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For reference to those who don't live in NYC, this is following the Uber pricing model fairly well -- it's about double what most "good" maids charge, maybe tri

by nlh 14y ago

For reference to those who don't live in NYC, this is following the Uber pricing model fairly well -- it's about double what most "good" maids charge, maybe triple depending on the area of NYC. It's a good idea -- maid service can be commoditized, and particularly if you need a last-minute sort of thing, it seems smart. It's also notoriously difficult to find a good maid without playing the traditional "networking" game -- referrals, Craigslist, etc. Personally, however, I see this only as a fill-in-the-gaps kind of service (which may be exactly what they're looking to provide). I have a regular maid who's been working at my place for 6+ years, charges a very reasonable rate ($25/hr), and most importantly, knows the apartment inside and out - exactly where to clean, how I like it, how to do the laundry, etc. The biggest issue I see is the risk of extra-market activity. Whereas with Uber, car service is a true commodity, if Get Maid sends over a really terrific maid, there's a good chance that the buyer and maid are going to make a private arrangement for future work and cut Get Maid out of the deal. Which leads back to the ideal model being speed and "non-regular" usage.

roc 14y ago
> "The biggest issue I see is the risk of extra-market activity" Unless Get Maid can provide the users and maids with enough useful features that they see a value in keeping the long-term-arrangement through the system. e.g. convenient (recurring) payment processing, giving maids increased visibility in one-off job searches based on number of long-term relationships, centralizing maid scheduling [1], factoring maid schedules into one-off job availability, factoring required commute time/distance into job feasibility [2], seamless arrangement of Maid-approved 'fill-in' Maids when they need to take time off or something comes up, centralized 'gig notes' that would be made accessible to any in-system fill-in maids [3], etc. There's plenty of opportunity for Get Maid to make a compelling pitch to keep everything in-system. [1] keys being: allowing the maid to set 'availability' to reflect their personal-life scheduling demands (including vacations and such), keeping all job schedules in one place, automatically keeping this calendar up-to-date on their smartphone, etc. [2] A maid may technically be available at 3pm for another job, but if the 3pm job is uptown and she just wrapped a weekly 2pm gig downtown, it's not going to work. Keeping everything in-system will spare users the hassle of contacting maids who can't actually make the scheduled time and spare the maids the hassle of seeing jobs they can't actually take. [3] how the client likes the laundry done, high-traffic areas, etc.
- nlh 14y ago
  Agreed -- another question I have is how much $ they keep. If they're only keeping 20% or so and the maid is able to earn $36/hr, then that's a big incentive to stay in-system for sure. Also to your point, if they build in the features to allow for recurring arrangements with a "preferred" maid and truly give the maid a business-management system (i.e. tax prep help, income reports, etc.), then that's further incentive to do so.
genghy 14y ago
Can I get a referral?
- sgutentag 14y ago
  Yup, you can use invite code "GMHN" to sign up and get $20 off your first clean.
- nlh 14y ago
  Unfortunately she's so good that she's not taking new jobs right now! I tried to get her setup with a friend and she politely declined. Makes me happy that she's fully-booked and making a good living from it.
encoderer 14y ago
I have no idea about NYC rates, but in San Francisco my wife did a lot of searching and screening and we ended up paying $30/hr. That was, I think, the cheapest or nearly cheapest option. And that's before tip. We keep it simple and just pay $100 for her 3 hours every 2 weeks.
dkaragas 14y ago
> "The biggest issue I see is the risk of extra-market activity" Demetri from Get Maid here... This is something that has traditionally been a problem in the maid sector. It's not perfect, but we take several steps to minimize this. On the customer side, we provide things that individual maids can't, such as on-demand booking and cashless payments. All of our maids are also bonded and insured so if something breaks by accident, you’re covered; individual maids rarely are. On the maid side, we give maids an opportunity to fill their idle time by getting them bookings on days/time that they are not very busy and/or are close to their current location. In addition, we pay an above-average rate (which also helps us recruit quality maids).

by nlh 14y ago

roc 14y ago

> "The biggest issue I see is the risk of extra-market activity" Unless Get Maid can provide the users and maids with enough useful features that they see a value in keeping the long-term-arrangement through the system. e.g. convenient (recurring) payment processing, giving maids increased visibility in one-off job searches based on number of long-term relationships, centralizing maid scheduling [1], factoring maid schedules into one-off job availability, factoring required commute time/distance into job feasibility [2], seamless arrangement of Maid-approved 'fill-in' Maids when they need to take time off or something comes up, centralized 'gig notes' that would be made accessible to any in-system fill-in maids [3], etc. There's plenty of opportunity for Get Maid to make a compelling pitch to keep everything in-system. [1] keys being: allowing the maid to set 'availability' to reflect their personal-life scheduling demands (including vacations and such), keeping all job schedules in one place, automatically keeping this calendar up-to-date on their smartphone, etc. [2] A maid may technically be available at 3pm for another job, but if the 3pm job is uptown and she just wrapped a weekly 2pm gig downtown, it's not going to work. Keeping everything in-system will spare users the hassle of contacting maids who can't actually make the scheduled time and spare the maids the hassle of seeing jobs they can't actually take. [3] how the client likes the laundry done, high-traffic areas, etc.

nlh 14y ago
Agreed -- another question I have is how much $ they keep. If they're only keeping 20% or so and the maid is able to earn $36/hr, then that's a big incentive to stay in-system for sure. Also to your point, if they build in the features to allow for recurring arrangements with a "preferred" maid and truly give the maid a business-management system (i.e. tax prep help, income reports, etc.), then that's further incentive to do so.

genghy 14y ago

Can I get a referral?

sgutentag 14y ago
Yup, you can use invite code "GMHN" to sign up and get $20 off your first clean.
nlh 14y ago
Unfortunately she's so good that she's not taking new jobs right now! I tried to get her setup with a friend and she politely declined. Makes me happy that she's fully-booked and making a good living from it.

encoderer 14y ago

I have no idea about NYC rates, but in San Francisco my wife did a lot of searching and screening and we ended up paying $30/hr. That was, I think, the cheapest or nearly cheapest option. And that's before tip. We keep it simple and just pay $100 for her 3 hours every 2 weeks.

dkaragas 14y ago

> "The biggest issue I see is the risk of extra-market activity" Demetri from Get Maid here... This is something that has traditionally been a problem in the maid sector. It's not perfect, but we take several steps to minimize this. On the customer side, we provide things that individual maids can't, such as on-demand booking and cashless payments. All of our maids are also bonded and insured so if something breaks by accident, you’re covered; individual maids rarely are. On the maid side, we give maids an opportunity to fill their idle time by getting them bookings on days/time that they are not very busy and/or are close to their current location. In addition, we pay an above-average rate (which also helps us recruit quality maids).