Professional Cleaners - who should I choose?

[mckenzie]

We have had the builders in for the last 6 months and now that they, and the decorators have left and the dust seems to be finally settling for the last time,. we want to get a professional company in to do a spring clean (yes i should do it myself but no I'm not lazy just not motivated to do housework).

I've chosen two companies from the Thomson Local who have both been this weekend to quote. The 2nd quote is nearly half as much again as the first one but I did feel mpore comfortable with the second (could be because she was a woman).
My first instinct would be to go with the cheaper but I've been caught out like that before and I'd hate to pay out good money and find they did a second rate job.

How can I choose? Can anyone give me some ideas about the right questions to ask or even better, can anyone recommend a cleaning company in North London (Hertfordshire/Middlesex/Essex borders)?

many thanks

hi mckenzie

have you given them detailed instructions of what you want done? i assume so. how long do you think it would take to do a thorough job? i would ask each company how many hours they have allocated for cleaning your home and see which one is closer to your own view (i'm assuming the second quote is higher because more time will be spent). if that's not the case, i might still be tempted to go for the more expensive quote on the assumption that they will be paying the cleaners more per hour (you could ask each company what the hourly rate is and how much goes to the cleaners - they might not tell you the latter though). ime, the more the cleaners are paid, the better the job that gets done.

hth and enjoy your nice clean house!