You asked three companies to quote for the same two-bedroom apartment and got three answers that do not look like they belong to the same job. One is suspiciously low, one is in the middle, one is high enough to make you wonder. None of them explains why. This guide does not give you a price, and no honest guide can without seeing your home. It explains the nine things that decide one, why some offers are cheap, and how to compare quotes so the comparison means something.
Why do deep cleaning quotes in Dubai differ so much?
Because they rarely describe the same job. One quote covers inside cupboards, the oven, grout, tracks and AC grilles. Another covers general surfaces for a set number of hours. A third is a starting price that grows once someone arrives. Put side by side, the totals look like a price difference. Usually they are a scope difference.
The nine factors below are what any careful company has to look at before it can stand behind a fixed number. Once you know them, you can tell which quotes have considered your home and which have not.
Which nine factors decide the price of a home deep clean?
Each factor changes the hours, the team or the equipment the job needs. The table gives the overview, the sections below explain each one.
| Factor | What it changes | What helps the quote |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Size and layout | Hours, team size | Number of bedrooms and especially bathrooms |
| 2. Condition | Hours, products | Photos of the oven, hob and shower glass |
| 3. Furnished or empty | Hours, care needed | Say whether furniture and belongings stay |
| 4. AC units | Technician time | Number of units, split or ducted system |
| 5. Kitchen | Hours, soaking time | Oven, hood, appliances to clean inside |
| 6. Upholstery | Equipment, drying time | Sofas, mattresses, carpets, curtains, with fabric type |
| 7. Access and building | Setup time, logistics | Service lift, parking, NOC, water and power |
| 8. Team and equipment | Team size, machines | What the scope needs, not what is cheapest |
| 9. Time window | Scheduling | Your preferred day and any deadline |
1. Size and layout
Bathrooms and kitchens carry most of the work, so the number of bathrooms matters more than the floor area. A two-bedroom apartment with three bathrooms is a bigger job than a three-bedroom with two. Villas add stairs, more glass and outdoor areas, which is why villa deep cleaning is planned differently from an apartment.
2. Condition and time since the last deep clean
An oven cleaned last spring takes a fraction of the time of one that has never been cleaned. The same goes for limescale on shower glass and grease on a hood filter. The season in between matters too. In our own monthly averages from the Copernicus CAMS reanalysis, airborne dust in Dubai peaks in July and August, at more than three times the January level for PM10.1 A home that has been through a summer since its last clean carries more of it in tracks, on the tops of wardrobes and in fabric.
3. Furnished or empty
An empty home is the fastest to clean. A furnished one means moving, protecting and putting things back, and cleaning around belongings. A full deep clean of a furnished home, where every item in a cupboard is taken out, wiped and put back, takes longer again. Our guide to what a home deep clean includes describes the variants.
4. Number of AC units
Cleaning grilles and filters is part of most deep cleans. Anything behind them, such as coils, drain pans or ducts, is technician work, and its time depends on the number of units and whether the home has split units or a ducted system. That is why we ask how many units you have before we quote AC cleaning in Dubai.
5. The kitchen
The kitchen is the single biggest variable inside the home. An oven with racks and trays that need soaking, a greasy hood filter, a fridge and freezer to clean inside, a dishwasher filter, cupboards full of crockery: each adds time. A photo of the open oven tells a company more than the number of bedrooms.
6. Upholstery and soft furnishings
Sofas, mattresses, carpets and curtains are a different kind of work. They need extraction or steam, and the method depends on the fabric. They also need drying time, which is longer in humid months. Upholstery is what most often turns a half-day job into a full day.
7. Access and the building
In a Dubai tower, the time before cleaning starts can be significant. Some buildings need a service lift booking, a contractor pass or an NOC from the management. Parking for a van with equipment is not always close. If water or power has been disconnected, the team has to bring what it needs. None of this is visible in a floor plan, and all of it affects the day.
8. Team size and equipment
A job can be done by two people over two days or by a larger team in one. The total work is similar, but the day, the disruption and the logistics are not. Equipment also differs: a steam machine for grout, a water-filter vacuum for upholstery, extraction for carpets, ladders for high surfaces. A quote that includes them costs more than one that brings a mop and a bucket, and it is not doing the same job.
9. The time window and the season
Fixed deadlines, such as a handover the next morning, evening work or a specific weekend, limit how a job can be scheduled. The season matters as well. Search demand for home deep cleaning in the UAE peaks in January.2 In practice that means less choice of dates around the turn of the year, so booking early helps more than haggling.
Why are some deep cleaning offers so cheap?
Usually because the offer is built differently, not because the company has found a smarter way to clean. There are three common models behind a low headline figure.
The hourly model. The price is a rate per hour per cleaner. It looks low because it is the price of time, not of a result. What gets done is whatever fits into the hours. If the oven alone takes a large part of the visit, the total grows, or the oven does not get done.
The platform model. Some apps and booking sites do not employ the cleaners. They pass your request to a vendor, who pays the platform a share. You often do not know in advance which company will arrive, and the vendor has to make the job work within what is left. That is not necessarily bad, but it explains why quality varies so much from booking to booking.
The starting price. “From” prices are the minimum for the smallest home in the best condition. Products, upholstery, AC, a second day or a ladder job can each be added on the day, when it is hard to say no.
None of these is dishonest in itself. They become a problem when the offer is compared with a fixed-scope quote as if both were the same thing.
What should a fixed price include?
A fixed price should describe a result, not an amount of time. If any of these points is missing, ask before you book.
- The scope in writing, room by room, including inside cupboards and appliances, tracks, skirting boards and AC grilles if they are included.
- What is not included, such as repairs, painting, pest control or high-rise facades.
- The team and the equipment that will come, and that all products are brought by the team.
- Add-ons stated clearly, such as upholstery or AC technician work, either included or not.
- No extra charges on the day for anything on the agreed scope.
- What happens if something is missed: who you contact, and who comes back.
That is how we work: you send a few photos on WhatsApp, we ask the questions above, and you get one fixed price before we start. If something on the agreed scope was missed, the same team comes back.
How do you compare two quotes fairly?
Put them on the same scope. Ask each company to confirm, in writing, the same list: rooms, bathrooms, kitchen inside, oven, hood, fridge, cupboards inside, windows and tracks, balcony, AC grilles, any upholstery, team size and equipment. Then compare.
If one company cannot answer, that tells you something. If both answer and the totals are still far apart, look at the team size and the equipment. A low quote with two people and no machines and a higher quote with a full team, steam and extraction are not competing for the same job. Our guide on whether a professional deep clean is worth it helps you decide which job you actually need, and our home deep cleaning in Dubai page shows what ours covers.
