Homejoy, an Online Booking Home Cleaning Service, Launches in Phoenix

Homejoy, an online booking company designed to ease the process of finding someone to clean your home, launched in Phoenix in June. Whether you need a one-time clean or to find someone trusted and background checked to return to your living space, Homejoy can connect homeowners with qualified cleaners. Cleaners have insurance for cleans, background checks, high customer ratings and have passed professional cleaner exams. At $20 per hour, clients can choose how long they require service, when they need it, and can easily cancel or reschedule. I spoke with a representative of Homejoy to get a few more details on their product and problem-solving methods.
Can you tell us about Homejoy’s service and the problem you are trying to solve?
Homejoy is an online platform where clients can book a cleaning with a trusted, background checked, professional cleaner. With just a few clicks, you can book, cancel and reschedule cleanings without having to pick up the phone. Homejoy’s unique system will also suggest a length of time based on details about your place, send you a picture and information about your cleaner, and will email you the day before with an appointment reminder.
House cleaning is typically considered a ‘luxury’ experience. We want to make house cleaning affordable to everyone. On the cleaners’ side, we are focused on consistently offering opportunities for work for those who need them.
How will you approach the ample competition from other established cleaning services?
There are many national and local chains in Phoenix (many of whom will give you an estimate online), but we’re an affordable solution that makes home cleaning easier by bringing a traditionally offline service completely online (booking, rescheduling, etc). With regards to our approach, we’ll initially get the word out through the startup and incubator communities but will then expand according to the demand we see from our clients.
Tell us more about the founders and funding they have received.
Co-Founders and brother-sister duo, Aaron and Adora Cheung, actually went through the Y Combinator incubator in 2010 with a different startup idea. However, last year they realized that hectic work schedules and the chaos of everyday life often resulted in messy apartments that they did not have the time or money to maintain. After talking extensively with professional cleaners and working as professional maids themselves, they started Homejoy in July of 2012.  Homejoy has since raised 1.7 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Max Levchin, First Round Capital, Mike Hirshland/Resolute.VC, and Paul Buchheit.
I did a bit of research and found that the reviews for Homejoy across the country are polarized. There have also been reports of purchased Yelp reviews among various other oddities with that specific site. How are you going to overcome these criticisms entering a new market?
In terms of the Yelp reviews, this was an isolated incident, and the person responsible has since been let go. Transparency is an integral part of the relationships with our clients and we have put multiple safeguards in place to make sure this never happens again. I can say with 100% confidence that our client satisfaction numbers are very high. Our team has grown a lot in the past few months to support our growth, and we’ve hired Elizabeth Washington as our City Operations Manager in Phoenix, who previously spent 10 years as a manager in the hotel industry and also ran her own cleaning company. As such we are in a great place to support the Phoenix market.
To learn more or book with Homejoy, click here.
Photos provided by Homejoy
Read Yelp Reviews in Phoenix here.