Table of Contents
The short answer
IHR Dream Cleaning charges a travel fee in four areas on the outer edge of its coverage: Al Wathba, Al Shahama, Al Rahba and Al Samha. The fee is AED 20 per visit. It is flat, it is added once however many cleaners or hours you book, and it is the only travel charge we have. Everything else is priced exactly as it is in the city, from the same price list, with VAT already inside every figure.
Because the fee is fixed, the way to make it small is to make the visit count. On a two-hour visit by one cleaner it is 24% of the bill. On a team of 4 working a full 8-hour day it is 2%. Longer visits also cost less per hour on the price list itself: a two-hour visit works out at AED 32.50 an hour and an eight-hour visit at AED 27.50. For a large villa in one of these areas, one long, planned visit is usually a better booking than several short ones.
Timing is the other half. We work every day, 8 AM – 8 PM, and the work has to be finished by closing time. A visit of 8 hours per cleaner therefore has to start by 12 noon, and in practice a long visit is a morning booking. The rest of this guide covers the fee, the arithmetic, how a whole-day visit is put together and what our team's notes say about each of the four areas. Every district we cover, with and without the fee, is listed under areas we serve.
What the travel fee is, and what it is not
The rule is published in our pricing questions and it is short. Al Wathba, Al Shahama, Al Rahba and Al Samha carry a flat AED 20 charge per visit, added once no matter how many cleaners or hours you book. The 18 areas on our standard list have no travel fee at all.
- It is per visit, not per cleaner. Four cleaners arriving together are one visit and one fee.
- It is not per hour. A two-hour visit and an eight-hour visit carry the same fee.
- It is the same on every day of the week. There is no extra charge for a Friday, a weekend, a public holiday or a same-day booking, here or anywhere else we work.
- It is not a call-out fee under another name. We do not charge a call-out fee in any area.
- It includes VAT, like every price and fee we publish.
- It is shown before you pay. Once you choose the area, the booking page lists the fee as its own line, so the total you confirm is the total you pay.
Why these four areas
Our own note for Al Wathba gives the reason: it is further out. A team's journey costs the same whether it stays for one hour or for eight. In most of the city that cost sits inside the visit price. In these four areas a small fixed sum is added for it, and everything else, as the same note says, is priced as in the city.
If your community is on neither list
The fee applies in exactly four areas, and a neighbouring community does not pick it up by being nearby. If yours is not one of the four and not on the standard list either, call us on +971 52 723 5299 and we confirm coverage before you commit to anything.
Why a longer visit or a bigger team makes the fee smaller
A fixed fee is felt most on a small booking. The table sets the same fee against six visits, from the shortest that suits a home to the largest that one booking can hold. Prices are with your own products and equipment. Our materials add AED 5 per cleaner-hour and leave the fee unchanged.
| Visit | Price | With the travel fee | Fee per cleaner-hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cleaner, 2 hours | AED 65 | AED 85 | AED 10 |
| 1 cleaner, 4 hours | AED 120 | AED 140 | AED 5 |
| 1 cleaner, 8 hours | AED 220 | AED 240 | AED 2.50 |
| 2 cleaners, 4 hours each | AED 240 | AED 260 | AED 2.50 |
| 4 cleaners, 5 hours each | AED 580 | AED 600 | AED 1 |
| 4 cleaners, 8 hours each | AED 880 | AED 900 | AED 0.63 |
How to read the table
The last column is the useful one. Spread over two cleaner-hours, the fee adds AED 10 to every hour of work. Spread over the 32 cleaner-hours of a full team on a full day, it adds AED 0.63. Nothing about the fee changes between the first row and the last. Only the amount of work it travels with does.
Compare the third and fourth rows. One cleaner for eight hours and two cleaners for four hours each are both eight cleaner-hours, and the fee per hour is identical. A bigger team dilutes the fee exactly as a longer visit does, which matters when the house has to be finished by early afternoon.
The hourly price falls as well
The fee is one saving from a long visit. The price list is the other. One cleaner with your own products costs AED 55 for 1 hour, AED 65 for 2 hours, AED 30 an hour for 3–4 hours and AED 25 for each hour after that. The first hour of any visit is the dearest and every hour after the fourth is the cheapest, so the average comes down the longer the cleaner stays.
The last column below puts the two effects together. In a far area a single hour really costs AED 75, and by the eighth hour the average for the whole visit is down to AED 30.
| One cleaner for | Price | Per hour | Per hour with the fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | AED 55 | AED 55 | AED 75 |
| 2 hours | AED 65 | AED 32.50 | AED 42.50 |
| 4 hours | AED 120 | AED 30 | AED 35 |
| 6 hours | AED 170 | AED 28.33 | AED 31.67 |
| 8 hours | AED 220 | AED 27.50 | AED 30 |
The same eight hours, booked four ways
Take a villa that needs eight cleaner-hours of regular cleaning, which is what our hours guide gives a four- or five-bedroom villa. The table shows the bill for that work in any of the four areas, with your own products. The gap between the first row and the last is AED 100, and the hours of cleaning are the same in every row.
Short visits are not wrong. A weekly two-hour visit to a small flat is a sensible booking, and Al Shahama has apartment buildings as well as villas. They are simply the dearest way to buy cleaning in a far area, and a large villa rarely suits them anyway.
| How the eight hours are booked | Travel fees | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Four 2-hour visits, one cleaner | AED 80 | AED 340 |
| Two 4-hour visits, one cleaner | AED 40 | AED 280 |
| One visit, two cleaners for 4 hours each | AED 20 | AED 260 |
| One visit, one cleaner for 8 hours | AED 20 | AED 240 |
Whole-day visits: how they are put together
'Whole day' needs defining, because a visit has two sizes. One is the time on the clock, which is the hours each cleaner is booked for. The other is the work done, counted in cleaner-hours: the number of cleaners multiplied by the hours. Four cleaners booked for five hours each are in the house for five hours and do twenty cleaner-hours of work.
The limits are published. One visit can have up to 4 cleaners, for up to 8 hours each. That makes 32 cleaner-hours the most a single booking can hold, and a property that needs more than that needs a second visit.
Our note for Al Shahama describes how this is used there: larger villas are often booked as one long visit with two to four cleaners, and we suggest the team so that it finishes within the day. The villa cleaning page gives the reason for sending a team and not a single cleaner. Larger villas are assigned two or more cleaners so that the visit finishes in a reasonable window and is not stretched across an entire day with one person.
| Team and hours | Cleaner-hours | Your products | Our materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 cleaners, 8 hours each | 16 | AED 440 | AED 520 |
| 3 cleaners, 6 hours each | 18 | AED 510 | AED 600 |
| 4 cleaners, 5 hours each | 20 | AED 580 | AED 680 |
| 4 cleaners, 8 hours each | 32 | AED 880 | AED 1,040 |
Which row is yours
Add AED 20 once to any row. The third row is the one in our published hours guide for a deep clean of a four- or five-bedroom villa: 4 cleaners for 5 hours each. A regular clean of the same villa is 2 cleaners for 4 hours each, AED 240 with your own products.
The guide stops at five bedrooms. For a larger house, or one with a separate majlis and outbuildings, we confirm the hours with you before the visit. How the rows are worked out for each size of home is explained in how many cleaner-hours your home needs.
One cleaner all day, or a team for half of it
On paper they are the same work, and one cleaner for eight hours is the cheapest way to buy eight cleaner-hours. In a big house the team usually wins anyway. Two people can move a sofa or a bed and clean behind it. They can split by floor, so that the upstairs bathrooms soak while the kitchen is degreased. And the family has the house back by early afternoon instead of at dusk. Eight hours is also a long day of physical work for one person.
A fair rule: choose one cleaner for a long visit when the house is lived in but orderly and nobody needs the rooms back early. Choose a team when there are stairs, several bathrooms, a majlis or outbuildings, or when the work has to be finished before guests arrive.
What to list when you book a long visit
A villa clean covers bedrooms, bathrooms, the kitchen, living and dining rooms, the majlis, staircases and the balconies or terraces that can be reached safely. Some parts of a large plot are not assumed to be included, and a team sized for the house alone cannot absorb them on the day. Say so in the booking if the visit should cover any of these.
- The number of bedrooms, bathrooms and floors.
- A majlis, and whether it is inside the house or a separate building.
- A maid's or driver's room, an annex or any other outbuilding.
- Terraces, balconies and a roof area, and whether sand is lying on them. Heavy sand after a storm takes extra time.
- The inside of cupboards and wardrobes. That is not part of a villa clean unless you ask for it.
- Which rooms come first if the day runs short.
Timing: when a long visit has to start
We work every day of the week, 8 AM – 8 PM, and the one scheduling rule is that the work has to finish by closing time. The start times offered on the booking page already allow for it. What the rule means in practice is simple: the longer the visit, the earlier its latest start.
The length that counts is the hours per cleaner, not the size of the team. A visit of 8 hours per cleaner can start no later than 12 noon. One of five hours can start as late as 3 PM. So a whole-day visit is a morning booking, and a team is the way to fit a large amount of work into an afternoon: four cleaners for four hours each do sixteen cleaner-hours and can still start at 4 PM. The latest start for every length of visit is set out in same-day cleaning in Abu Dhabi.
Why the morning suits anything long
A long visit can start later than opening time. There are four reasons not to leave it late.
- Room to extend. If the house needs longer than was booked, time can be added only while it still ends by 8 PM. A visit that starts at its latest possible time has no room at all.
- Daylight for the check. Dust on a dark floor, streaks on glass and scale on a tap show best in daylight, and the walk round the house with the team leader is worth doing while you can still see them.
- Outdoor areas before the heat. Terraces, balconies and reachable outside glass are easier to clean before the middle of the day, and glass washed in full sun dries too fast and streaks.
- The rest of your day. A team that starts at 8 AM on a five-hour visit has gone by 1 PM, and the floors are dry long before the evening.
How far ahead to book
Hourly visits can be booked up to 30 days ahead. A same-day visit needs about 2 hours of notice, depends on a team being free and costs the same as any other. Those rules are the same in every area, and we do not publish a longer notice period for the far ones.
What our notes add is practical. For Al Samha: book early for Friday and Saturday slots. For all four areas: the visits that work are planned ones, with enough time for a large home. A whole-day visit with a full team has the fewest possible start times of any booking, so when you are planning round an occasion it is the first thing to fix.
The four areas, from our team's notes
The fee is the same in all four. The homes are not. These are our own notes on each area: what the team walks into and what is booked most.
| Area | Homes | Booked most |
|---|---|---|
| Al Shahama | Established town of family villas, many with a majlis and outbuildings; some apartment buildings | Planned villa cleans with larger teams; deep cleans before family occasions; fabric care for the majlis |
| Al Rahba | Spacious villas on large plots with outdoor areas | Regular and deep villa cleaning; sand and dust after windy days; AC duct and sofa cleaning |
| Al Samha | A growing area: newer family villas beside older homes | Move-in cleans for new villas; regular villa cleaning; deep cleans after construction dust |
| Al Wathba | Spread-out villas and newer housing on the desert edge, on large plots | Longer, planned villa visits; deep cleans after sand and dust; move-in cleans; AC duct cleaning |
Al Shahama, Al Rahba and Al Samha
Al Shahama is the established one of the three northern areas, and the majlis and outbuildings explain its bookings: bigger teams, and deep cleans timed for a family occasion with the majlis sofas, carpet and curtains cleaned for the same date. A majlis has its own method, set out in cleaning a majlis.
Al Rahba lies between Al Shahama and the coast, and sand and dust after windy days is the recurring job there. Our note records the usual pattern: regular cleaning, with a deep clean two to four times a year, typically after the summer, before Ramadan or Eid and after heavy dust.
Al Samha, in the far north of our coverage, is still growing. A new villa needs a first clean before the furniture arrives, which is a different job from a regular visit and is described in after-builders cleaning. The homes beside a building plot go on collecting construction dust until the neighbour's work is finished, and a deep clean is best timed for after it, not during.
Al Wathba
Al Wathba sits on the eastern desert edge, and our notes for it are about sand. Villas there see more sand and dust than the city, so floors, windows and AC vents need extra time, and that extra time is why the visits are longer. The order of work after a dust storm, and why dry removal comes before anything wet, is in cleaning a villa after a sandstorm.
Finding the house
Our notes say parking at the villa is easy in Al Shahama, Al Rahba and Al Wathba. The address is the thing to get right. In Al Wathba addresses go by sector and plot. In Al Samha a map pin and the plot number are the most reliable address. In Al Shahama and Al Rahba the team asks for a pin and the villa number.
Drop the pin while you are standing at the gate you want the team to use, and name the gate if the plot has more than one. A team that cannot find the entrance starts late, and on a long visit that ends near closing time there may be no room to make the time up.
Making one visit do more
The fee is charged per visit. The plain way to pay it less often is to bring work together into fewer, fuller visits. Two jobs pair well with a clean, and a regular plan needs one extra thought.
Fabric care with a deep clean
Sofas, carpets, mattresses and curtains are priced by the item, not by the hour: AED 30 a seat, AED 10 a square metre of carpet and AED 30 a standard curtain panel steamed in place, with a minimum order of AED 100 for priced items on one visit. Booked together with a deep clean or a move-in or move-out clean, fabric items are 10% off.
In Al Shahama, where our notes list sofa, carpet and curtain cleaning for majlis rooms among the main requests, that pairing is the natural one before a family occasion. Fabric jobs are confirmed from photos, so send pictures when you book.
AC ducts before the clean, not after
AC duct cleaning appears in our notes for Al Rahba and Al Wathba, and for a reason: close to open desert, dust loads filters and ducts faster than it does in the city. Duct cleaning is a technician's job and is quoted separately, with villa duct cleaning starting from AED 750. If you plan it in the same season as a deep clean, have the ducts done first. Whatever the work shakes loose then lands on surfaces that are about to be cleaned and not on ones that just were. The details are on the AC duct cleaning page.
Regular plans in a far area
Regular visits cost less: 10% off every two weeks, 15% off weekly and 20% off for two or more visits a week (5% monthly). The discount comes off every visit, there is no contract and nothing is paid ahead for future visits. Two cleaners for four hours each, the regular clean of a four- or five-bedroom villa in our hours guide, is AED 240 as a single booking. On a weekly plan it is AED 204 a visit and on a fortnightly plan AED 216, before the travel fee.
The travel fee is a per-visit charge, so the number of visits sets how many times it is paid: AED 80 in a four-visit month on a weekly plan and AED 40 on a fortnightly one. Let the house decide the frequency, not the fee. A family villa on the desert edge that is lived in every day usually needs the weekly visit, and on a visit of that size the fee is a small part of the bill. The total for each visit, fee included, is shown on the booking page before you pay. What a plan comes to over a month is worked through in part-time maid monthly packages.
Before the team sets out
In the city a forgotten detail costs a few minutes. Further out it can cost the visit, because nobody can go back for a vacuum cleaner or wait an hour for a key. Settle these when you book.
Materials: decide with care
With materials, the team brings the whole kit: cleaning liquids and sprays, vacuum cleaner, mop and bucket, broom, microfibre cloths and rags, step ladder. That adds AED 5 per cleaner-hour. Without, you provide all the products and equipment, the vacuum cleaner and the mop included, and the cleaners arrive with nothing. If something essential turns out to be missing or broken, the team cannot substitute it on the day and the booked hours still run.
Think about what that means for a team. Four cleaners need cloths, mops and buckets at the same moment, and one household vacuum cleaner shared between them slows the whole visit. The longer comparison is in cleaning with or without materials.
Access, and the charge worth avoiding
If the team travels to the property and cannot get in, because nobody is home and no key was left, the charge is AED 60. A booking can be moved or cancelled free of charge up to 6 hours before it starts. Later than that the charge is AED 30. The terms are on the cancellation policy page.
For a long visit, name the person who will open the gate and answer the phone during the day, and a second person in case the first is called away.
Getting the house ready
An hour of tidying by the household before the team arrives is worth more than an hour of tidying by four cleaners. The fuller version of this list is in preparing a villa for a professional clean.
- Put away loose clothes, toys and papers, and clear valuables and documents from the surfaces the team will work around.
- Secure pets in a room the team will not need straight away.
- Point out fragile items, antiques and any surface that needs particular care, marble above all.
- Check that there is water on each floor and a working socket for the vacuum cleaners, and leave space near the entrance for the team to unload.
On the day
A long villa visit follows the same routine as a short one, with one extra check in the middle.
- Arrival and walk-through. The team leader walks the villa with you, confirms the priority rooms, notes anything fragile and agrees the expected finish time. The checklist is confirmed before any work begins.
- Top down, room by room. High surfaces, fans and light fittings first, then the bathrooms and the kitchen, which take longest, then bedrooms, stairs and the majlis. Floors come last so that nothing is walked back over.
- A word at the halfway point. Look in when the visit is half done. If the house is running slower than planned, that is the moment to re-order the priority rooms or to agree an extension, not the last half hour.
- Sign-off, floor by floor. The team leader checks each level against the checklist and walks it with you, staircases and majlis included, before the team packs up.
If the team finishes early or needs longer
You pay for the hours you booked. If the agreed list is finished early, the team stays for the remaining time and uses it on whatever else you ask for: windows, a terrace, the inside of the fridge. If the house needs longer, the team leader asks first. Extra time is added in 30-minute steps and charged as the difference to the longer visit on the price list. Nothing is added without your approval.
If you find something missed after the team has gone, tell us within 24 hours of the visit and we send a team back to re-clean it free of charge. Photos of what was missed help us brief the cleaners, though they are not a condition.
Common questions
Does the fee apply to sofa cleaning, AC work and other services?
The fee belongs to the area, not to a kind of job. It is AED 20 per visit whatever is booked on that visit. Priced items keep their own rules as well, such as the minimum order of AED 100 per visit.
Can I book only two hours?
Yes. The shortest visit is 1 hour, and 2 hours is the shortest that suits a whole home. Two hours with one cleaner is AED 65, or AED 85 with the fee, which works out at AED 42.50 an hour. That suits a small apartment. For a villa it is rarely enough time.
Can I get a same-day clean in a far area?
The same published rule applies as anywhere: about 2 hours of notice, at the same price, when a team is free. The closing-time rule narrows it for long visits. A visit of 8 hours per cleaner has to start by 12 noon, so for today it has to be booked by 10 AM. A short visit can be booked much later in the day. Booking the day before gives the widest choice of start times.
Do you come on Fridays, weekends and public holidays?
Yes, at the same price, every day of the week, 8 AM – 8 PM. A day when the household is at home is often the easiest one for a whole-day visit, because someone can walk the house with the team leader at the start and again at the end.
Is a deep clean priced differently in a far area?
No. A deep clean starts at 2 cleaners for 3 hours each wherever the home is: AED 180 with your own products or AED 210 with ours. In a far area that smallest visit is AED 230 with our materials. For a four- or five-bedroom villa our hours guide gives 4 cleaners for 5 hours each, AED 680 with our materials, and the fee is still AED 20. What a deep clean covers is on the deep cleaning page. A villa that was closed for the summer, or has not been cleaned properly for months, needs one before regular visits can keep up; the difference between the two is set out in regular cleaning compared with deep cleaning.
Will the same cleaners come each time?
On a regular plan, customers keep the same cleaners wherever possible, with a slot held each week. It cannot be promised for every visit, since people take leave. The checklist agreed for your villa is used on every visit, so the result should not depend on who comes.
Booking a visit in a far area
Decide three things before you open the booking page: how many cleaner-hours the house needs, whether one cleaner or a team should do them, and how early the visit can start. Choose the area and the fee appears as its own line. Choose the cleaners, the hours and the materials, and the total is shown before you confirm. Payment is by card online once we confirm your booking.
Each of the four areas has its own page under areas we serve, with the team's notes on the homes and on access. When the date is fixed, book the visit online, on the website or in the IHR Dream app, and put the map pin, the plot number and the gate in the notes.
