Booking a cleaner in Budapest when you don't speak Hungarian

A Budapest flat after a CLB visit. Send the door code, the floor and the flat number the day before, and the team rings the right bell.

The short answer

Book with a company that confirms the price and the scope in writing, in English, before the visit, and whose team on site can talk to you. Send photos in advance, sort out the building entry and parking the day before, and walk the team through the flat for five minutes when they arrive. Those three steps prevent most of the problems we see.

The rest of this guide goes through each step, with the details that are specific to Budapest buildings and the way cleaning companies here work.

Ask who will be at your door

Many Budapest companies have one English speaker who takes bookings, while the cleaners on site speak only Hungarian. That works until you need to say something at the door: this rug cannot get wet, leave the study alone, the dishwasher is broken. Ask whether the team that comes speaks English, in those words.

We work in English and Russian, and you agree the details with the team at the start of the visit. If something changes during the job, they ask you rather than guess.

Before the visit: what to send

A cleaning company quotes from what it can see. Without photos the company has to guess, and a company that guesses tends to raise the price at the door. Send the floor area, the number of rooms and bathrooms, the date, and three or four photos of the kitchen, the bathroom and the worst corner of the flat.

Say in the same message what you want included and what you do not. The inside of the oven, the windows, the balcony and a sofa are the usual extras. If you want them, a good company prices them before the visit.

We keep the full list, and the seven questions to ask any company, in our guide on how to choose a cleaning company in Budapest.

Getting into the building

Many Budapest flats sit in older apartment buildings with a street door, an inner courtyard and a staircase, and the lift, if there is one, is often small. A team arrives with a vacuum cleaner, buckets and sometimes an extraction machine, so tell them the floor number and whether there is a lift.

Send the entry details the day before: the door code or the intercom name, the building and staircase if the courtyard has several, the floor and the flat number. If the intercom shows a different name from yours, say which one to ring.

Parking

Most of central Budapest has paid street parking, and in some streets a free spot is rare during the day. A team that brings machines comes by car in most cases. Tell the company whether there is free parking near the building, a courtyard space or a garage they can use. If there is none, ask whether the company adds parking to the price before you agree the total.

On the day: the first five minutes

Walk through the flat with the team when they arrive. Show them anything fragile, anything that must not get wet and anything you do not want touched. This is the moment to mention a hand-made rug, a wooden floor that reacts to water, a cupboard full of documents or a cat that must stay inside.

We had one job where the customer pointed out a hand-made rug at the start. Water and a rotating vacuum brush damage hand-woven pile, so we left it out of the wet cleaning and vacuumed it with the brush switched off. The whole conversation took about a minute.

If you are not at home

Plenty of our customers are at work during the cleaning. That works if you arrange the keys and the entry in advance: leave keys with a neighbour or the building manager, use a key box, or meet the team at the start and come back at the end.

Because we photograph the flat before and after, you can see what was done without being there, and you can pay by Revolut or bank transfer from your phone. If you notice something we missed when you get home, send us a photo within 48 hours and we come back to clean it.

Renting? Think about the handover

If you rent and are moving out, the cleaning is part of getting your deposit back. Landlords look at the same few places: the oven, the fridge, limescale in the bathroom, the tops of wardrobes and the skirting boards. Book a move-out clean for after the furniture leaves, so the team can reach the floor and the walls behind it.

We explain what landlords check and what they can deduct in our article on getting your deposit back in Budapest.

CLB did a deep cleaning of our flat in the II. kerület before we handed it back to the landlord. [...] The landlord signed off without a single deduction.Rea Magdae, Google review, September 2026

Choosing the right kind of cleaning

A weekly clean of a flat you keep in order, a deep clean before guests arrive and a move-out clean are different jobs. They take different hours and cost different amounts. If you book the wrong one, either you pay for work you did not need, or the team finishes and the oven is still dirty.

Our guide to regular, deep, move-out and after-renovation cleaning shows what each one covers, with real hours and prices.

How long the team stays, and what it costs

Ask for the number of hours in the quote, because you pay for the hours and you will want to know how long strangers stay in your home. A well-kept 62 square metre flat took two of our cleaners three and a half hours for a deep clean. An empty 69 square metre flat before a move-in went faster, because the team had no furniture to move and put back.

One-off cleaning with us is 7,500 Ft per cleaner per hour. A standard clean starts from 26,000 Ft and a deep or move-out clean from 37,500 Ft. Two cleaners for three hours cost the same as one cleaner for six, and they finish sooner, so if you need the place back by a set time, ask for two people.

We break down hourly rates, minimums and examples in our guide to cleaning prices in Budapest.

Short-term rentals and Airbnb hosts

If you let a flat to guests, the cleaning has to fit between a checkout and a check-in, often on the same day. Tell the company both times, where you keep the linen and the spare supplies, and how the team gets the keys when the last guest has left.

You get the most from a photo report here, because you are not in the flat yourself most of the time. You see the state the guest left it in and the state the next guest will find, and if a guest later complains about something, you have a dated photo of the room.

Our Airbnb cleaning guide covers turnovers step by step.

If something goes wrong

Say so the same day, with a photo, and keep it in writing so both sides can see what you agreed. Most problems are a missed corner or a surface that needed a second pass, and a decent company fixes those without a discussion.

With us you have 48 hours to report a missed spot. Send the photo on WhatsApp and we come back to clean that area at no charge. The guarantee covers the areas in the quote, which is one more reason to agree the scope in writing before the visit.

Paying and invoices

Ask how to pay before the visit. Card terminals are not common among Budapest cleaning companies. We take cash, Revolut and bank transfer, and we do not take cards on site. If your employer or your own company pays, ask for an invoice, and check whether the price the company quoted includes the 27 percent VAT.

A message you can copy

• Floor area and rooms: for example 55 square metres, two rooms, one bathroom
• Date and time, and whether the flat will be empty or lived in
• What to include: for example inside the oven and the windows
• Entry: door code or intercom name, staircase, floor, flat number
• Parking: free space nearby, courtyard, or none
• Anything fragile or anything the team must not touch

Common questions