Why price is the wrong first question
Everyone opens with price, and price on its own is close to meaningless in this industry. Two quotes for the same house can differ by forty percent and describe entirely different jobs — different visit lengths, different scope, different staffing, one insured and one not.
What price does tell you is how much labour time you are being sold. A quote that works out below the local cost of employing someone properly is not a bargain; it is a signal that either the visit will be much shorter than described, or the person in your home is not being paid or covered properly.
The questions below get at what actually determines whether you are happy in six months. Ask them on the phone. Most take a few seconds to answer, and the answers vary far more than the prices do.
The nine questions
One: how long will the visit take, and how many people? This converts an abstract price into labour hours. Two people for three hours is six person-hours. Compare that number, not the headline figure.
Two: is it the same team each visit? Consistency drives quality more than any other single factor. A team that knows your home works faster and misses less, and you stop repeating instructions.
Three: what exactly is included, in writing? Ask specifically about baseboards, interior windows, inside the oven, inside the refrigerator and cabinet fronts. These are the five items most often assumed by the client and excluded by the provider.
Four: are you insured, and what does the coverage include? Ask for general liability, and ask whether workers on site are covered. A company that answers this quickly and precisely has thought about it.
Five: who are the cleaners — employees or subcontractors? Neither answer is disqualifying, but it changes who is responsible if something goes wrong, and it usually predicts how much consistency you will get.
Six: what happens if something is missed or damaged? Ask for the specific process and the specific timeframe. "We'd make it right" is not a process; "call within twenty-four hours and we return within two business days" is.
Seven: how do you handle keys and access? The answer should be immediate and specific — a system already exists, or it does not.
Eight: what products do you use, and can you adjust them? This matters for allergies, pets, infants, natural stone and specialised floor finishes. A provider who cannot name what they use on hardwood has not thought about your hardwood.
Nine: how far in advance do I need to cancel or reschedule? Policies are reasonable; surprises are not. Get the number before you need it.
Nine questions, about four minutes on the phone, and you will know more than any list of reviews will tell you.
Answers that should concern you
Vagueness about time is the clearest warning. "As long as it takes" sounds generous and means the visit ends when the schedule requires the next job to start.
Refusing to put scope in writing is the second. There is no legitimate reason to avoid a one-page list, and a provider who resists it is preserving the ability to disagree with you later about what was included.
A quote given over the phone with no questions about your home is a third. Bedrooms, bathrooms, pets, floor types and current condition all change the job substantially. A price offered without any of that information is a number chosen to win the call, and it will be revised on arrival.
Hesitation on insurance is a fourth. And pressure to book immediately — a discount that expires today — is the fifth, and it is unusual in a trade that competes on retention rather than on conversion.
Insurance in plain language
Two coverages matter for household work. General liability covers damage to your property: a broken fixture, a scratched floor, a knocked-over lamp. Without it, your recourse is a personal claim against a person or a small company, which is a slow and often unrewarding process.
The second is coverage for the workers themselves. If someone is injured in your home and is not covered by their employer, questions can eventually reach your homeowner's policy. This is uncommon, and it is the kind of uncommon that is worth four seconds of asking about.
The right question is simply: are you insured, and can I see the certificate? A properly insured company sends it without any friction at all.
Reading reviews properly
Star averages are close to useless below about twenty reviews, and even above that the average hides the useful information. Read the content instead, and read the middle.
Three- and four-star reviews are the most informative, because they describe specifics rather than emotion. They tell you what a company is actually like on an ordinary day: they were late twice, they missed the guest bathroom, the work was excellent but the scheduling was chaotic.
Look for patterns across time as well. Twenty excellent reviews from two years ago and five poor ones from the last three months describes a company whose staffing has changed. And look at how the company responds to criticism — a defensive public reply is a reasonable preview of a private one.
Setting up the first visit
Be present for the first clean if you can. An hour of your time at the start prevents months of small mismatches, because you can point at things instead of describing them over the phone afterwards.
Walk the home together and be specific about priorities. Say which room matters most, which surfaces need a particular product, which things should never be moved, and what you would rather they skip entirely. Good cleaners want this conversation — it makes their work faster and their result better.
Then give feedback after the first two visits, while adjustments are still easy and expected. Most cleaning relationships that fail do so because nobody said anything for four months and then quietly stopped booking. Say it early, say it plainly, and a good company will fix it and keep it fixed.
Questions readers ask
It is appreciated and never expected. Many clients tip at the holidays or after a particularly demanding visit rather than every time. If you would rather not tip, a written review naming the team is worth more to most cleaners than the money.
Both work. An individual often costs less and offers strong consistency, but has no cover for illness, holidays or injury and may not carry insurance. A company provides continuity, insurance and a defined process. Choose based on which of those matters more to you, not on price alone.
It depends on size, condition, frequency and your local labour market, so any figure quoted without seeing the home is a guess. The more useful test is to convert the quote into person-hours and ask whether that many hours could realistically do the described work in your home.
