Key points
- Score any London cleaning company on six things you can check: insurance, vetting, the quote, what happens when something is missed, reviews and reply time.
- Ask for the public liability figure and the insurer's name, and ask for the cover in writing.
- A good quote starts with questions about your home and names what costs extra before you pick a date.
- Ivory's own pick is Ivory, which is an opinion from the company that wrote this guide. Ask us the same six questions as everyone else.
Search for the best cleaning company in London and you will find plenty of confident websites and very little you can verify. This guide reduces the choice to six checks, each one something you can ask, read or time for yourself, and it sets Ivory's answers beside the questions so you can test us as hard as the rest. Our own pick is Ivory. That is an opinion, and the scorecard is there so you can check it.
What makes a cleaning company the best choice for your home?
There is no company that suits every home. Someone clearing a studio before a check-out needs something quite different from a family in a four-bedroom house who want the kitchen and bathrooms reset weekly. So best has to mean the company that fits your job and can demonstrate it before you book.
Showing is the point. Any website can say quality service. It takes more to name the insurer, to explain how the cleaners are checked, or to say what happens when something is missed on the day it matters.
A company does not need a perfect score on all six checks. It needs plain answers. If an answer is vague, ask again in writing and mark it as what it is.
How do you score a London cleaning company on six checks?
Put the six questions in a single message and send the same text to each company you are considering. The first two columns apply to any company. The last column is Ivory's side, and you can test it just the same.
| What to ask | What a good answer sounds like | What Ivory can show |
|---|---|---|
| How much public liability cover do you hold, and who is the insurer? | A figure and an insurer's name, given without hesitation and available in writing. | £2m public liability. Put the insurer question to us as you would to anyone, and judge the answer. |
| How do you check the people you send, and will one of them be at my door? | Named steps, who carries them out and what happens if a check fails. Not only the word vetted. | Vetted cleaners, who bring their own equipment and eco products. Ask us how the vetting works. |
| How is the price built, and what is not in it? | Questions about your home come first. After that, a written scope with extras named, and a figure settled before you choose a date. | A price that follows the rooms and their condition, confirmed before you book. Oven, fridge and cupboard interiors are paid extras. |
| What happens if something is missed? | A named process: how you report it, who decides, and whether someone comes back. | A re-clean guarantee: tell us what was missed and we come back. End of tenancy has a 48 hour window. No window is stated for other services. |
| Where can I read your reviews myself? | A public platform you can open without the company's help, with the text visible, not only quotes the company chose. | Rated 5.0 on Google. A score only summarises, so open the reviews and read what they say. |
| How quickly do you reply, and when are you open? | A reply time they state, opening hours that suit people with jobs, and a first answer that deals with what you asked. | A reply within 30 minutes, and most customers hear back in under a minute. Open 7 days, 8am to 10pm, with same-day availability. |
Scoring takes a pen. Mark each answer green if you could verify it while reading it, amber if it sounds right but you cannot check it, and red if it was dodged or missing. Count the reds first, because that is where a company tends to go quiet.
What should you ask about insurance and vetting?
The phrase fully insured is only a claim. A figure and the name of the insurer can be written down and checked. Public liability is the cover that matters once a cleaner is working in your home, which is why it leads the scorecard.
Put the figures next to each other. Where two amounts differ, ask the company with the smaller one what its policy includes and whether it applies to your job. Ivory's cover is £2m public liability, and you can ask us the same thing. Hesitation or a change of subject counts as part of the reply.
Vetted needs a verb. Ask these four questions:
- What is checked?
- Who does the checking, and when?
- What happens if a check fails?
- Is the person at your door one of the people who was checked?
Some companies send whoever is available on the day. That may suit you, but decide with the facts in hand rather than finding out on the doorstep. Ivory's cleaners are vetted and arrive with their own equipment and eco products. Ask us how the vetting works and judge the answer as you would anyone's.
How should a good cleaning quote be built?
A quote shows how a company thinks. It should begin with questions: how many bedrooms and bathrooms, what state the home is in, what you want done and when. A figure that arrives with no questions has not looked at your job.
Only set quotes side by side if they are for the same job. Weekly cleaning, a deep clean and an end of tenancy clean each work from their own list. After that, read what is in writing, find the extras that carry a charge, and see whether the figure is fixed before a date is chosen.
For reference, Ivory's three main jobs are end of tenancy cleaning, priced from £190; a deep clean, priced from £150; and weekly cleaning, priced from £55 for the 2h minimum, then £25/hr. Each final figure is set by the rooms and what state they are in, and it reaches you before you commit.
Read the gaps too. On every Ivory service, inside the oven, fridge and cupboards costs extra, and a deep clean takes in the inside glass of the windows but leaves the sills. To see what shifts a price, try domestic cleaning cost in London and deep clean cost in London.
What should happen if a cleaner misses something?
This is the one check you cannot run beforehand, which is why the asking has to happen before you book. A company's handling of a problem shows more than its description of a smooth visit.
- How, and how soon, do I report a missed point?
- Will someone return to put it right, or is the offer money off?
- Who judges whether it was missed?
- Does the return visit have a deadline, and does it cost anything?
- Will you send the policy in writing before I pay?
The deadline matters most when a tenancy is ending, because a check-out slot does not wait for a cleaner's diary. Ivory has a re-clean guarantee: tell us what was missed and we come back. On end of tenancy cleaning the re-clean happens within 48 hours. For other services no window is stated, so ask every company, us included, for its terms in writing.
How do you read reviews and test reply time?
A star score is a summary, and the detail is in the text. Choose the platform yourself rather than relying on quotes the company selected for its own website, because those show you only what it wants shown.
Set aside ten minutes. Start with the most recent reviews, move to the lowest scores, then read how the company answered anything under five stars. A reply that addresses the complaint point by point tells you more than a page of praise. Look for reviews that mention a job like yours and name something real, such as a room, a task or a date.
A perfect score gets the same scrutiny as any other. Check how many reviews sit behind it and how recent they are. Ivory is rated 5.0 on Google, so read what sits behind the number and apply the same test to us.
Treat the first reply as a sample of the service. Write one message with your postcode, bedrooms and the job, and send it to each company together. Record the time each takes against what its site says, whether your questions were answered, and whether its hours fit your week. Evenings and weekends count if you are out all day, and a same-day slot counts if the date is close.
Ivory replies within 30 minutes, and most customers hear back in under a minute. We are open 7 days a week, 8am to 10pm, with same-day availability. Send us the same message you send the rest and see how we do.
Where does Ivory fit?
Our pick is Ivory. That is the opinion of the company that wrote this guide, not a ranking, a vote or an award, so weigh it that way. Here is what sits behind it, under the same six headings as the table.
- Insurance: £2m public liability.
- Vetting: vetted cleaners, with their own equipment and eco products.
- Quote: the price follows the rooms and their condition and is confirmed before you book, with oven, fridge and cupboard interiors as paid extras.
- If something is missed: a re-clean guarantee, with a 48 hour window on end of tenancy.
- Reviews: 5.0 on Google, open for you to read.
- Reply and hours: within 30 minutes, 7 days a week from 8am to 10pm, with same-day availability.
A ranked shortlist is a different thing from a method. If you want one, Ivory has written best cleaning companies in London. It is Ivory's opinion as well, and it says where its facts come from. For a particular job, the same checks are applied in best end of tenancy cleaning in London and best deep cleaning service in London. More on each question is in choosing a trustworthy cleaner in London.
Ivory has a London team covering all 32 London boroughs and the City of London, listed on the areas page. Send your postcode, your bedrooms and the job through the contact page, and your price comes back within 30 minutes.
Questions people ask
Ivory's own pick is Ivory, though that comes from the company behind this guide and is not a ranking. Weigh up each firm's insurance, vetting, quote, handling of missed points, readable reviews and reply speed.
This guide sets no minimum, so ask each company for its cover and its insurer's name and compare the answers. If the figures differ, ask the lower one what its policy covers. Ivory holds £2m public liability.
Read it as one company's opinion and verify the claims yourself. Ivory wrote it and also sells cleaning, so ask us the six questions just as you would anyone else.
Ivory has a London team and covers all 32 London boroughs and the City of London. Put your postcode in the quote form and we confirm that we reach you, with a reply within 30 minutes.
End of tenancy cleaning, which is built on the check-out list. Weekly and deep cleans follow different lists, so compare like with like. Ivory's re-clean on end of tenancy happens within 48 hours if the clean is queried.
Written by M.A. Published .
Keep reading
Choosing a trustworthy cleaner in London: the questions to ask
Five questions to put to any cleaner before they come into your home: insurance, vetting, equipment, what the price covers and what happens if something is missed.
Domestic cleaning cost in London: what decides the price
Three parts sit behind every London cleaning quote. Here is how per-hour and per-visit pricing differ, what moves the figure and what to ask before booking.
Best end of tenancy cleaning in London: what to compare before you book
How to compare end of tenancy cleaning quotes in London: the check-out list, the re-clean window, the extras, your handover date and what a clean can do for a deposit.
