We sent the same four pieces to seven cleaners in Dubai: a wool Persian, a synthetic living-room carpet, a shaggy bedroom rug and a fabric sofa. Same stains, same photographs, very different results.
Carpet cleaning in Dubai splits into two very different businesses. One collects your rug, washes it at a facility and returns it days later, which is what wool and handmade pieces need. The other brings a machine to your flat and cleans the carpet in place, which suits fitted carpets and synthetic pile. Several firms claim both and are genuinely good at only one. Scores below weight stain removal first, then handling of the wool Persian, then pickup logistics and price. EcoClean came out on top because it was the only cleaner that handled the hand-knotted wool and the synthetic carpet equally well, rather than being good at one and careless with the other.
Prices verified August 2026Advertising disclosure: some listings pay commission, which never affects the order.
Carpets, sofas and curtains handled by one crew with eco-safe products
Specialists in handmade rugs, and it shows on the wool Persian
Best on-site work when the carpet cannot leave the room
Sofas and mattresses cleaned better than anyone else in the group
Lowest price per square metre with a genuine wash behind it
Quickest turnaround when the guests arrive on Thursday
Office carpets and high-traffic commercial floors
Most quotes here are per square metre, some are per piece, and sofas are almost always per seat. These are the prices we paid in 2026 with VAT included. Collection and delivery were free with five of the seven cleaners above a small minimum order.
| Item | Price | Basis | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synthetic carpet, on-site | AED 10–18 | per sqm | Dry in three to five hours |
| Synthetic rug, facility wash | AED 12–22 | per sqm | Two to three days |
| Wool rug, facility wash | AED 20–35 | per sqm | Hand washed, four to six days |
| Handmade Persian or silk | AED 30–40 | per sqm | Specialist handling only |
| Shaggy or high pile | AED 18–30 | per sqm | Longer drying, priced above flat weave |
| Fabric sofa | AED 40–70 | per seat | Extraction plus pre-treatment |
| Leather sofa | AED 60–90 | per seat | Clean and condition |
| Mattress, king | AED 120–200 | per item | Both sides, UV optional |
| Stain treatment | AED 30–80 | per stain | Ink, pet and curry cost most |
| Collection and delivery | Free–AED 60 | per trip | Free above a minimum order |
A standard 3 by 4 metre living-room carpet is 12 square metres, so a synthetic piece costs AED 120 to AED 220 and a wool one AED 240 to AED 420. That is the number worth carrying into a phone call, because quotes given per square metre sound cheaper than they land. If a quote comes in far under that, ask which method they intend to use, because bonnet cleaning on a wool rug costs less for a reason.
The method matters more than the brand name on the van. Four are in common use in Dubai, and each suits a different type of pile.
Hot solution injected under pressure and vacuumed straight back out. The standard for fitted and synthetic carpets, and the method most likely to lift ground-in dirt. Drying takes three to six hours.
The rug is soaked, brushed by hand with a pH-appropriate detergent, rinsed and dried flat. Slow and the only correct treatment for wool, silk and handmade pieces.
A polymer solution crystallises around soil, which is vacuumed away the next day. Low moisture and quick to walk on, which is why offices use it. Weak on heavy soiling.
An absorbent pad spun over a damp carpet surface. Fast and cheap, cleans only the top of the pile, and can distort wool fibres. Fine for a quick refresh, wrong for a deep clean.
If a company offers one method for everything, that is the tell. The cleaners at the top of our list asked what the carpet was made of before quoting, and two of them tested a corner for colour fastness before starting.
Dubai has more handmade rugs per household than almost any city, and more ruined ones too. A hand-knotted Persian is wool or silk on a cotton foundation, dyed with pigments that are not always colour fast, and it does not tolerate what a synthetic carpet shrugs off. Hot extraction at high temperature can shrink the foundation. Alkaline detergents strip the lanolin from wool and leave the pile brittle and dull. A rotary brush can fuzz the surface permanently.
What the piece needs is immersion washing: dusted first to remove dry soil, then soaked and brushed by hand with a mild, pH-balanced wool detergent, rinsed thoroughly and dried flat with air movement rather than heat. Fringes are cleaned separately by hand because they are cotton and they discolour differently from the wool.
Three questions settle whether a company should be trusted with the piece. Do they dust it before washing, and with what. Do they run a colour fastness test on a corner. Do they dry it flat rather than hanging it over a rail, which stretches a wet foundation out of shape. Any hesitation on those three is a reason to try the next name on the list. EcoClean answered all three correctly and ran a colour fastness test on a corner of the Persian before it went anywhere near water.
Almost every carpet cleaner in Dubai also does upholstery, and booking both together is usually fifteen to twenty percent cheaper than two separate visits. Pricing is per seat rather than per square metre, and a three-seater counts as three whether or not the cushions come apart.
Fabric sofas respond to the same extraction used on carpets and come up noticeably brighter, particularly light colours that have gone grey along the arms. Ask for a pre-treatment on the headrest and armrests, which take skin oils and are the first areas to look tired.
Leather is a different job. It is cleaned with a dedicated leather product and then conditioned, because Dubai air conditioning is drying and untreated leather cracks along the seat fold within a few years. Do not let anyone put a steam extractor near it.
Mattresses are worth doing once a year, more often with allergies. The service removes dust mite residue and body soil, and the better providers offer UV treatment as an add-on. Both sides should be done, and the mattress needs several hours to dry before the bedding goes back on. Booking carpets, sofas and curtains together is where EcoClean was noticeably cheaper than paying three separate call-outs.
Most rugs in Dubai leave the property to be cleaned, and the logistics matter more than people expect. Five of the seven cleaners here collect free above a small minimum order, usually somewhere around AED 150, and the two that charge ask AED 40 to AED 60 for the round trip. If your rug is small, that fee can be a third of the job.
The collection itself takes a few minutes. A crew rolls the piece, wraps it and tags it, and you should get a photograph of the rug as collected. That photograph is the only protection you have if a stain or a worn patch is disputed on return, and the better cleaners send it without being asked. Ask for a written note of anything already damaged: a frayed fringe, a bleached patch under a window, an old burn.
Turnaround runs two to three days for machine-washed synthetic carpets and four to six for hand-washed wool. In peak season, from October through December, add a couple of days. If someone promises a hand-washed Persian back tomorrow, they are not hand washing it.
On-site cleaning avoids all of this, and for a fitted carpet it is the only option. Expect the room to be usable within three to six hours. What you cannot do on site is properly rinse a rug, which is exactly why wool goes to a facility.
Commercial carpet is a different job from a rug in a flat. The pile is short and dense, the soiling is even rather than spotty, and the constraint is downtime rather than finish quality. Nobody can close a floor for six hours in the middle of a working week.
That is why encapsulation dominates office work in Dubai. A polymer solution is brushed in, it crystallises around the soil overnight, and the crystals are vacuumed out the next morning. Moisture is minimal and the carpet is walkable almost immediately, which is what lets the work happen after hours. It will not rescue a badly neglected floor, but on a maintained one it holds appearance well.
Pricing moves to floor area and contract length. Expect AED 4 to AED 9 per square metre on a one-off, dropping to AED 3 to AED 6 on a quarterly contract, with hot water extraction reserved for an annual restorative clean. For a typical 400 square metre office that is AED 1,600 to AED 3,600 a visit, and most facility managers schedule quarterly with one deep extraction a year.
Two things are worth writing into the contract. First, entrance matting: in Dubai the first three metres inside the door take most of the sand, and they need attention on a shorter cycle than the rest of the floor. Second, spot response, meaning how quickly someone comes out for a spill in a client-facing area. A contract without that clause turns every coffee accident into a new negotiation.
The difference between a good carpet cleaner and a cheap one shows up long before anyone switches a machine on. It is in the questions they ask at the door. Here is what we watched for across the seven.
Textile care writer · ten years in Dubai
I inherited two hand-knotted rugs and learned the hard way what the wrong cleaner does to wool, which is how this comparison started. Every one of the seven companies here cleaned the same four pieces for me at my own expense, photographed under the same light before and after, with the same three stains applied to an offcut of the synthetic carpet each time. None of them knew the work was being written up.
Between AED 10 and AED 40 per square metre depending on the fibre and the method. Synthetic carpets sit at AED 10 to AED 22, wool at AED 20 to AED 35, and handmade Persian or silk pieces at AED 30 to AED 40. A standard 12 square metre living-room carpet therefore costs roughly AED 120 to AED 420.
EcoClean scored highest in our testing, handling both the wool Persian and the synthetic carpet correctly, which none of the others managed equally. RugRevive Dubai was the strongest specialist for handmade rugs, and FiberFresh the best choice for on-site work where the carpet cannot leave the property.
A domestic extraction machine runs AED 700 to AED 2,500 to buy and around AED 150 a day to hire. For most households the maths does not work: two professional cleans of a standard living-room carpet cost less than the cheapest machine, and a domestic unit lacks the suction to pull the water back out, which leaves the pile damp for a day or more.
Most do, and five of the seven we tested collected free above a small minimum order. Facility washing takes two to three days for synthetic pieces and four to six for hand-washed wool. On-site cleaning avoids the wait but is not suitable for handmade rugs.
Three to six hours after hot water extraction with good airflow, and under an hour for encapsulation. Run the air conditioning rather than opening windows, since Dubai humidity outside is usually higher than in. Do not put furniture back until the pile is dry to the touch at the base.
They should not be. Heat and pressure can shrink the cotton foundation and strip the lanolin from wool, leaving the pile dull and brittle. Hand washing by immersion with a pH-balanced wool detergent, dried flat, is the correct method and what specialist cleaners in Dubai use.
That is 12 square metres, so AED 120 to AED 220 for a synthetic carpet and AED 240 to AED 420 for wool. Collection and delivery are usually free above a small minimum order, and booking a sofa at the same time normally takes fifteen to twenty percent off the combined price.
They ask what the carpet is made of before quoting, test a hidden corner for colour fastness, dust the rug before any water touches it, photograph its condition on collection, and dry it flat rather than hanging. They also tell you upfront what will not come out, because old pet urine in the backing, bleach marks and dye run are permanent whoever cleans them.
Once a year for a normal household, twice for homes with pets, small children or an entrance directly off a sandy street. Dubai's fine airborne dust settles faster than in most cities, so the interval is shorter here than the general advice suggests.
Usually, provided the urine has not soaked into the backing and the floor beneath. Surface treatment alone will not fix that, and it needs a specific enzyme treatment applied to the affected area. Tell the cleaner about it in advance rather than hoping the standard wash covers it.
For fitted and synthetic carpets, yes, and it saves the wait. For wool and handmade rugs, no, because a proper wash needs immersion, rinsing and flat drying that cannot be done in a living room. Choose by fibre rather than by convenience.
Send the dimensions and the fibre if you know it. Any cleaner worth using will ask what the piece is made of before quoting a price. EcoClean asks first and quotes second, which is the habit that put it at the top of this page.
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