What's Actually in the Price? How to Read a London Cleaning Quote, Line by Line

Ten quotes land in your inbox. Nine are a number and a smiley face. One is a page of line items you don't fully understand. Naturally, you pick one of the nine.

That's the trap. The cheap quote and the expensive quote are often not quotes for the same thing at all — they're two different jobs with the same name on the tin. The only way to compare them is to make them comparable, and that means knowing what should be in there.

Start With the Obvious: What's the Number For?

A quote should tell you, in plain words, what will be cleaned, how often, how long it will take and who's doing it. If it's a house, that means rooms and the specific jobs in them. If it's an office, it means a schedule or a spec. If you can't tell from the quote whether the oven is included, the quote isn't finished.

Two hours every other Tuesday is a different product from 'a clean'. Make sure you're pricing the same product.

The Seven Things a Fair Quote Puts in Writing

1. Insurance

Public liability cover is the baseline. Ask for the certificate, not the reassurance — a PDF takes thirty seconds to send and tells you the policy is live and the amount is sensible. If a cleaner damages a worktop or a laptop, an uninsured operator means the conversation gets very awkward very quickly.

2. DBS checks

For anyone working in your home or your office, an enhanced or standard DBS check is a reasonable thing to expect. A reputable London firm will say so without being asked and will tell you whether it's the company or the individual that's checked.

3. Products and consumables

Does the price include cloths, sprays, bags, mop heads, floor cleaner? Sounds trivial; it isn't. Some firms quote labour only and expect you to supply everything, which is fine as long as it's stated. Others turn up, use your bleach on your marble, and everyone has a bad afternoon.

4. Travel, parking and charges

London is where cleaning quotes go to develop hidden extras. Ask directly: is travel included, is there a parking charge, do you need a visitor permit, and is the congestion charge or ULEZ in the price? A van in zone 1 with nowhere to park is a cost somebody absorbs — better to know whose job that is before the first visit.

5. Minimum hours and minimum visits

Plenty of firms have a two- or three-hour minimum per visit. That's legitimate and worth knowing, because it means a '£18 an hour' quote with a three-hour minimum is a £54 job whether or not you needed three hours of it.

6. Cancellation and rescheduling

What happens if you need to move a visit? How much notice is fair? Is there a charge? What if the cleaner cancels on you? A fair policy runs in both directions, and it should be written down rather than described on the phone.

7. VAT

If the firm is VAT-registered, the price you see may be ex-VAT. £120 plus VAT is £144. Ask which it is, every time, and check the small print at the bottom where it's usually hiding.

The Like-for-Like Checklist

Before you book anyone, send the same short brief to every firm you're considering. Something like:

• Property type and approximate size, plus number of bathrooms
• Frequency and preferred day
• Any specific jobs (oven, inside fridge, carpets, windows)
• Whether products and equipment are supplied
• Whether travel and parking are included
• Minimum visit length
• Whether the quoted figure includes VAT
• Insurance and DBS status
• Cancellation terms

Answers to the same questions are comparable. Answers to different questions are marketing.

Red Flags Worth Taking Seriously

A price well below everyone else's. Sometimes it's a genuine local operator with low overheads. Often it's a price that assumes you won't ask about VAT, insurance or the minimum visit.

No written terms at all. If it only exists in a text message, it doesn't really exist.

A refusal to name the cleaner. For domestic work especially, you're entitled to know who's coming into your home and whether they're directly employed or subcontracted.

A quote that changes after the first visit. Occasionally that's fair — a house is bigger than it looked. But a firm that quotes low to get in the door and revises upward has just told you how it operates.

Payment in cash only, no receipt. Not automatically dodgy. Just harder to resolve if something goes wrong.

The Question That Settles Most of It

Ask any firm: "If we agree this price, what would make it change?"

A good answer is specific — extra deep-clean jobs, a bigger property, a bank holiday visit, a change of frequency. A vague answer, or a slightly offended one, tells you the number you were given wasn't really a commitment.

The cheapest quote is the one that does the job properly the first time. Everything else is a deposit on a bigger bill later.