I think I'd probably give Welcome Home 2.5 stars, but I decided to round up to 3. First, the good - the scheduling process was very easy. I sent a message through their website and was contacted by someone in the office. They sent me an estimate and the paperwork and I signed up for the monthly cleaning. The cleaners came when expected, and were careful with my belongings. That is important to me.
Now, the not-so-good. The primary issue is the cost. I paid over $200 for the first "deep" cleaning. Overall, the cleaning was just okay. I found several spots that were missed, such as sweeping behind doors and scrubbing under the bath mat in the tub. In my bathroom, there was hair on the floor in several places, and my shower door was not scrubbed all the way to the bottom. They also have a strange policy of leaving the rugs bundled up, so I had to go rearrange them all when I got home and I wasn't even sure they actually vacuumed them. I was willing to overlook these problems at first, because I desperately needed the help with cleaning. I wasn't necessarily dissatisfied with anything other than the high price.
A few weeks later, before the next cleaning was scheduled, I decided to do some price comparing. Welcome Home had quoted me $167 for the monthly cleaning. Mind you, they were only cleaning a kitchen, a living room, 2 small bathrooms, and 2 bedrooms. They charged me extra in the monthly price to vacuum the couch, and told me if I wanted the dishes done, they'd have to charge even more. So I started hunting around on Yelp for other well-reviewed cleaning services. I contacted one, received the same great customer service, and lo and behold, the quote was for $100 for the monthly cleaning. Um, that's almost 60% cheaper. The lady at the new service asked if Welcome Home used "green" products to justify the cost, and when I said no (I'm pretty sure they don't, because the place smelled like chemicals when I arrived home) she was shocked.
Before committing to the new service, I emailed Welcome Home to ask if they did price matching. I was kind of expecting them to reduce their prices at least a bit to keep a customer. But she just flat out said no, and said that the best they could do was to reevaluate it after 3 cleanings. So, I told her I wanted to cancel my service with them and try out the new company.
I decided to wait until the new company actually came and did the cleaning before writing this review. I thought perhaps Welcome Home's cleaning would justify the cost compared to other companies. Nope. The other company did a *noticeably* better job cleaning. And to top it off, they vacuumed the couch and did the dishes without charging me more and without me even asking for it. They cleaned all the spots missed by Welcome Home, including the rugs, and put them back where they belonged.
Not really sure why Welcome Home charges the prices they do. But I'm not likely to return now that I've found another great company who charges 60% less. I think they're a good company, but the price structure doesn't make much sense. read more