I use Homemaids and have been pretty happy with them so far. Charge 30 dhs/hour. I think they used to charge 35, but then lowered the price, at least according to my friend who recommended them to me. And they told me 4 hour minimum, which I find strange since some of you said they said 2-hour minimum. Hmm.
The woman assigned to me sometimes would come early, which is nice (I have a 2-6 time slot), so she'd finish before the mad rush to get kids ready for dinner and bed. I will say, however, that the she just left to go back to her home country and I have a new girl who I'm not 100% sold on yet. I don't know if she's new to the company or just to my house, or if she actually understands what I asked her to do (doest seem like it), but her cleaning for the most part was pretty good. My only issue was that she was trying to tell me she finished early and was getting all ready to leave (and charge for the 4 hours). I gave her other stuff to do and was like, "no, you stay if i'm paying you" but I don't think she actually understood what I was talking about.
Hi there,
We've recently moved from RAK and to answer some of your questions, I believe the rental prices have come down substantially. I just saw a notice on a RAK board maybe 2 weeks ago for a 3 bedroom townhouse, furnished, licensed for business also, maybe a couple of other perks for like 70,000 dhs. I think an apartment like what you are looking for I think (probably in Al Hamra or Mina al Arab) would be less than that, although don't quote me on it.
School fees are less than Dubai as well. I asked about FS2 at RAKESS for this year and I think it was around 19,000 dhs. All I know is, my RAK friends are horrified when we discuss Dubai school prices. So I'm guessing RAKESS is considerably cheaper. I'm sure there are other people on here who can give you more accurate figures.
Groceries and things are basically around the same prices in the respective stores (like Spinney's more than Carrefour, etc.) The electricity/water thing only gets a bit wonky if you are in an area that's not hooked up to FEWA. For a long time (maybe even still now in certain areas) in Al Hamra, some of the villas/townhouses were being charged more than double the FEWA rate because they were running on generators. For some people, the bills were okay, for others, they were outrageous. Kind of a lottery draw.
It's a lovely place, very small community, very quiet. If that's not your thing, something to think about!
Another Swiss family here who eats it all the time (when at the in-laws, that is). You don't need a special tool - we use the large holes of a cheese grater - just take a spatula (or one of those kind of dough scrapers that has no handle) and push the batter/dough through the holes of the cheese grater into the boiling water. Works great!
