Having a maid service can be positively life changing! It rewards you with the ultimate gift of Time, and who isn’t in need of more time? But hiring a maid service can be scary. There are the obvious concerns about safety and security.
We recommend you use our 7 Hiring Questions to interview a cleaning company or a housekeeper — or really any professional company coming into your home. Look for clear and direct answers and be listening for places where corners are being cut, the law not being followed or the company rep seems put out by having to answer your questions. All/any of these are red flags and you should just yell out ‘Next!’
And there is also the discomfort of the unknown: not knowing how it works and not knowing what to expect and what’s expected. Here we’ve compiled our list of what you really want to know about hiring maid service.
What does maid service cost? You might be under the impression that maid service is for rich people. Growing up, only one person I knew had maid service…and she employed my grandmother! That’s old news. A million more people have maid service today than they did ten years ago and the growing customer demographic isn’t the rich and famous. It’s the two-income couple with kids and a pet. You’ll find maid services that charge by the hour, by the size of the home (square footage, rooms) or by the project, and things like number of pets, stories and cleanliness can impact the price. Home Adviser lists the national average for maid service to be $165. The most reliable way to get a price for your home? Contact us for a free quote. It’s really free, no obligation, no hard sell, and it’s the place to start so you can stop saying ‘I can’t afford this!’
Know that if you hire a maid service for a specific number of hours, they might send two or three maids and you’ll need to divide the hours you paid for by the number of maids. Sounds obvious but it’s a frequent customer concern about getting what he/she paid for.
What if I have a specific budget? First, know that maid service is often less expensive than people think. The initial deep, top-to-bottom cleaning is your most expensive cleaning. Regular recurring service is considerably less. If you have a specific budget, hire a maid service to tackle a specific project or set of priorities. Perhaps every room in the house doesn’t need to be cleaned and your budget would allow for the most used, dirtiest rooms to receive professional care on a regular basis? And be sure to consider the cost benefit of maid service. If you clean, what’s your time worth? Maid service is usually money well spent!
What are you going to ask me when I call about maid service? We’ll talk about your house! Like how many bathrooms, stories it has, how many people live there, how many pets share your home. We’ll ask you what you want done. Like cleaning once for a party, a full out, top to bottom spring cleaning, move in or move out, or regular scheduled weekly service so it’s always clean whenever friends drop by. We’ll ask you how quickly you need service. No tough questions, we promise!
What does a maid service do? We clearly list what we do and what we don’t do on our website and we review these with you when we call to talk about your service, so there are no surprises. Many services do offer carpet cleaning, windows and refrigerator cleaning as extra services. Most maid services don’t move furniture or do outside cleaning. Decide ahead what you really want a maid service to do.
How do I avoid the chemical smells of the cleaners many maid services use? We’re with you on this one. We don’t like them either! We use your cleaners so we’re using what you like to smell and your equipment so we’re not tracking someone else’s dirty, germy vacuum through your house. But we also bring our own cleaners and tools from Speed Cleaning which you might love just as much as we do, and we carry our own vacuum just in case yours is in the shop. Be sure to ask the maid service you are hiring what they provide vs expect you to provide.
Do I have to clean before the maid service comes? Two out of three customers say that they clean before the maid service comes so you won’t be alone if you do..or you don’t! We recommend that you tidy up because you don’t want to pay the maid service to pick up toys and socks (or maybe you do?). Make it easy for the professionals to do the tougher jobs like cleaning the bathrooms, washing the floors, dusting the plethora of shelves.
Should I hide my valuables? We hope you’ve used our 7 Hiring Questions to hire your maid service and trust is at a high. However you should put away expensive items or even less expensive items of importance to you. Move these to a safe place to lessen the chance of an accident. And let us know when you book if you’d rather we not dust the baby grand piano or vacuum under Great Grandmother’s antique rocker. Better safe…
Is it weird if I’m home when the maid service comes to clean? It’s up to you, but plan to be out of the way while the professionals are working if you are home. Give any details about your home such as how to safely enter if you’re not home and declare any priorities when you book service so the information can be transcribed onto the maid’s work order. Having you home gets less weird the more we come to clean!
Should I tip? Tipping is up to you but of course a monetary tip or gift says we did good and it’s is appreciated! A usual tip is 10-15% of the cost of service. You might want to find out when your cleaning is confirmed how many maids are coming and/or if there is a lead maid. You may choose to tip the lead professional a bit more since it’s up to him/her to assign tasks and keep the job rolling with quality and on time. Or leave it to him/her to distribute the tip to the others if you’re out of change. If there are two or more maids, we recommend not leaving one gift. It’s hard to split a bottle of wine! We remember that it’s the thought that counts.
Equipped with our 7 Hiring Questions and the answers above, you’re ready to embark on hiring a maid service and giving yourself the gift of time this holiday season and all year long.
Leave A Comment