Changed my time without even asking if it would work for me. Basic cleaning ended up being barely 1 & 1/2 hours. Rushed through everything. Left countertops sticky, used one swiffer type pad to mop which left floors smeared and not really clean, obvious soap scum grit left in tub and sinks. No power nozzle to do rugs, so not really clean either. Dirt on bare floor in several places. Not worth the price. I'll keep doing it myself before I accept that level of "service". Update: They practically begged me to allow a them a second chance which I agreed to. They admitted the person they sent was a brand new hire with no training and no experience. Two persons came a second time and did a good job. However they left without even telling us they were done or saying goodbye...and therefore did not get the payment I had ready or their tips. I was in another room to stay out of their way, they knew where I was and couldn't give a little shout out they were done? Kind of rude. I took a look when everything got quiet all of a sudden. Odd way to do business. read more

Much better the second time. Company offered to redo cleaning, and it was more thorough. I'll give them another shot.

Castle Services is very reliable and does a great job cleaning our home. We're happy to have found them!

Do NOT give this company any business! Proceed at your own risk! 1. late arrival 2. not task oriented 3. too talkative and self aggrandizing 4. S......L......O.....W 5. Creepy (listening to my personal phone conversation) 6. Lazy (I had to move the furniture so he could vacuum the entire floor) 7. Did not remove runners or lamps or trinkets to dust. 8. Left after only doing main floor. Left 2 floors entirely undone 9. Charged for entire house and did not hold to agreement DO NOT PATR0NIZE THIS BUSINESS! read more

Castle came and gave an estimate for regular cleaning of our short-term rental home in Ithaca. We agreed on a price, and that any extra time required would be paid additionally - we need to have it cleaned well between guests, and don't mind paying extra. We agreed on terms and a schedule for cleaning. I specified that the first cleaning might require extra time because it was being used for a month before that. This was in an email they confirmed. We listed two possible days for the initial cleaning. The Castle representative misread the email (although they confirmed it) and scheduled the first cleaning for the following week. On the second day, I checked in with them and they told me they misread the email. We agreed they would come at noon on the next day, and finish the cleaning before check-in time at 3 pm. At 12:30 they had not arrived so I texted again. They said they were on their way. The Castle representative and one additional crew member arrived at 1:17. This left them 1:43 to do the job before check-in time. She took one look at the place and told me it was "filthy" and she could not clean it. They left within 10 minutes (I have a security camera in the parking area). The house was lived in for a month before they arrived. It was emptied out, and there was no dirty laundry. It needed to be cleaned and beds made (linens were all on the beds). It had a few dishes on the counter, half a load in the dishwasher, and trash/recycling in the bins. That's it. It was not unusually dirty in any way. Remember, I had specified that the first cleaning might require extra time - as is often the case with regular cleaning jobs. They abandoned me with no cleaners 1.5 hours before my guests were scheduled to arrive. They could have said, "This will take extra time, please tell the guests to wait a few hours." They could have said, "We need to charge extra." All of that would have been fine. Instead, they left me in the lurch and at risk of losing hundreds of rental dollars in income and a bad guest experience. I have no idea if they do a good job cleaning, but I can tell you they do not keep their word and are not reliable. I have documentation for everything here. I have no conflicts of interest with this review. read more

I never leave reviews but these people are unprofessional and rude. they talk bad about their customers and have a crew that just sits around and pretends to clean. they don't perform deep cleaning but charge for one. NEVER AGAIN read more

I do not recommend using this company for cleaning. They do not charge by the hour they charge by the job. After agreeing that it takes 2.5 to 3 hours to clean my house we agreed on a price. We also agreed the cleaning would be a certain day of the week and in between certain hours while I was at work. It turns out that the cleaning person assigned me lives 45 minutes away and that has to take their child to school in the morning. After 4 months of what I would call mediocre cleaning I asked my cleaner why she could not finish the job within the times we agreed upon. She replied that she was getting there only one hour before the time she was supposed to be gone from the house. Then they had the nerve to raise the rate on me. When I confronted the owner that I was paying for a 2.5 to 3 hour job and was only getting one hour of work she defended herself by saying..."we do not charge by the hour but by the job". I fired her on the spot and asked to be released from making payment on my last cleaning which I thought was more than reasonable. She refused and threatened to put a lien on my house if I did not pay it. read more

Terrible. They came and looked at my house and quoted me $150 for one person, 2 hours. I responded that prior cleaners used 2 people for 4 hours to get the job done. They pushed back and I relented because I really needed some help. They sent one person who was here for 4 hours, and missed so many, many things that were obvious, to include wiping down basic kitchen appliances, inside of the toilets, sinks, faucets, etc. I called Castle and even sent pictures of what had been missed. I also told them that I had my house professionally cleaned before by many services and had never had a problem. They became very rude and defensive and refused to give me any sort of discount at all. They will never clean my house again! What a rip off. Do not use this service! read more

**I normally don't post reviews, but this was a must.** If you want subpar service and horrible customer service, then this cleaning company is for you. If I could give negative stars, I would! Janie could not be any worse of an owner/service provider. At the second scheduled appt, she arrived 40 minutes late and left within the hour. She did not complete the service as agreed upon during the first visit. I simply requested that she move items on the vanity and kitchen counter as they were missed during the first visit. Instead of addressing the issue, she became defensive. She was rude and highly unprofessional towards me and my family. Just like her unprofessionalism, her work was also subpar. She neglected to attempt to remove mildew and soap stains along the bathroom (see pictures). She informed me that she "tried" to clean the bathroom; however, when I cleaned it using Lysol bathroom cleaner, the mildew and the stains were removed. When I emailed the company about my concerns and frustrations toward the service provided, Janie responded to the email by denying further cleaning services to the home. Isn't that excellent customer service for you?!? I would never recommend this company. Stay away! read more

Castle Services of Ithaca - Home Cleaning Near Me - Ithaca, New York

See all

I suffered through months of apprenticing mediocre cleaners, who would then quit and never return, only to have another new person come in to do another mediocre job. I always hoped that someone would stay and the service would get better. The owner came to clean because she was short staffed and while she spent 5 minutes chatting with me about her daughter's college boyfriend, did not communicate that she was unhappy about the level of preparation I did for their arrival. She then went back to the office and canceled their services with me. I would take it at face value that this was my fault, but clearly this person doesn't have enough staff. Either way, difficult to work with if they can't even communicate to me there is a problem before abandoning the job. read more

I don't usually leave negative reviews on Yelp as I prefer to take the approach of promoting those who excel, but this was overall a terrible experience and they really left us in the lurch. Terrible quality cleaning services overall, surfaces oily/sticky, toilets left really nasty, charged for work not completed. For a company that sells itself on "a reputation for trustworthiness" and "a commitment to excellence" we received completely the opposite and feel taken for a ride. Strongly recommend avoiding this business. read more

I agree with the other reviewers that this company DOES NOT RESPECT PEOPLE'S TIME AT ALL. I had an appointment with her at 1pm, and she didn't show up. I called her a million of times and NO ONE ANSWERED. At 3:30pm, she EMAILED me saying she was behind schedule, and asked me if it was ok for me if she came right away. I replied immediately saying that I understood, and she could come because I was still waiting for her. And another half hour later (3 hours past the scheduled starting time), she sent me another email saying "I should reschedule due to my late starting time". Of course I decided not to use her service. read more

Janie & her staff are lifesavers. They are extremely efficient and very, very careful at the same time. Nothing phases them...no mess is too large or awful to tackle. They are all very cheerful, caring individuals who take great pride in their work. I've had a few cleaning people in my 38 years of owning a home, and Janie is the best by far. I highly recommend Castle Cleaning. read more

Don't bother with Castle Clean! I normally don't write reviews, but I felt compelled after my experience with Janie/Castle Clean, because I used Yelp to find her. If you want someone with great customer service, do not choose Castle Clean. She was an hour late, then hadn't checked her email I sent that morning stating I would leave the front door open because my garage door wasn't working. So she left a rude message on my phone -- keep in mind this was way after I'd assumed she was there and everything was going well. I didn't get the message for another hour and a half because I was at work and immediately texted her back letting her know the door was open and she could go in. At that time she still could have done the job, but she didn't respond to the text for yet another hour and a half, and then it was to berate me for emailing instead of calling (even though up to that point all our communication had been via email). I responded back asking if she could reschedule and she ignored it, then texted again letting me know what a terrible client I am. I then told her I would not hire her and would not recommend her services. She said she doesn't care. It's a good thing she doesn't need new business. She told me she doesn't need my recommendations and that she's got a slew of clients who don't care that she's late because she does a good job. So if this is someone you want to do business with, or better yet come into your home, by all means go for it. Next time I will look for someone professional, courteous and on time. read more

I agree with the other reviewer that it does take quite a while to get a response. I had better luck with email rather than phone, and once contacted we it took a couple weeks to get on the schedule. The cleaning price is a bit steep for our budget. We were charged $125 for a cleaning job that took 1.5-2hrs. I will say that the owner -- she cleaned our place herself -- was very lovely in person, and did a relatively thorough job. read more

I've had really good experience with Janie and Rick, doing everything from post-remodel clean-up to windows to minor repairs. I've found them to be responsive and flexible--would easily recommend. read more

NO INTEGRITY -Today I got a call back from the Ithaca owner of Castle Cleaning. She admitted that she told my elderly relative (92 yr old) that she would do the cleaning job at the price of $20/hr. Later on she regretted agreeing to this- but instead of calling back and having an honorable character of positive integrity and let her know she decided not to do the job. She ignored all calls made by her. Of course she did a NO SHOW. but did answer my call that said,..." if she was sick or had a death in the family, I apologize but, if not, there was no excuse for her to do a NO Show , No Call." She ranted excuses that she gets paid more than that an hour and works with Cornell and is a reputable establishment....she claimed she had no way of giving her opinion and letting my elder relative know she needed more money and did not do this kind of work. A call back upon her decision would have showed integrity. BUT NO, I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND HER OR HER ESTABLISHMENT ...NEVER NEVER SHE HAS NO RESPECT FOR OUR ELDERLY OR HERSELF! read more

I'm giving this one star - for showing up - and here's why. Moving houses and nearly 9 months pregnant, my wife and I commissioned her services to give our recently-purchased house a deep clean prior to us moving in. The previous owner had cats (to which we are both quite allergic) and a mild aversion to cleaning. We entrusted Janie not only with getting rid of the dirt and the grime at a time when neither my wife nor I could do it, but also to some degree with our health - and the health of our soon to be born child - in the expectation that she would at least do her job of cleaning, the job which we paid for. We didn't expect it to be perfect but at least expected it to help. What actually happened was, our house was left so dirty that my mother came into town and with her help we had to re-clean anything she did and first clean the things she neglected. I'm not talking about anything extraordinary here but things like the windowsills, either of the bathrooms, the floors, the fridge... and the list goes on. Before she started the work we gave her a list of these specific places to focus and yet none of those areas were clean. Frazzled from a move and the upcoming baby we put our trust in that she did at least a modicum of the work we agreed up and even tipped her to thank her for the help. And then we went inside and found remarkably little changed. My wife sent her an email asking about the work she didn't do and her response was that we just needed a fresh coat of paint - full stop. Anyone that's ever tried to paint a house knows you do not put a fresh coat of paint on dirty walls, let alone one with still dirty floors. The best I can say about is that we feel taken advantage of. I should have been more aware, I should have been less trusting, and that is my fault. But weeks later, now that I've cooled down enough to write this, I can at least hope that no other new family gets taken advantage of in this way. So if you want to get swindled, bamboozled or otherwise taken advantage of feel free to enlist her services but honestly you'll probably get more use out of the $150 she charges by using the cash to start a fire in your grill because at least then you can feel like your money was put to better use. read more

I really never leave bad reviews but I was really let down by them when I really needed it and feel compelled to help others not be stuck high and dry. I was a Castle Cleaning client, then we had a week where the owner contacted me and said they needed to postpone/reschedule bc the woman who cleans was sick. I of course understood. So then waited the two weeks we usually go between cleanings...figuring they'd contact me to reschedule. When we reached the Tuesday before the Thursday that would be just the next regular scheduled cleaning, I reached out and said "are we just going back to normal schedule?" The owner replied and let me know that unfortunately they were stopping service for me because they were "focusing more on commercial clients." We had been counting on their service this week for a special occasion we have. I'm not sure she would've told me had I not reached out and perhaps just not shown up. Furthermore I do hire her through my business which currently has an office at home but in the upcoming months is moving to a commercial space. (In addition to the warehouse space we currently have and were JUST talking about finding help for). So even if that is the strategic move on her part, The way the communication was handled and how I was left high and dry before an event just burned the bridge with my business and sadly the people who ask me for a recommendation. read more

It is impossible to get in touch with this cleaning company! I bought a voucher in October and have not been able to redeem it yet. When you finally do get through and make an appt they don't show up. Then you can't reach them to reschedule! I would give them 0 stars if I could! I want to get my money back because my son moved out before he could get them to come clean!!! read more

We have a 3 bedroom home which Castle Cleaning Company cleans weekly for 5+ years. It is always very nice to come home to a freshly cleaned house. She is dependable and we feel comfortable that she has a key to our home, knowing she is fully insured and bonded. Wouldn't trade her! read more