Demand for home cleaning and organizing services in China is picking up as the spring festival, the country's grandest annual holiday for family reunions, approaches.
A thorough cleaning of one's home is a major tradition for Chinese people as they prepare to welcome the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 17 this year.
"A full cleaning, including everything, has been done in my home. It's been really well done, and it didn't interrupt school or the work schedules of my family," said Ma Shuangying, a householder in Taiyuan, in north China's Shanxi Province, who hired a local business to help with this seasonal chore.
Although the festival is still over a month away, bookings for domestic service have already peaked. In addition to home cleaning and organization services, some customers are also opting for specialized services, like home organization and clothing storage, which has become a new trend in the market.
"Window cleaning, floor cleaning, and range hood cleaning are the top three most demanded services. The orders have increased by nearly 30 percent compared to previous years. This year, clothing storage, which is a new trend, has seen a significant rise in orders. We're accelerating staff training and offering better pay and benefits, and we also encourage employees to return home at staged hours to meet the rising demand of customers," said Li Ruizhen, who works at a domestic service company in Taiyuan.
In Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, some domestic service teams are already booked up for the next two weeks. Local businesses expect a peak in orders after January 15, with a slight increase in prices for services.
"Our daily order volume has increased from less than 100 to around 200 orders now. The prices for Chinese New Year domestic service have increased 5 to 10 yuan per person per hour (around 0.7 to 1.4 U.S. dollars) from 50 yuan (around 7 U.S. dollars) [to around 55 to 60 yuan (around 7.70 to 8.40 U.S. dollars) per person per hour]. There could be further price adjustments around Chinese New Year's Eve," said Bi Huixian, director of a domestic service center in Kunming.
The price hike reflects the high demand and a shortage of staff as domestic service workers, like hundreds of millions of other workers across the nation, return to their hometowns for the nine-day Spring Festival holiday.
"We started preparing six months in advance by planning staffing solutions. This includes holiday bonuses and reimbursing travel expenses for employees returning home. Currently, we have about 200 available staff members," said Bi.
Demand in China for home cleaning services heats up ahead of Spring Festival
