaning services and I agree with them after all professionals are professionals. Thanks a lot for sharing this and spreading information.
Maid service Arlington TX
Thanks for reading Richard!
It’s not something you’d immediately think of, but I like that the article brings up insurance. After all, a lot of people forget that their tend to be chemicals and other potentially dangerous materials involved with cleaning a house. Since this is the case it helps to hire a professional cleaning company that has the insurance to cover themselves in case a worker gets hurt on the job.
Great point about the chemicals and potentially dangerous materials Callum. Thanks for reading!
Great reasons to have maid services. Thanks once again for sharing this good topic of hiring maid services for cleaning which is an essential thing to be considered by any person. Keep sharing this post!
House Cleaning ArlingtonMy cleaning lady moved to another state…I had her for 9 years…She worked independently , and was happy with cash…I guess I saved a lot of $$, really liked her, and will miss her. I am looking to replace such an arrangement.
Hi Micky, thanks for reading. Looks like you got lucky there with your cleaning lady and I’m sorry that she moved. If you’re looking for a similar situation your best bet is to ask friends or co-workers. But some people are a bit shy about letting people know they ire a cleaner or cleaning service, so in that case I would try all the usual place like Craigslist, etc.
Best of luck!
These are really helpful tips,cleaning our home is not a problem these days because there are many cleaning services that you can get online. thanks fro sharing them!
Cleaning service Fort Worth TXYour blog about maid services is very good and nice. Great reason to have maid services. I really like this information. It is very useful and helpful for everyone. Thank you so much!!!!
maid service in Fort WorthThanks for reading!
It sure was nice when you pointed out that a professional maid service offers convenience and peace of mind knowing that I am covered in case something goes wrong with customer support. I will be sure to mention this to my sister since she is a bit hesitant in hiring a professional maid service. Surely hearing the idea that she does not need to worry about anything will convince her. Thank you.
Thanks for reading and commenting Ria! If you or your sister have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask. 🙂
You make a good point when you say that you want to find a home cleaning service that is professional because they have already done background checks. It would be smart to consider what kind of experience a cleaning service has in order to make sure that you hire someone who is qualified. My husband and I need someone to clean our home in preparation for putting it on the market next week, so we’ll have to find a professional to help out.
Hiring a cleaning service sounds like an awesome idea. I love the fact that companies are more expensive than individual ones, but only because they do such a good job. Our home is dirty enough for me to think that the extra money will be well worth it.
These are really helpful tips,cleaning our home is not a problem these days because there are many cleaning services that you can get online.Your blog about maid services is very good and nice. Great reason to have maid services. I really like this information. It is very useful and helpful for everyone. Thank you so much!!!!
house cleaners Fort WorthThanks for the tip about checking what kind of insurance a home cleaning service has. It would make sense to find someone who is properly insured in order to know they will do good work. My husband and I are looking for someone to clean our home while we are both at work, so we’ll have to check their insurance first.
Thanks for reading Katie!
It’s great to know that the professional cleaners will be able to handle issues that can happen during the process compared to just doing it on your own. I guess I will be hiring a professional because of that especially for the stained carpet we have due to what my son spilled a day ago. It might get more damaged if I try to remove it on my own.
I liked how you talked about how this can give you peace of mind. I’ve been wondering if we should hire a maid or cleaning service, but wanted to know what they might provide. This sounds like a pretty good assurance that everything will go well and that it might be a good option for us, especially if we’re heading into a more stressful part of the year.
My dad will be hosting a party and he wants to make sure that the house is clean for the guests. It was explained here that he should check if the company offers insurance to cover any damage. Moreover, it’s recommended to hire a professional residential cleaning company for quality services.
I had never considered the fact that you should hire a professional cleaning company that can pass a police background check. My wife and I both work and go to school full time, so we are never home for a long enough time to clean the place. We may benefit from hiring a professional cleaning service to come and regularly clean our house.
Thanks for reading Dean, all the best down there in Tennessee!
A good read. Cleaning services may be a little expensive as compared to the individuals, but they do get the job done, and back-ups is the most feature that usually works for the companies as individuals do tend to disregard the time you have disacussed with them.
Thanks for these tips on how to find a good home cleaning service. I agree that you want to find someone who is going to be willing to work with you to reschedule an appointment. My husband and I are looking for a home cleaning service, so we’ll have to find someone who is going to work with you.
Thanks for these tips on how to find a good home cleaning service. It would make sense to find someone who has the right price. My husband and I are looking for a cleaning service, so we’ll have to check their qualifications first.
You bring up a good point when you mentioned how you should find a cleaner that you. My wife is on a business trip and I need the house cleaned. I’ll be sure to hire someone who is dependable.
I like that you mentioned the best thing you can do is hire a cleaner you can trust. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from people who have had possessions stolen. I would love to find a good home cleaning service that I can trust in.
I loved your point about making background checks and interviewing them. My wife is a little behind on her cleaning, and we were thinking about hiring someone to help. We will definitely have to check out a few companies and see how they do.
It’s good to know that professional cleaning services can have customer service systems to assist you if anything goes wrong. My wife and I both work a lot, and we don’t have to clean up our house. We’ll be sure to look further into our options for cleaning services with customer support systems so that we can get our home cleaned.
Thanks for these tips on how to find a good cleaning service. I agree that you want to check their pricing first. My husband wants someone to help clean our home, so we’ll have to check their price.
I’ve been thinking about hiring a cleaning service for my home. As you said, a maid service would provide me with all of those cleaning services. I’d also look for one that was reliable to where they would get the cleanings done for you when you need it most.
These are good tips on how to find a window cleaning service. I agree that you want to make sure to find out if they are expensive or not. My husband and I are looking for a window cleaning service, so I’ll have to check their price first.
I’m glad you pointed out that choosing a professional cleaning service means we won’t have to worry about background checks and interviews, since those have already been taken care of. I’ll be starting a full-time job next month, and I think hiring a cleaning service for my home would really help keep my stress levels down. Your article was really helpful to me because now I understand why hiring a professional cleaning company would be worth the cost!
We are needing our house cleaned. I’ll for sure look into going with a professional. That way, I can be sure it’s done right and properly.
I loved the tip that you gave to choose a maid service that will offer a cleaning guarantee. My wife and I are going to have our cousins staying in our home before our family reunion later next month, and we want to find a cleaning service to help keep our home looking nice. When we look for one, I will be sure to consider their guarantees.
It’s interesting to know that most cleaning companies will be able to help you in case of an emergency. My husband and I are thinking about hiring a cleaning company to help us in our house, and we are looking for advice. I will let him know about the benefits of hiring a cleaning service to help us.
I like how you mentioned that you need to hire someone you trust. My husband and I both recently started new jobs that keep us very busy all day and we can’t seem to find any time to clean our house on our own. We’ll make sure to keep this information in mind as we search for a cleaning company.
It’s really great that you talked about how professional cleaning services can help you if you’re in a rush. My relatives will be living with us for the summer season, and our house is quite large and might need some help to get it cleaned up in time for their arrival. I’ll go hire a professional maid and cleaning service right away so we can have them help us out with this problem.
I appreciate you explaining how cleaning companies can help you out during those last-minute scrambles. We’ve been swamping our calendar for the holidays so far and we’ve ended up planning more than we can handle. To make things easy for us, I’ll go and look for a house cleaning service in the area right away.
