A Rare Breed: Meet Paul Freid, Owner of Maid In Hoboken a Pet Friendly Cleaning Service

Tell us about yourself and the inspiration behind your business.

I am Paul Fried and I am the owner Maid in Hoboken.  Started the maid service in 2013 out of necessity in Hoboken as I couldn’t find a quality cleaning service for my own personal needs.  

In researching and doing my due diligence and understanding what services I was going to offer, I found there were 5 big issues people had: 1) People don’t show up for appts, 2) They move stuff and don’t put it back, 3) They break my stuff and don’t tell me, 4) They steal my stuff, 5) Staff don’t speak English and I can’t communicate with them.  I knew that if I could tackle these issues, I would have a successful service to offer the community.

Being a serial entrepreneur, the plan was to build a business as big and quick as I could sell it for as much as I could.  However, here I am 8 years later loving the industry, loving my staff and loving my clients.  And I am committed to getting old running my maid service.

When it came to branding, I wanted to do something fun and unique and memorable for my business. I steered away from the typical french maid thing that everyone seems to use.  I wanted a logo that we could play with and have fun with.

How do you accommodate your clients with pets?

Hoboken is a very pet friendly town.  About 40 percent of our clients have pets.  Because of this, we have a pretty great vetting process with regards to staff and how they are with animals.  If staff are allergic to animals or a fear of animals, these are things we want to vet out during the hiring process.

All of our staff are very comfortable working around pets.  Most of our staff are dog and cat owners themselves.  We like to get to know the pets, get their names so our staff can address them by name when they come in. 

We certainly want to know, when you call for service, if you have a pet. We have all natural plant based cleaning products. We also use steam to clean.  Depending on your needs, we can tailor things.

Are your cleaning products pet friendly?

Yes, our cleaning products are pet friendly.  Our go to cleaning solution is a citrus based cleaning solution, but anything we bring into your home is pet and kid friendly and environmentally friendly.

Any fun stories around cleaning and people’s pets?

We have had situations where the pets and cleaning staff have such great relationships that the pets don’t let the cleaners do their job because they keep interrupting and want to play.  Sometimes we have to have a conversation with the client to explain we need to get to work.

In these instances, we will put the dog in a room while we clean the majority of the place and then let the dog out.

We’ve never had a negative situation with regards to a client’s pet.  Our staff have never been bit.  Nothing but positive experiences with people and their pets.

Cats can be sneaky and hide in places and get stuck in closets and rooms. How do you prevent this?

Our policy was that we typically leave the doors the way we found them, but we have changed that around a bit.  We know that there are situations where cats can close the doors on themselves.  Our policy is to leave all the doors open so that a cat isn’t locked into a room.  We ask all pet owners to crate their pet if you believe there may be some sort of situation, but if your pet is good with us, we’re good with your pet.

How would you describe your day-to-day?

Running a Maid Service – Start out in the morning with a staff meeting with everyone to discuss any concerns, jobs get assigned, teams go out. We’re constantly looking at our policies and procedures to make sure we are constantly making ourselves better.  Always looking into offering new services to our clients.

What are your most popular products or services?

Our most popular service is bi-weekly house cleaning, but we’re happy to do move-ins, offices.  We also clean a lot of air-bnb turnovers.

What do you love most about your job?

The reality is, I never expected to be in this business this long. I just really love my employees. We love our clients. We have a great relationship with the majority of our customers.  Many of our customers we have been cleaning for many many years.

Do you have a pet of your own?

Yes. We have a  dog.  Her name is Luna is and she is a yorkie-poodle mix.  She is a year old.  My two daughters were begging for a dog.  We decided to get this beautiful puppy.  We have a ton of fun with her that we have a ton of fun with.  

Visit https://maidinhoboken.com/ to inquire about your pet friendly cleaning needs.