About one in five people who ask us for a quote tell us we’re priced above their budget. I get it. Nobody likes paying more than they expected, and cleaning is one of those services where it’s hard to see what’s going on behind the price.
I own and run Northfields Clean, a cleaning company based in west London. I spend basically every single week hiring cleaners, talking to cleaners and figuring out whether they’ll fit well into the company, whether they’ll do a good job and whether they’re qualified. So I see both sides of the price: what our clients pay, and what it actually takes to put a trustworthy, insured and reliable cleaner on their doorstep.
In this post I want to be completely open about where that money goes, and why a professional cleaning company costs more than you might think.
Why our prices surprise some people
First, some context. We’re not priced at the top of the market, but we’re not the cheapest either. I’d say we sit somewhere in the middle of what’s out there.
In my experience, how someone reacts to our price depends a lot on what they’ve used before. A lot of people start off hiring an individual cleaner. When they then try a cleaning company for the first time, they see a bit of an uplift on the price, and for some people that takes it beyond their budget.
That’s a fair comparison to make, but it isn’t really like for like. An independent cleaner and a cleaning company are selling different things, even if the mop and the vacuum look exactly the same.
Where your money actually goes
Most of it goes straight to the cleaner
This is the part most people never see. At Northfields Clean, about 60 to 70% of what you pay goes directly to the cleaner. That’s by far our biggest cost, and it’s deliberate. We pay our cleaners well above the market rate, because good cleaners are worth it.
The rest keeps the business running
What’s left has to cover everything it takes to run a proper cleaning company:
- Our website and online presence, so you can find us in the first place
- Our advertising budget
- Company insurance, on top of each cleaner’s own insurance
- Cleaning supplies every so often
- Admin, bookings and arranging cover when a cleaner can’t make it
- Tax, like any registered business
Altogether, a huge chunk of our earnings goes towards keeping the business running. Our profit margins are honestly quite slim. Nobody is getting rich on the difference between our price and an independent cleaner’s. That difference is what pays for the safety net you get when you book with a company.
Only 5 to 10% of cleaners make it onto our team
When you book a cleaning company, part of what you’re paying for is all the cleaners you’ll never meet. Of the people who ask to work with us, only about 5 to 10% actually get onboarded. It’s quite selective, and it’s meant to be.
Our non-negotiables
Before we even think about a trial, every cleaner has to have:
- A DBS background check and a clean record. We don’t hire anyone who isn’t DBS checked.
- Their own insurance
- Their own cleaning supplies, which they bring to every job
- At least one year of cleaning experience, where they’ve actually been paid to clean
Interview, trial clean and the first few jobs
Once someone passes those basics, we sit down with them and talk through their past experience. Then they do a trial clean. Even after that, we keep a close eye on their first one to three cleans and make sure we’re getting good feedback from our clients. Only then do they start working with us regularly.
That’s a lot of filtering, and it all takes time and money. But it means you’re not the one finding out the hard way whether someone is reliable.
What happens when something goes wrong
This is where the difference between a company and an individual cleaner really shows. It’s also the part nobody thinks about until they need it.
When your cleaner is ill
The good thing about being a cleaning company is that we have multiple cleaners on our rota. If one cleaner is ill and can’t make a job, we can easily send someone else. With an independent cleaner, it’s very difficult to get someone to cover the same time slot. You’ll almost certainly have to reschedule.
When something gets damaged
Damage is very rare, but it does happen. We have company insurance, and our cleaners have their own individual insurance too. With both levels of cover, any damage to a client’s property gets covered by our insurance company. Most independent cleaners don’t have insurance at all. If something gets broken, it might be down to you to cover the cost.
When a clean isn’t up to standard
We offer a guarantee: if something is missed and a client has a complaint, we’ll send the cleaner back to put it right. And because we’re a registered company, there’s always recourse, on many different levels, if something goes wrong.
Does being in London make cleaning more expensive?
Partly, yes. There’s a premium on living in London, and that does carry through to our pricing. But you’ll actually find that London and the towns and cities around it are priced fairly similarly. Parking, for example, is a cost you have to contend with almost everywhere now.
Luckily, we’re very hyper-focused on local. Our cleaners live locally and serve the local area, so they’re not travelling across the city between jobs. Being west of the centre, the congestion charge overwhelmingly isn’t a problem for us. We do have some ULEZ charges, though, and where those apply, it’s an extra cost to the client. That’s another reason you might see slightly higher prices from a cleaning company than from an individual cleaner.
A clean is not a renovation
We have several clients who came to us after a bad experience with a different cleaner. In my experience, they come in two flavours.
Clients who expect a brand-new home
Some clients expect a cleaning job to make their house look brand new. They literally expect a renovation after a clean. I’ll be honest: with those clients, there’s no making them happy, whether they use a cleaning company or an individual cleaner. They just need to readjust their expectations. A clean will clean your house. It will not renovate your house.
Clients whose cleaning needs weren’t met
The second group is much bigger. These are people who’ve had a bad experience with an individual cleaner, or simply haven’t had their cleaning needs met. With them, we’re usually able to turn things around, because our service is professional and reliable. That’s what most people are looking for. They want a cleaner who shows up on time, when they said they would, does a good job, and that’s it. That’s exactly the service we offer.
Why our cleaners are happy to work with us
There’s a common assumption that cleaning companies take a cut out of the cleaner’s pocket. With us, it works the other way round.
Our cleaners are like anyone else living in the same economy. They’re dealing with the cost of living crisis too. They do buy their own supplies, but those usually last a long time rather than being used up on every job, and because they work locally, travel isn’t a big cost either.
What they don’t have to do is marketing, admin, finding clients or running their books. We take a lot of that work off their plate. They just show up, do the job and leave, and we pay them way above market rates. So the cleaners who stay with us are quite happy, and most of them do stay. For you, that means a steady, experienced team rather than a revolving door.
How to compare cleaning quotes
As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. If you’re getting a rock-bottom price from an individual cleaner, just be aware that if things go wrong, chances are you’ll have no recourse.
When you’re comparing quotes, think about what service you’re actually buying and what you’d ideally want to happen if things didn’t go as well as you expected. These are the questions I’d ask any cleaner or company:
- Are your cleaners DBS checked?
- Are you insured, and are your cleaners insured?
- What happens if my cleaner is ill on the day?
- If something is missed, will you come back and put it right?
- Are you a registered company?
Cheaper up front may not mean less expensive in the long run, for example if the job is done poorly and needs redoing.
What a professional clean costs at Northfields Clean
Our prices start from £49 for a standard clean and from about £179 for a deep clean.
But whoever you choose, the best thing to consider is what you’re actually paying for. It’s not just about getting a cleaner in. You also have to think about safety, because this is someone coming into your home, and about your recourse if anything goes wrong.
Do enough due diligence, and pick a company that will ultimately meet your needs. If you’re in west London and want a cleaning service that’s vetted, insured and reliable, get in touch with Northfields Clean.
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