If you need someone who knows your home, looks after your furniture properly, and keeps everything running whether you’re there or not, you’re looking for a personal housekeeper.
Morgan & Mallet is a housekeeper staffing agency with a UK office in Mayfair, London. We place private housekeepers in London townhouses, country estates, and homes all over the UK.
We have over 6,400 housekeeping professionals in our database and a 97% placement success rate.
What a UK Housekeeper
Does Day to Day
A housekeeper does cleaning, laundry, ironing, pressing, linen changes, wardrobe management, stocking the pantry and looks after guest rooms.
In bigger homes, your housekeeper also sets the table for formal dinners, sorts out dry cleaning, and helps with packing and unpacking when the family travels.
About 25% of our UK housekeepers can cook too. Useful if you want one person covering more ground.
If your home has fine art, antiques, or collectibles, they need to know how to clean around them without causing damage. Cashmere, silk, and linen all need different care. And if you only want organic or chemical-free products, tell us upfront and we’ll make sure your housekeeper knows before they start.
Morgan Richez our co-founder: “It’s not only about the top of the table. You need to check inside, under, everywhere. And use the right product for the right furniture. You can’t use the same product for everything.”
If you split time between London and the country, your housekeeper keeps both homes ready. Or we find you one person for each.
Your housekeeper can also work with your other staff like your butler, house manager or other staff to make your home run in the way you want.
London and the Countryside Are Different Jobs
In London, your housekeeper usually works alongside a chef, nanny, or PA. Over half of our UK housekeepers have run a team before and can step into a head housekeeper role.
London homes tend to have expensive furniture and artwork. Your housekeeper needs to know what to use on Carrara marble, what works on honed limestone, and what’s safe for hardwood or antique wood.
Morgan Richez saw this when he worked as a butler in London: “The interior designer brings all the furniture and spends one or two days with the housekeeper team to show them how to clean everything. Be careful about this product. You can only use this on that surface. That’s it.”
In the countryside, the job is broader and the property is probably bigger. There are grounds, outbuildings, staff cottages.
Your housekeeper might be the only person there most of the week, running things on their own and getting the house sorted before the family arrives at weekends.
One thing people don’t always think about is that in homes where the family is only there part of the year, the furniture often stays covered.
When the principal calls on a Friday afternoon to say they’re arriving that evening, the housekeeper has two hours to pull the covers off, dust everything down, stock the fridge, and make the place feel like someone’s been living there all week.
Morgan saw this himself when he worked in a London property.
The whole team would drop what they were doing. “Principal is coming in two hours. We didn’t know and we didn’t expect this.”
That kind of readiness only comes from someone who knows the house inside out.
Accommodation is part of the deal for country roles. Live-in is standard.
Morgan Richez: “My advice is about the accommodation. Some people, especially in London, the accommodation is completely bad. Without windows, in the basement.
The accommodation is a very important point. You need to offer decent, furnished, modern accommodation.”
Why Housekeeper Recruitment
Is Getting Harder in the UK
Brexit changed things. EU nationals now need a visa to work in British households, and there are fewer candidates than there used to be.
Morgan Richez: “In the UK with Brexit, it’s very difficult now to find really good people with five-star experience. There are less and less people. That’s why the salary has increased a lot.”
And there are no housekeeper training schools anywhere. Most of the best candidates learned in five-star hotels like the Dorchester, the Savoy, or Claridge’s.
Morgan Richez: “Some clients say, ‘I’d like a housekeeper who used to be trained by the Dorchester because I know they get a very good training.’ Unfortunately there’s no certification and no training course for housekeepers. It almost all comes from luxury hotels.”
When you do find the right person, hold on to them. A bonus, decent accommodation, time off when the family is away. That’s what keeps good staff from leaving.
Housekeeper Salaries in the UK
Positions | Annual Salary (GBP) |
|---|---|
Full-time housekeeper | £50,000 to £80,000 |
Head housekeeper | £65,000 to £100,000+ |
Part-time (London) | £20 to £25 per hour net minimum |
London pays the most. Country roles usually pay less but you’re providing a home, meals, and bills on top.
For a full breakdown on salaries, see the full research in our household staff salary guide.
How We Find Your Housekeeper
Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, tests discretion on every senior placement: “I purposely overstep the line during interviews. I ask questions that are too personal, on purpose. If someone handles it with grace, that tells me more than their CV.”
She once placed a housekeeper who didn’t look great on paper. But her discretion in the interview was extraordinary. She knew how to be in someone’s home without being noticed. That placement lasted five years.
When you call our UK office, a recruiter asks about your property and what you actually need. How many other staff are there. What does the week look like. What does the house need.
We search our database of candidates. Every one has at least three to five years in private homes or luxury hotels.
Something worth knowing is that the best housekeepers don’t always look like the best housekeepers on paper. Laurine has placed people whose CVs were average but whose instincts in the interview were extraordinary. That’s why we interview everyone for 90 minutes ourselves before you see them.
We test real skills. Which products would you use on this surface. How would you handle a last-minute dinner for 12. What would you do if you noticed damp behind a wall.
We run DBS checks on every UK placement, check references with former employers, and go through employment history for the last five to seven years.
You see three to five candidates. We set up your interviews and organise paid trial days so you can see how each person actually works in your home.
What Happens After
We Place Your Housekeeper
We check in every week during the first few months. Most issues in the early days come down to expectations, not ability.
Morgan Richez: “If you hire a housekeeper and you watch her, every time you’re going to see the place where she didn’t clean. For some people, the house is clean. For other people, it’s not clean enough. I’m like that myself. It’s not easy for me to find the right housekeeper because every time I see what she missed.”
The fix is usually communication, not replacement. When we check in, we talk to both sides. If the client’s standards are very specific, we help them explain that clearly.
Most of the time, the first few weeks just need a bit of adjustment. You get a three-month replacement guarantee. If it genuinely doesn’t work out, we replace at no extra cost.
We also help with contracts and can connect you with UK employment lawyers if you need them.
Where We Place
Housekeepers in the UK
London. Mayfair, Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Kensington, Chelsea, and across central London. Most of our UK housekeeper placements are here. More candidates live in London, so searches tend to move faster.
The Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, and the Home Counties. Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire. Big country estates where your housekeeper runs things on their own during the week.
Scotland. Edinburgh is similar to London. The Highlands are a different story. Bigger properties, more remote, and the housekeeper often has the place to themselves for months.
Morgan calls these “ghost houses.” Some people love the quiet and the salary. Others go stir-crazy after six months. We’re honest about that upfront so nobody goes in with the wrong expectations.
The South West. Bath, Bristol, Devon, Cornwall. Second homes, mostly seasonal.
If your property is rural, we’ll tell you whether the search will take longer or if you’ll need to pay more to get the right person out there.
Other Types of
Housekeeper Roles
Head housekeeper
Runs a team, creates schedules and SOPs, handles inventory and budgets.
Morgan mentions that a good head housekeeper uses the weeks when the family is away to tackle things there’s never time for.
Winter deep cleans, spring turnarounds, reorganising storage. Over half of our UK candidates work at this level.
Live-in housekeeper
Standard for country roles. Offer decent accommodation and cover the bills.
Part-time
Works well for smaller London homes or second properties.
Housekeeper-cook
About 25% of our UK housekeepers can cook well.
Travelling housekeeper
For families who split time between the UK and homes abroad. Same recruiter handles all properties.
Laundress
 If you have a big wardrobe or a lot of fine linens, a laundress looks after garments and table linen full-time.
How long does it take to hire a housekeeper in the UK?
How long does it take to hire a housekeeper in the UK?
Two to four weeks for London. Country searches can take longer because there are fewer candidates.
Has Brexit made it harder?
Yes. Fewer EU candidates, higher salaries. Our international network helps us look outside the UK when we need to.
What background checks do you run?
DBS checks on every UK placement. 90-minute interviews, references with former employers, five to seven years of employment history.
Do you place housekeepers outside London?
Anywhere in the UK. The Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Scotland, Bath, Bristol, Devon, Cornwall. Rural searches may take longer.
What if I have homes abroad too?
Same recruiter handles everything. We have offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, Geneva, Monaco, and Dubai.
United Kingdom
office address
Level 1, Devonshire House, One Mayfair Place, W1J 8AJ, London, United Kingdom
phone
+44 20 4578 6249
contact@morganmallet.agency
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed