Hiring a housekeeper on Koh Samui vs a cleaning company

On Samui, people use the word "maid" for two quite different things. One is a housekeeper you employ: the same person, several days a week or full time, who may also cook, do the laundry, look after the children or wait in for the plumber. The other is a cleaning service: a trained cleaner arrives at an agreed time, works through a checklist and leaves the house clean.

The first gives you a person; the second gives you a result. Neither is better across the board. The right choice depends on what you actually need doing and how much managing you are prepared to take on.

With a direct hire, the salary is only part of the cost. With a company, the visit price is the whole cost. That is the comparison most people get wrong.

A housekeeper you hire yourself

You agree a monthly salary with the person. On Samui it depends on the hours, whether she lives in, which languages she speaks and how experienced she is, so ask other owners in your area what is usual rather than relying on a single quote. On top of the salary, budget for:

• Products and equipment. A vacuum cleaner, mop, buckets, cloths, limescale remover, a grout brush and glass cleaner, and replacing them as they wear out.
• Days off and holidays. The house still needs cleaning on those days.
• Sick days and departures. If she falls ill, or leaves just before the high season, you are back to square one, usually at the worst possible moment.
• Your own time. Explaining, checking and correcting, and then starting all over again with the next person.

A cleaning company

You pay per visit, and the price already covers products, equipment, travel anywhere on the island, training and the person who checks the work. With us, a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom villa costs 2,400 ฿ for a one-off regular clean, 2,040 ฿ per visit on a weekly schedule, or 8,160 ฿ a month for four visits. A 1-bedroom condo starts at 1,000 ฿.

If cleaning is all you need, a weekly or fortnightly service usually works out cheaper than a full-time salary plus everything that comes with it. If you need someone in the house every day, though, a company visit cannot replace that.

When you employ a housekeeper, you become an employer in Thailand, even if it is one person working in your own home. Thai labour rules for domestic workers cover rest days, public holidays, annual leave and paid sick leave, and they change from time to time. If the person is not Thai, she needs a valid work permit for this job, and employing someone without one puts you at risk as well as her.

We are not lawyers, so we will not offer a checklist of rules here. Before you hire, ask an accountant or lawyer on the island what applies to your situation today. With a cleaning company, these questions are the company's concern, not yours.

• You live in the villa full time with children and need help every day.
• You want cooking, laundry, shopping and someone to wait in for repairmen, not just cleaning.
• You have found someone you trust, and you are happy to manage and train her and to arrange cover.
• Your villa is large and in daily use, and you want the same face in the house.

Plenty of families on the island are well served by a good housekeeper. If that is you, a clear written list of tasks and a weekly walk-round together will stop the standard slipping. Our guide on how to brief a cleaner works for a housekeeper too.

• You need a clean home, not a daily helper.
• You spend part of the year abroad and need someone who reports back with photos.
• You let the villa and need turnovers between guests on fixed dates.
• You do not want to deal with salaries, holidays, replacements or permits.
• You have tried a private cleaner, and the result depended on the day.

This is the problem we built Granny's Cleaning to solve: European quality control, carried out by trained local cleaners. Every cleaner is trained to our standard, and her work is checked against the checklist and the photos. Every visit follows the written checklist for your service and ends with a photo report. If we missed something on the checklist, tell us within 24 hours and we will come back and put it right free of charge. Cancelling or moving a visit is free, and you pay once you have accepted the work, in cash or by bank transfer.

You do not have to choose one option for ever. Common arrangements on Samui include:

• A housekeeper for daily life, a company for the heavy jobs. She keeps the house tidy, and a deep clean twice a year deals with limescale, grout, the inside of cupboards and the tops of wardrobes. A deep clean of a 3-bedroom villa costs 5,000 ฿.
• A company while you are away, family help while you are here. Visits every two weeks or once a month keep a closed villa aired and checked; see villa care while you are away.
• A company for rentals, nothing in between. Turnover cleans planned around the booking calendar, with the beds made from your linen and your supplies restocked as part of the clean.

Answer three questions:

1. Do you need anything apart from cleaning? If it is cooking, childcare or errands, hire a housekeeper.
2. How much cleaning does the house really need each week? If one or two visits will do, a company is simpler and usually cheaper.
3. Who will check the work when you are busy or away? If the answer is nobody, choose the option with a checklist and photos.

Still not sure? Work out what a weekly or fortnightly service would cost for your home, and compare it with the total cost of a housekeeper, not just the salary. Our guide to weekly vs fortnightly cleaning shows how the frequency changes the price.