To think this quote for cleaners is excessive?

Yikes, don’t have a cleaner but I thought they were more around £10/£12 an hour. Look elsewhere

The amount of hours in not unreasonable for a decent job, but the price per hour is!!
I’m in the north so can’t give you a meaningful comparison but our cleaner is £12 an hour

It sounds very high to me.
Can you get a recommendation from someone who lives near you? Someone whose house is always clean. Or try the local parish mag.

That’s ridiculous. I’m an independent cleaner and I charge £12 an hour. I think it’ll probably take 2.5-3 hours a week to clean.

Unfortunately the agency will be taking quite a cut of that money. In London you pay £10 - £15 an hour.
You could check if that price includes the, bringing all their own cleaning materials - but unless there is hardly anyone who does clean, then perhaps that is the price.

And I’m south east too for comparison.

Molly Maid? Speak to a small local agency and get a quote for much less.

Don't go through an agency. Three people to clean a three bedroomed house and it would take three hours? Am I getting it wrong? I think that would equal one person taking 9 hours!

£22 sounds really excessive to me, as does three hours. I don't go through an agency and pay my cleaner £13 an hour. She cleans my 2 bedroom flat (1 room is used for storage) in an hour and I've never asked her to change the bed or do ironing and always make sure it's tidy before she arrives. Occasionally she will do an extra hour for cleaning out fridge and/or cupboards etc.

Is there any way you can find a cleaner other than from an agency who I think will always charge more? Ask your neighbours eg?

3 people cleaning 3 hours a 3-bedroom house!? Unless it's an end of tenancy deep cleaning it's totally unreasonable!

That’s quite a lot
£10-£12 per hour is reasonable and 2-3 hours is reasonable
Our cleaner does 2.5-3 hours
Generally spends 1.5-2 hours generally cleaning then does one “big job” a week ie. all the bathroom tiles (1 fully tiled bathroom, and 2 fully tiled loos) then the next week she will do all the skirting boards downstairs, week after the oven etc

Yes that is too much money. I’m in London and have friends who clean. They charge between £10-£14 hour.

That’s insane.

Cut out the agency and find someone direct. I see a lot of recommendation on FB selling pages.

Maybe for a one-off deep clean but 3 people for 3 hours at £22 per hour per week for a 3 bed semi is having a laugh. I would not use them on principle as it seems they are out to rip you off.

Personal recommendations of cleaners are the best. I pay £12 per hour in the South East for a good cleaner and don't use agencies.

They said 3 hours but if 3 people came then it'd only take 1 hour. Still £66 but works out as £22 per hour per person.
Am glad others think this is a lot! I think I will start looking elsewhere for independent cleaners.

I pay £10 an hour mates rates in the south but she would usually charge around £12

I charge 10 an hour
..i might start charging 12!!! But 22 is too much!

Did they mistype? Three people for three hours?! No need for that level of service every week! They must mean they will do it in one hour, but send three people? Bit confusing. I pay £16 per hour in London.

Good grief. I have a similar size house. Cleaner comes once.a fortnight for 3 hours. 2 come for 1.5 hours at £15 an hours each so £45. Bring everything from bin liners to.a Hoover!

I pay £12 an hour.

My friend's a house cleaner gets £11 an hour

We pay £15/hour for 2 hours

Oeps sorry just seen your update re it only taking one hour. Still too expensive like you say.

Can you hire an independent cleaner the agency is probably paying 12 to the cleaner.
I don't no if an independent would have insurance for breakage, if you have lots of valuables.

I pay £16 per hour

I charge £10 but that's cheap, however £22 is ridiculous

Ok clearly the agency are taking a huge cut if they are charging £22 per hour but paying roughly £12. I just thought it's be easier to go through an agency but not for that huge extra cost!

I've always paid £12-13 per hour but once got a quote for around £25 per hour for exactly the same thing (normal domestic weekly clean). I was shocked but assumed it was a money laundering thing!

We pay £70 every four weeks. Two or three cleaners come and have a key so get on with the work. They supply all the cleaning material and mops, vacuum cleaner etc. It takes one and a half or two hours for the clean, so that is roughly £14 per person per hour. The company only use employed staff who get paid a wage and pay tax etc apparently a lot of agencies employ off the books. They are fully insured and guarantee to come back if we are not satisfied with their work so far we have always been delighted with the work.

Two bed/two receptions/ large extended kitchen- terrace in a pricey (trendy) city centre (not London). We pay £15 per hour.

I use a (northern) agency and they charge £12 an hour and with a big 4 bed house we pay £45 for 4h work. I always have 2 cleaners so they are in for just 2 hours. I think it's probably a lot nicer for the cleaners to work as a pair.

Where abouts are you in the country?
I'm a cleaner and have been for many years and charge £12.50 an hour

That's ludicrous. I'm in London and pay £10 ph to an independent cleaner and she blitzes through 3 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, hall, stairs and landing in 3 hours with time for extra stuff. I don't ask her to do bedrooms as I make my kids do their own. I love her with all my heart

I prefer working with someone independent - she says that she has much more control and takes home more pay.

Oh and she does 2 living rooms - she's a legend!

I pay £12 an hour 2 hours a week. We have a 4 bed house with 3 receptions and a biggish kitchen plus 2 bathrooms and a downstairs loo. I expected her to say 3 hours but she only had a 2 hour slot available. To be honest, she's bloody amazing so would pay more but not £22 and hour!

I'm in the south east and my cleaner charges 10 an hour. That's hugely excessive at 22 an hour.

I'm a cleaner at £12 an hour in the south midlands.
Heard they charge £15 ten miles down the road in Oxfordshire :/

Mines £14ph for two hours every fortnight for a three bed semi with three toilet/bathrooms. 👍👍

Our cleaners charge 12 per hour. 4 bed/2 bath house is done in 3 hrs, but usually some part is skipped (as the bedrooms aren't all used each week). We supply our own cleaning materials. We live in zone 4 London.

£10 per hour - it takes 2.5 hours to do 4 bed 2 reception rooms 2 bathroom house ( she doesn't do 3 x kids rooms as they earn their pocket money keeping them clean themselves)

For £22 an hour I’d expect Kim & Aggie themselves to be doing the cleaning

In in the south east... I pay 12.50 an hour. Have a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom and it takes 1 cleaner 2 hours. But then again the house is kept pretty clean

That's nuts. I'm in London and pay £12/hour, for our wonderful cleaner who I love more than DH 😀

We used to pay the equivalent of about £23 an hour or something similar to a home cleaning firm franchise thing. I don't think it's insane money all things considered if you think about the cost of actually employing people to do that job, providing transport, cleaning materials, insurance, ensuring there is an element of staff cover, there is an area manager to deal with scheduling / complaints. The standard of service was very high, but clearly most people on this thread would not be prepared to pay for that kind of service. Seriously though if you are paying £10-12 / hour I don't see how that is particularly doable if there is much travel between jobs for your cleaner.

I'm also in south east. Found agency prices to be massively inflated. Had quotes from individuals and small companies which ranged from £10-£17 per hour. We went with a individual with good references at £12 an hour. I've since dropped my hours so had to sacrifice the cleaner. Hoping that when my hours increase again we can find a new cleaner as it makes such a difference

Hoping that when my hours increase again we can find a new cleaner as it makes such a difference
What we find is that having a cleaner every 4 weeks makes us tidy up, if we did not have the cleaner we would keep the house clean but not tidy. I like it tidy.

Thats way too much. I am on a local community app and have found cleaners on there. All come recommended. Try the app, its called, nextdoor. I live in london and pay my cleaner £12 an hr. Good luck

I live in central London and pay £12/hour. 2500 Sq ft, 5 bedroom, 4 bathrooms and she does most of it in 3 hours.
Get some recommendations from the local Facebook mums pages. Avoid agencies and go direct. Either way £22/hour is ludicrous. The max an agency around here charges is £14/hour.

in London too - have been quoted up to £20/hr. (A trusted recommendation, own stuff). Went via an app to get a cheaper one (~12-15/hr) - often cancel last min or never accept job until morning of requested clean, meaning we have to rejig so someone can work at home.
Still haven't found a solution.

Was it Molly Maid? I got quoted £60 for bathrooms, bit of hoovering and cleaning downstairs floors. I previously paid £20 to an independent cleaner for this and am now paying £25 to agency (of which £20 directly to cleaner). You can get for much less. I'd love to know if anyone other than businesses use Molly Maid regularly!

We pay £12/hour but we do.currently pay for too many hours & I'm getting fed up with her not doing extra jobs. She will go when DD goes to uni! We have paid her ,£22/hour for some years so suspect she considers we are under paying her!
South-east btw

That’s extortionate. I’m close to London and currently paying £12 an hour to private individuals. I previously used an agency and they charged £13.50 an hour. The most expensive quote I came across was £16 an hour, which I declined.

It isn’t skilled labour, but you are looking for a high level of common sense and attention to detail. It’s hard to find someone good! Maybe look for local recommendations, rather than rely on agency staff

I think to be honest it's cheaper within London than outside. Just due to the fact that a cleaner can get a good lot of local people and so minimal time between houses, so more clients a day. Outside of London it's a longer drive and more downtime.
We're £12 per hour for independent cleaner, 2 hours per fortnight for a zone 2 2 bed flat.

£10/£12 an hour fairly standard.

I was quoted a similar amount - bog standard 3 bed but have en suite so they said three hours. They send three people but for one hour. That was £17hp plus VAT (£20.30) so not far off. They do bring own products but I think it's too much.

That’s crazy. Three people?!

I pay £30 for 2.5 hours.

We pay £10.50 per hour for an independent cleaner. I'd much rather she had all of the money rather than an agency taking a cut.

We're in the South East, 5 bed detached 1930s home. 2 hours at £12ph (although they send 2 people and stay for 1 hour). Family run business. So £24 per week.

That quote is ridiculous due to the time required. £66 for 3 people for 3 hours is £12ph, so that's fine. But you don't need 6 hours equivalent of cleaning a week!

I pay £15ph in the North

Ignore my maths. 3 people for 3 hours is 9 hours, so for £66 that's an incredibly cheap hourly rate, but you don't need 9 hours of cleaning...

That's absolutely normal for an agency cleaner. For that price you'll get someone whether your regular cleaner is sick or on holiday, they'll be fully insured and probably dbs checked.
If you want to pay less then go for an independent cleaner, who will offer as good a service but bear in mind they will have days when they are away etc.

Basically identical to you and I was quoted £600 a month by one company!! Found a cleaner for £9 per hour in the end plus small annual agency fee - worked out as about £30 per week.

Thanks all! Will definitely be looking for independent cleaners.
Our house really isn't that big so don't think it would require 3 hours of work. Especially as it sounds like others have much larger houses and it's done in less time.
Although outside of London we live in a large and busy town so there should be lots of options available (I hope!).
Definitely not willing to pay £10 over the odds for the reliability of using an agency.

I live in North London and my Cleaner takes £10 per hour. She works privately (non agency) but has came highly recommended. The duration sounds about right though. I'd ask around family and friends (even your neighbours) and see if they can recommend someone!

One tip though for when you do find someone suitable; give them a few weeks to adjust to how you like things to be done. I've heard so many people be disappointed with the first clean because it wasn't how they do it or to their standards. Give honest feedback, and the chance to work up to how you like it.

If you want to pay less then go for an independent cleaner, who will offer as good a service but bear in mind they will have days when they are away etc.

I would agree with this, using a good independent cleaner. For 3 hours or less a week, you won't be their main customer. They are self-employed and have more freedom to set their hours/slots - which in my case means last minute cancellations and re-scheduling. After a while of using her and trusting her (easy as she was a personal recommendation), I let her have our house key and allowed her to let herself in on the days she could come. The flexibility works both ways and so if I needed her to come in on a Friday or weekend ahead of guests at our house, she could accommodate.

I live in Cheshire and we have had various different cleaning options over the years. For the last few years we've had a private cleaner who charges £12 per hour as self employed. This seems super fair to me as she has to put aside her own holiday pay and NI etc etc. She has her own key etc and we have a set day for 5 hours. Occasionally during school holidays she brings her child along which is fine. She came recommended by our previous cleaner when she moved back to Poland. We feel blessed to have her and I know she turns down loads of work. Downside is that when shes away we don't have anyone but thats fine.

Previously we did have an agency who charged around £16 per hour - they seemed great at first- all the staff were DBS checked etc. But after a while we started getting loads of new people- a different one every week and things just weren't done. Then a few small things went missing which we didn't notice at first until an unused cheque book vanished.

I'd deffo see if there's a local community facebook page- that's where everyone seems to look for cleaners around here

They've surely just ruled themselves out by sheer stupidity?

My cleaner budges me around the house to get me out of the way, and all I do is sit there working. No way would she put up with two other cleaners under her feet. There are jobs that run concurrently - vaccuuming, mopping, drying.

I genuinely think it would be harder for 3 people to clean in one hour than one in 3 hours. Plus with the travel time, surely the individual cleaners get more out of long, single jobs?

Yes they've definitely ruled themselves out. All I can think is that they're used more by companies rather than individuals.
I received another quote from an agency that I'd previously contacted and they're quoting £15 so at least it's come down slightly!
Will definitely be looking for local recommendations instead of agency...