Hiring a cleaning team is easier than hiring most trades because the work is visible and the price is simple. It is also the trade where strangers spend six hours in your home with your things around them, so the hiring questions are half about the work and half about trust. Here is what to ask, what to check, what a fair quote looks like, and how the monthly-maid arrangement differs.
On the phone: five questions that sort the professionals
- "What is included in a deep clean?" A professional lists it: fans, walls, windows and tracks, bathrooms descaled, kitchen degreased, floors scrubbed by machine, sofas and mattresses vacuumed. Someone who says "everything" has not thought about it. Someone who says "mopping and dusting" is quoting a regular clean at the ₹5 per sq ft deep rate.
- "What machines are you bringing?" The answer should include a scrubber and a wet-dry vacuum. No machine, no deep clean; pay the ₹3 per sq ft regular rate instead.
- "What do you use on marble?" A neutral cleaner and a soft pad is the only right answer. If they do not ask what your floors are, or they say the same product does all floors, your stone is at risk.
- "How many people, and how long?" Two or three for a 2 BHK, four to six hours. A one-person two-hour deep clean is not one.
- "Is the price per square foot of carpet area?" It should be, and they should ask you the figure. A lump sum quoted without the area is a guess that goes up on the day.
At the door: what to look for
- ID. Every team on TheHire is ID and phone verified, and reviews after each job are public. Still ask the supervisor to show the ID that matches the profile, and note the names of everyone who comes in. A professional expects this.
- The kit. Crates with separate bottles for acid, degreaser, bleach and neutral cleaner; a scrubber; a vacuum; microfibre cloths by the dozen; gloves. One bucket and a mop is a different service.
- The walk-in. A supervisor who walks the house, asks about floors and off-limits rooms, and photographs the worst spots is doing the job properly. One who starts in the first room they see is not.
- Shoe covers or bare feet inside the flat. Small, but it tells you how they treat the floors they are about to clean.
Red flags
- A price that is far below the ₹5 per sq ft deep-clean rate. The time and the machines are fixed costs; the only way to go much below is to skip them.
- A team that will not quote per item for bathrooms, the kitchen or a sofa. Per-item pricing is how the trade works; a refusal means they want the lump sum to hide what is left out.
- Asking you to buy the chemicals. Professionals bring them; the price includes them.
- Bleach and toilet cleaner used in the same bathroom in the same hour, or a team that does not know why that matters. That is a safety problem, not a quality one.
- A scouring pad or steel wool heading for a glossy tile or a chrome tap.
- Loading the van before you have walked the house.
- No before photos. The after photos are the team's advertisement; the before photos are your protection.
What a fair quote looks like
A quote you can compare has four parts.
Whole-house items per square foot of carpet area. Deep clean at ₹5, regular at ₹3, move-in at ₹6, post-renovation at ₹8. The area should be written on the quote, and it should be the carpet area, not the super built-up figure.
Room and item lines. Bathrooms at ₹700 deep or ₹400 standard, each. Kitchen at ₹1,500, chimney at ₹1,200, fridge inside at ₹500. Sofa at ₹180 per seat, with the seat count written. Mattress at ₹600 each. Fans at ₹80, windows at ₹70, tank at ₹1,200.
The adjustments, stated. A metro surcharge of about 30 percent, a same-day booking at about 20 percent more, a small reduction for flexible timing, and a discount from the fifth item. All of these are reasonable; none should appear for the first time on the invoice.
What is excluded. Inside cabinets unless emptied, chimney unless listed, upholstery shampoo unless listed, anything on a balcony that needs a ladder outside the railing. A quote that lists exclusions is one you can trust.
The TheHire cost estimator produces exactly this structure for your city, and the teams that reply quote against it, which is the simplest way to compare three quotes on the same footing.
What to agree before work starts
- The time they will arrive and the time they expect to finish, so you can be there for both ends.
- Which rooms are off-limits, and where the valuables are not. Lock jewellery, cash, documents and medicines away before they arrive; it is a habit, not an accusation.
- What the floors are, room by room, and what will be used on each.
- Water and power: that both are available at every point, and where the socket for the machine is.
- Payment on completion of the walkthrough, not on arrival and not before the walkthrough.
After the work
Walk every room with the supervisor. Look at the grout, the shower glass, the tops of the door frames, the window tracks, behind the WC and under the sink. Point at what is not right and have it redone now. Take your own after photos. Pay, and leave the review on TheHire; the next customer is choosing on it, and the team knows that.
Keep the invoice. A landlord will accept a move-out clean receipt against a deposit deduction in most cities, and a before-and-after photo set settles any argument about the state of the flat.
Hiring monthly help is a different conversation
A deep-clean team is hired for a day. A maid is hired for a year, and the questions are different.
Scope, in writing or at least said out loud. Sweeping, mopping, dusting and the bathrooms once a week is the usual two-hour arrangement at ₹4,500 a month. Dishes are a separate arrangement at ₹2,500. A full-day housekeeper at ₹12,000 covers cleaning, dishes and usually laundry, but not cooking or child care unless agreed and paid separately. The scope creep that starts in week two is the most common reason arrangements end badly.
Leave and bonus. Four paid days a month is normal, with a festival bonus of one month's pay. Deducting for a sick day is how you lose good help.
Verification. Ask for an ID copy and a phone number of someone who can vouch for them, and register with the society office if there is one. Every helper on TheHire is ID and phone verified before they can reply, which does the first part for you.
Supplies. Monthly help uses what is in the house. Stock the four basics from the buying guide and show them the bleach rule once.
A middle path. A weekly deep-clean visit at ₹900 a day suits a working couple who keep the house tidy themselves and want one proper clean a week without a daily arrangement.
When you need more than a cleaner
The deep clean uncovers things. Cockroaches behind the fridge and silverfish in the bookshelf are the pest-control trade's, and the cleaning team should say so rather than spray something. A marble floor that is dull rather than dirty is the floor polisher's. And the curtains and sofa covers that a steam will not save go to the laundry. The guides for those three trades pick up where this one stops.