Table of Contents
The short answer
Four things decide whether a cleaning visit to a tower starts on time. The security desk knows the team is coming. The team knows where to park. The lift will take them to your floor. And somebody, or a key, opens your door. Sort those out the day before and write them in the booking notes. It takes one conversation with your building and four or five lines of text, and it is the difference between a cleaner at your door at nine and a cleaner standing in the lobby at twenty past.
Every building does this differently. Some want the resident to approve each visitor in advance, some only log a name at the desk, and some want the service lift booked when machines are coming up. So the first step is always to ask your own security desk or management office what they need, and the second is to pass the answers on to us.
When you book apartment cleaning with IHR Dream Cleaning we ask for the tower name and its access routine and keep them on file for repeat visits, so the routine only has to be explained once. A two-hour visit by one cleaner is AED 65 with your own products and AED 75 with ours, and there is no separate charge for the building or the floor you live on. The tower districts we cover, with what our teams have noted about access in each one, are listed under areas we serve.
Where a tower visit gets held up
Between the street and your front door there are five points where a team can lose time. Knowing them is most of the preparation.
- The vehicle entrance. A barrier, a ramp or a guard decides whether the team's vehicle goes into a visitor bay, down to the basement, up to a podium level or back out to the street.
- The lobby desk. Security or the concierge logs visitors, and in some buildings nobody goes up without the resident's approval already on record.
- The lift. A passenger lift may need a resident's card to reach your floor. Some buildings send contractors and equipment to the service lift, and some want that lift booked.
- Your door. Someone has to open it: you, a member of the household, or a key that was left with the concierge.
- The way out. Passes are handed back, and a key that was collected from the desk has to be returned to it.
What our teams have noted, district by district
These are the access notes our teams keep for the districts where most of our tower work is. They describe districts, not individual buildings, and your own building's rules always come first.
| District | What our notes say | Tell us |
|---|---|---|
| Al Reem Island | Most towers register visitors at a security desk; some want the cleaner pre-approved. Visitor bay or basement parking. | Tower, visitor process, parking bay |
| Al Maryah Island | Visitor registration and service-lift bookings; some towers ask for a contractor's permit in advance. | Tower and the concierge's rules |
| Corniche | Concierge desks, basement or valet parking; some towers want visitors registered in advance. | Tower and its rules |
| Al Raha Beach | Concierge desks, underground or podium parking; some communities keep visitors to marked bays. | Building, visitor rules, key with concierge or not |
| Masdar City | Parking is at the edge of the district and visitors walk in with the equipment. | Building, unit, reception desk or not |
Buildings without a desk
Not every apartment building has a concierge. In the older blocks of the city centre there is often a watchman and no visitor desk, the lifts are smaller and street parking is the hard part. That calls for a different kind of preparation, which is covered in our guide to cleaning an older apartment downtown.
What to ask your building, and when
Speak to the security desk or the management office as soon as the visit is booked. Our own advice for towers is to register the visit the day before, where the building requires registration at all. These are the questions that matter.
- Do visitors from a cleaning company have to be registered or approved in advance? If so, how: at the desk, through the building's app or portal, or by email to the management office?
- What will security ask each visitor for on arrival: a name, the company's name, a vehicle plate, an identity document?
- Is there a notice period for approvals? The answer decides whether a same-day booking can work in your building.
- Where may a visiting contractor park, for how long, and is there a height limit at the basement entrance?
- May the team use the passenger lifts with hand equipment, or must they use the service lift? Does the service lift need booking, and for which kinds of job?
- Are there hours when contractors, machines or noisy work are not allowed?
- If I am out, may I leave a key and an access card at the desk, and what authorisation do you need from me to release them?
- Does the building need anything from the company itself, such as a contractor's permit or a copy of its trade licence?
Visitor registration and pre-approval
Registration means the desk records who came in and which flat they went to. Pre-approval means the resident tells the building beforehand and security checks arrivals against that list. A building that works by pre-approval will normally turn away anyone who is not on the list, however plainly they are carrying a mop and a vacuum cleaner, because that is what the guard has been told to do.
For a single visit, lodge the approval once the booking is confirmed, using the date and the arrival window in your confirmation. For a weekly or fortnightly plan, ask whether the building accepts a standing approval for the same company on the same day each week. If it does, the question never comes up again. If it does not, set yourself a reminder for the day before each visit.
If the building wants the names of the people who are coming, or the plate of the vehicle, tell us when you book and we arrange it before the day. An approval lodged for the wrong date is an easy slip to make, so read the date back to the desk when you lodge it.
If you will be out: keys, cards and the concierge
You do not need to be home. Many of our customers in towers leave a key with the concierge or arrange access with building security, and for anyone at work it is the simplest arrangement. When you are out, the cleaner sends a note at the end of the visit in place of the usual walk round the flat. What makes a key handover work is detail.
- Leave the key in an envelope with your name and flat number on it, and tell the desk which company will collect it and on which day.
- If the lift or the corridor door needs a card or a fob, leave that as well, or arrange for security to take the team up.
- Give the building whatever authorisation it asks for before it will release a key. Some want it in writing.
- Say in the booking notes exactly where the key is and where it should be left afterwards.
- Keep your phone within reach for the first part of the arrival window. One call from the resident to the desk is usually the quickest way to settle a problem in the lobby.
- Say whether pets are at home and which room they are in.
Parking: where the team's vehicle goes
The team arrives by vehicle with the equipment for the day. Where that vehicle can stop decides how far everything is carried and how many minutes pass before any cleaning starts. The district notes above show how much this varies: a visitor bay, a basement, a podium level, a valet desk, or in Masdar City a car park at the edge of the district and a walk in, for which a few extra minutes are allowed at the start.
Ask the building for a visitor space or a visitor pass that covers the whole visit, not the first half hour. Our area pages are plain about this: please arrange free parking or a visitor pass, and where only paid parking is available its cost is added to the booking at cost. A free bay arranged by the resident is therefore the cheaper outcome for you as well as the quicker one for the team.
Do not count on the street. The kerb outside a tower lobby is often for drop-off only, and a team that has to find a space several minutes' walk away arrives late and loaded. If the building has a loading bay, ask whether a cleaning team may unload there before parking, and for how long. These are the parking details worth putting in the notes.
- Which entrance to use, if the building has more than one vehicle ramp.
- The level, and the bays or the zone set aside for visitors.
- Whether the guard at the barrier needs your flat number or a pass.
- Any time limit on the bay and any height limit at the entrance.
- Where the lift lobby is from the parking level, and whether its door needs a card.
Bringing equipment up: passenger lift or service lift
What the team carries depends on what you booked, and that decides which lift question applies. The answer our team gives residents of Al Maryah Island is a fair guide to the reasoning anywhere. For regular cleaning a lift booking is usually not needed, because the team carries hand equipment. For sofa, carpet or move-out jobs with machines, many towers ask for the service lift to be booked, and we tell you which applies to your booking. Only your building can confirm its own rule.
| Booking | What comes up in the lift | Ask the building |
|---|---|---|
| Regular clean with our materials | Cleaning liquids and sprays, vacuum cleaner, mop and bucket, broom, microfibre cloths and rags, step ladder | Usually nothing beyond visitor registration |
| Regular clean with your materials | The cleaner only; you supply the products, vacuum and mop | Visitor registration |
| Deep clean | Two or more cleaners with the same hand equipment | Whether a larger team needs prior approval |
| Sofa, carpet or mattress cleaning | A portable extraction machine and hoses | Whether machines must use the service lift, and whether it needs booking |
| Move-in or move-out clean | A team with full kit, sometimes with fabric machines | Service-lift booking, permitted hours, any contractor's permit |
| AC or repair work | A technician with tools | Whether building maintenance must be told first |
Why buildings separate the lifts
A service lift exists to keep trolleys, machines and building work away from the passenger lifts and their finishes, and to keep the passenger lifts free for residents at busy times. Where a building wants it booked, the slot is shared with movers, deliveries and other contractors, so a request made late may only get an awkward hour. Ask early, and give us the slot so the visit is timed to it.
A service lift usually opens onto a back corridor and a loading bay or a separate parking level, not the main lobby. If that is the route the team must use, say so in the notes and give the level to park on. Otherwise they will walk into the front lobby with the equipment and be sent round to the back.
Sofa and carpet machines in a flat
Sofas, carpets and mattresses in apartments are cleaned in place with a portable extraction machine that comes up in the lift. The technician carries the machine and its hoses, so a service lift or a parking space near the door makes the visit noticeably quicker. With the AC on and the windows closed, fabric usually dries in four to six hours, so choose a time when you will not need the room that evening. Sofa cleaning is priced by the seat, at AED 30 each, and the sofa cleaning page explains how the method is chosen for the fabric.
Move-in and move-out cleans: timing around the lift and the handover
A move is when a tower is most likely to insist on a booked service lift, because the movers need it for hours. The clean has to fit around that booking and around the handover inspection, and the order matters.
- Book the movers' service-lift slot with the building first. Everything else is timed from it.
- Book the clean for after the movers have gone. A move-out clean is done in an empty home, so the team can reach inside every cupboard and the floor where the furniture stood.
- Ask the building whether the cleaning team needs its own lift slot or a contractor's permit. With hand equipment the answer is often no. If carpets or curtains are being cleaned on the same visit, machines are coming up and the answer may change.
- Leave a day between the clean and the inspection if you can, so there is time to put right anything the landlord points out.
- Keep the electricity and water connected until the clean is finished. Nobody can descale a bathroom or vacuum a flat with the supply cut off.
- Keep back one key and one access card for the cleaning team, or leave them with the concierge. A resident who hands every card to the agent on moving day has locked the cleaners out of the lift.
- Pass on the building's parking and loading-bay rules, and any snag list or photos from the landlord or agent.
A timeline that works
Take a two-bedroom flat with the inspection on a Sunday. The movers have the service lift on Friday morning and are out by early afternoon. The clean goes in on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, and the rest of Saturday is left free for anything that needs a second look. The plan to avoid is the same-day squeeze: movers running late, cleaners waiting in the lobby for the lift, and an inspection the next morning.
A move-out clean is booked as a deep clean, so the smallest team is 2 cleaners for 3 hours each: AED 180 with your own products or AED 210 with ours. Our hours guide puts a two-bedroom flat at 2 cleaners for 4 hours each, which is AED 240 with your products, and sofa, carpet, mattress or curtain cleaning booked with the move is 10% off. We work every day, 8 AM – 8 PM, and the work has to finish by closing time, so a long clean needs an early start. Check that the start you choose also falls inside the hours your building allows contractors.
What a landlord or agent looks at during the handover is a subject of its own, set out in move-out cleaning and your deposit. The room-by-room list is in our move-in and move-out checklist.
Moving in: clean first, furniture second
For a move-in the order reverses. The clean comes first, in the empty flat, and the furniture follows. Arrange access for the cleaning day as a separate matter from the movers' lift slot, because on that day the desk may not yet know you as the resident and will want to know who authorised the visit. If the keys are still with the agent or the landlord, name the person who will hand them over and put their number in the notes. A newly opened building may also have handover rules of its own for contractors, so ask the management office before you choose the date.
What to write in the booking notes
The booking form asks for the building or tower name, the apartment number and a map link, and it has a box for access notes: parking, gate code, security desk. It also offers quick notes to tick, among them visitor parking, gate pass needed, building access card and key with security. Use all of them. The map pin matters more than people expect in a development where several towers share one entrance road.
After that, write the access routine in the order the team will meet it. Five lines are enough.
- Parking: which entrance, which level, which bays, any pass.
- Desk: whether the team is pre-approved, under whose name, and what security will ask for.
- Lift: passenger or service, card needed or not, and any booked slot.
- Door: who opens it, or where the key is and where it goes afterwards.
- Contact: the number to ring from the lobby, and a second number in case yours is off.
An example
Something like this is all it takes: 'Visitor parking on B1, entrance from the side road, tell the guard flat 1204. Team is pre-approved with security for Tuesday morning under my name. Passenger lift is fine; security will send it to floor 12. Key is at the concierge desk in an envelope with my name on it, please leave it there afterwards. Ring me from the lobby if anything is refused.' It takes a minute to type and nobody has to guess.
If the routine changes, for example a new access card or a different parking level, update the access notes from your booking page before the visit. On a regular plan the routine stays on file, so it is written once. How the booking itself works, from choosing the hours to paying by card, is explained in booking a cleaner online.
On the day: arrival, the walk-through and leaving
Your confirmation carries a booking reference and the team's arrival window. If anything about the address or the access is unclear, we call before the day, not at the door. From there a visit to a tower flat runs like this.
- The team parks where the notes say, signs in at the desk and comes up with the equipment.
- The cleaner confirms with you which rooms matter most, what is fragile and what to leave alone.
- Kitchen and bathrooms are cleaned first, because they take the most time. Bedrooms, the living area and the balcony follow, and floors are done last.
- Before leaving, the cleaner walks the flat with you against the checklist, or sends a note if you were out.
- The key and any card are left exactly where the notes say.
Allow a few minutes on the first visit
Towers with slow lifts or a visitor-registration desk can add a few minutes at the start, which is why we collect the access details in advance. The delay is longest on a first visit, when the desk has not met the team before, and at the hours when the lifts are busiest. If you have a choice of start time, ask your concierge when the lifts are quiet. On a first visit it also helps to be there for the first ten minutes, to walk the flat with the cleaner and point out what matters, even if the key arrangement takes over from then on.
If something on the agreed list was missed, tell us within 24 hours of the visit and we send a team back to re-clean it at no charge. Arrange the access for that return visit in the same way as the first.
If the team cannot get in: the no-show fee and how to avoid it
Our cancellation terms are short. A booking can be cancelled or moved free of charge up to 6 hours before its start time. Cancelling later than that costs AED 30. If the team travels to the property and cannot get in, because nobody is home, there is no key or there is no access card, the charge is AED 60. The full wording is in the cancellation policy.
In a tower the cause need not be an empty flat. Security has no approval on record. The key was not left where the notes said. The lift needs a card that nobody has. Or the resident's phone is off while the team stands at the desk. When a team cannot get in we try to reach you first, and if access cannot be arranged within a reasonable time the visit may be moved to another date.
The fee is avoidable every time, because each of those causes can be checked the day before.
- Confirm the approval with the desk the afternoon before, and ask them to read the date back to you.
- Hand over the key and the card yourself, and note the name of the person who took them.
- Put two contact numbers in the notes.
- If the building says no, or you are not sure of the answer, move the booking. It costs nothing up to 6 hours before the start.
- If you are meeting the team yourself and will be late, ring us as soon as you know.
Common questions
Should I book with or without materials in a tower?
Either works, and the building can tip the choice. With materials, the team brings the vacuum, mop, bucket, broom, step ladder and products up in the lift and takes them away again, which suits a small flat with nowhere to store them. Without materials there is nothing to carry through the lobby, but everything has to be ready in the flat, including a working vacuum and a mop. If something essential is missing the team cannot replace it on the day, and the booked hours still run. The two options are compared in cleaning with or without materials.
Is there an extra charge for a tower or a high floor?
No. The price is set by the length of the visit and the number of cleaners: AED 55 for 1 hour, AED 65 for 2 hours, AED 30 an hour for 3–4 hours and AED 25 for each hour after that, per cleaner, with AED 5 more per cleaner-hour when we bring the materials. Nothing is added for the building or the floor, and the price is the same on Fridays, weekends and public holidays. The only cost a tower can add is paid parking, where no free visitor space can be arranged. Every figure is on the price list.
My building wants a permit or the company's documents. What should I do?
Ask the management office exactly what it needs and how far ahead it needs it, then tell us when you book. Our notes for Al Maryah Island say some towers ask for a contractor's permit in advance, and a request like that is far easier to deal with three days before the visit than at the desk on the morning. If the office asks for the company's details, the legal name is IHR Dream General Maintenance and Cleaning L.L.C. and the Abu Dhabi trade licence number is CN-4175959.
Can I book a same-day clean in a tower?
Yes, when a slot is free. A same-day visit needs about 2 hours' notice and costs the same as any other. The limit is usually the building and not the diary: if your tower wants visitors approved in advance, check that it will accept an approval lodged the same morning before you book. The timing is explained in how same-day cleaning works.
Will the team clean the outside of the windows and the balcony glass?
The inside of all the glass, yes, and the outside wherever it can be reached safely from the balcony. The outer face of a tower is the building's job. It needs rope access or a cradle, and the building's own contractor handles it. The balcony floor, rail and door track are part of an apartment clean where it is safe to work; the method is in how to clean an apartment balcony, and the limits are set out in what a cleaning team can safely reach.
Can the same cleaner come every week, so that security knows them?
On a weekly or fortnightly plan the visit keeps the same day and time, and we assign the same cleaner wherever the schedule allows. That helps in a tower more than anywhere else. The desk recognises the person, the cleaner knows the parking level and the lift, and the slow first minutes of the visit disappear. If your building approves visitors by name, ask us to tell you when a different cleaner is coming, so that the approval can be changed before the day.
Does a repair or an AC job need the building's permission?
Often it does. Repairs in apartments tend to touch shared systems, such as risers, main valves and the building's electrical board, so we ask whether the job needs the building's permission or a shut-off by its maintenance team. For AC work, tell us where the access panels are and whether building maintenance has to be told first. Put the question to the management office before the visit, not on the day.
Booking a clean in your tower
Ask the building its rules, arrange the bay and the approval, and write five lines in the notes. That is the whole of it, and after the first visit it is on file.
We cover the towers of Al Reem, Al Maryah, the Corniche, Al Raha Beach and Masdar City every day, 8 AM – 8 PM. Each district has its own page under areas we serve, with what our teams have noted about getting in. Choose the hours and the day, add the building details, and the price is shown before you confirm. Payment is by card online once we confirm your booking. You can book a visit online on the website or in the IHR Dream app.
