luxury living
aving domestic staff is an easily accessible luxury for expats living in the UAE. But lack of training and language barriers can result in a disgruntled maid and an even more disgruntled lady or gentleman of the house. Scottish native, Denise McGinty, owner of the Housekeeping Co, a Dubai based company, offers ‘five star’ executive cleaning services to high net worth clients. “We turn maids into housekeepers,” explained McGinty. The Housekeeping Co pride themselves on being able to assess the needs of a client before matching them up with one of their team who has a Denise McGinty (centre) uses her similar personality. background in hospitality to train her “We differ to other team of butlers and housekeepers cleaning companies because when you call up, you get to speak to me directly so there is no confusion. I will then go to a client’s house and meet with them to assess their needs before placing one of our staff with them,” said McGinty. This personalized service, which offers clients more than just cleaning is the key to tapping into a niche market. “Many of our clients have different homes around the world so they need different wardrobes depending on which city they are in. We help to pack, unpack and organize wardrobes so that their case is ready for whenever they need to travel.” A degree in hotel management enables McGinty to provide top notch hotel style service in people’s homes. Training is an important part of her business, aside from putting her maids through an intensive three month training programme; teaching them everything from using chemicals to basic language skills and cleaning terminology, she also offers her own expertise to clients who want to have their current household staff trained to a higher standard.
The majority of the company’s clients are VIP’s and includes members of the royal family. She therefore adheres to strict confidentially clauses and encourages her maids to respect privacy “as they are touching the heart and soul of family life.” “If someone is having a dinner or a family wedding for example, they will ask me to come into their homes over three days to train their household staff. It could be as simple as showing them how to greet guests at the door or how to serve food properly and how to set a table.” In instances where clients are unhappy with their current staff, Denise can provide a Butler whose role is to take charge of managing the household and other staff. These Butlers earn up to 60,000 AED per month so their job goes above and beyond cleaning services. “Our butlers are all ex-army and run a very upper class household similar to those in the UK or Europe. I bring them in from overseas to fit inline with the clients brief. It’s a very personalized and on demand service.” Having formerly worked in real estate investments and property management, Denise says that she used to outsource the cleaning services of her properties to a third party but always found the service ‘unsatisfactory,’ so when the market conditions changed after the financial crisis, she decided to move in on ‘a gap in the market’ for a more efficient and personalized cleaning service. Word of mouth plays an integral part in promoting McGinty’s business but she encourages potential clients to call her up to enquire about any of her services whether it’s for cleaning, household management or providing long term butler services. www.housekeepingco.com
+971 4-2211996
March / April 2012 GC 73