Dorm-cleaning business available to on-campus university students

Boston University students who just can't find the time to clean their rooms finally have a solution.

Dormaid, a room-cleaning service conceived and created by Harvard University sophomore Michael Kopko, was launched on campus this week, after he developed his program a year ago.

"I ran it under the radar here at Harvard as a freshman and decided it was something a lot of kids were interested in purchasing," he said.

He chose to start it at BU first because there were fewer regulations than at Harvard, he said.

"The challenge that BU poses is that I don't know the campus as well and it's a massive campus and how do you advertise?" Kopko said.

Although Dormaid contracts out for the actual cleaning services, students at colleges nationwide partake in the service with managers from Harvard, Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon University and BU, according to Kopko.

"A lot of people would try to do this stuff in house, but we have a partnership with professional cleaners in the Boston area," he said.

Relying on professional cleaning services allows Dormaid to assure customers that their possessions will be safe during room cleanings. Kopko said Dormaid or its insurance company will compensate customers in the event that any of their possessions were stolen or damaged by the cleaners.

Some BU students said the service was a useful, lucrative idea.

"It seems like a good idea," said College of Communication freshman Aviv Rubinstien. "There's obviously a need for a cleaning service in dorms, especially male dorms."

Kopko said Dormaid has a range of prices, depending on the number of rooms that need to be cleaned and how many cleanings are ordered at a time.

Kopko said the cost of cleaning a single room or a common room is $19.99 and the cost of cleaning a double bedroom is $31. If a plan is purchased, all the prices go down.

"Our model is built around getting people to sign up for multiple cleanings in the same building," he said. "If I have enough jobs in one building, I can send one team out to lower the price."

Rubinstien said he would use the service if he had a need for it.

"If I or my roommate were in a bad enough situation that we could not clean the room ourselves, then I would certainly use it," he said. "It actually is less expensive than I'd expect it to be."

Other students had more mixed reactions on the principle of the cleaning service, unsure of whether or not college students should have such a service available to them.

"I think there reaches a certain point where regardless of if you're busy or have the money for [the Dormaid service], you need to start to clean up your own stuff," said College of Arts and Science sophomore Brad Currier.

CAS junior James Laurenti said he thought the service was interesting but was not for him.

"While I think it's an innovative idea that many students will probably take advantage of, I don't think it's personally for me," he said. "I like my room cluttered. It took me a while to get it this way, and I'm not about to pay someone to mess it up."

While students disagreed about whether or not college students needed something like Dormaid, several students said it would be a success.

Kopko said Dormaid already had 90 patrons at BU and was awaiting approval to start the service officially at Harvard. He expects to work on the service during his remaining time in college and hopes to eventually expand it to Princeton.

"I definitely want to build this up over the next two and a half years," he said. "Right now I want to make sure BU takes off and we take care of our customers."