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Recommendation request: move-in cleaning service

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  1. #1

    Recommendation request: move-in cleaning service

    All,

    I'm looking to arrange move in cleaning...this would probably be too much for a 1-off helper kind of person...I'm looking to get all of the floors cleaned, window interiors, every ledge, the bathroom and kitchen disinfected etc. Basically the whole shebang.

    There seem to be many professional services (e.g. - Merry Maids) that offer this kind of move-in service in HK so I'm hoping people here can provide a recommendation that will help me pick out the good ones.

    Cheers!


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
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    Hong Kong
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    http://www.johnson-group.com.hk/en/HomeCleaning.php


    Sent from my GT-I9305 using GeoClicks mobile app

  3. #3

    Looks pretty good - any better than Merry Maids or whatever else is floating around in HK?


  4. #4

    For anyone else who finds themselves in the same position. Allow me to summarize from my experience. I ended up getting my apartment cleaned not once, not twice but 3 times.

    First - for those of you coming from Japan - accept that the standards in this country are much, much lower than what you are used to. If you cannot deal with this - you'll give yourself a stroke during this process. The very best job I saw was about on par with a pretty crappy cleaning job in Japan.

    Second, SmartHome (www.shome.com.hk) is a huge waste of money (although not much money). After they cleaned - the floors were left gritty, they didn't mop and there was still red sauce near the window. When I called to ask them to come back and explained that the floors clearly hadn't been mopped they accused me over either a) spilling the red sauce myself or b) someone else must have broken into my apartment and had lunch. This for a brand-new apartment that had never been lived in (while I was still living in a different building).

    Third, the Johnson Group does a much better job but they are extremely expensive. They actually got on their hands and knees and put some real effort into getting the floor cleaned. Unfortunately, you can't trust them to pay attention on their own so it took me several inspections of the floor to point out places that weren't cleaned well enough before things were acceptable.

    Finally, I asked a friend's helper to come over and to be honest she did the best job.

    So there you go - getting your place cleaned in HK is a huge pain in the butt and you have to be willing to live with the generally poor quality of the results. However, the Johnson Group did a good enough job that the remaining effort was easily covered by 1 person in the course of an afternoon or 2.

    z754103, benenden00 and Koen like this.

  5. #5

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    May I ask how big the apartment is and how much Johnson charged?


  6. #6

    Join Date
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    As the saying goes

    If you want a job done properly then do it yourself

    kimwy66 likes this.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    506
    Quote Originally Posted by jimbo:
    As the saying goes

    If you want a job done properly then do it yourself
    I would agree with this. The standards of cleanliness are extremely low here. I saw some things in my apartment when I moved in, which looked as if they hadn't been cleaned in years. Why people would want to look at obvious dirt and ignore it, I'm not sure.

    Buy a steam cleaner and have at it. It will clean the place very well. After that, its worth getting a regular maid service. But ultimately it seems, any deep cleaning is up to you. So start as you'll have to go on!

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by nassaugirl:
    Why people would want to look at obvious dirt and ignore it, I'm not sure.
    Because they don't also suffer from OCD?

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin:
    For anyone else who finds themselves in the same position. Allow me to summarize from my experience. I ended up getting my apartment cleaned not once, not twice but 3 times.
    Would have been quicker to have cleaned it yourself to your own exacting standards. Guess I just don't get people's aversion to mops once they land in HK.
    jimbo and nassaugirl like this.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Raccon:
    May I ask how big the apartment is and how much Johnson charged?
    My place is a bit over 900 sq ft (net) and Johnson charged about 2,000 HKD. So given the size of my place it's quite a bit to clean a small apartment compared to other services (like Merry Maids or whatever).

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