Vientiane - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability and cost of household help, and what types of help are typically employed by expatriates?
Household help is inexpensive. You can pay maybe $300-$400 per month for a maeban (housekeeper) for nearly full-time work. Gardeners cost much less, maybe $25-$40 per month. Based on prior experiences in other countries, I would recommend having low expectations for household help in Laos and hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I do know some people who are very happy with their housekeeper or gardener, and I have heard of some housekeepers and nannies who speak English, but it does not seem to be the norm. Deep cleaning is not something you should expect. Having someone who cooks, buys groceries, and does some basic laundry and cleanup is helpful. - Dec 2024
Maebans (housekeeper, cook, and/or nanny) are plentiful but finding someone who is experienced with expat families and have a great command of English are fewer and more expensive. Most families with children employ maebans full-time (monthly salary is between $300-$600). We also have a gardener who's great (current salary is $100/month). Some people hire drivers or chefs as well. - Mar 2024
Hiring household help is affordable. Most families have nannies and a housekeeper, some others also hire a driver, a cook and a gardener. I pay $100USD/month for someone to come twice a week for 4hrs each time. I will say people's satisfaction with their "mae bans" as they are locally called, varies. You might have to be explicit as to how you like your cleaning, laundry, and cooking done to get what you really want. - Mar 2023
Availability is widespread, ability to speak English is very limited. Most people employed a "maeban" for cooking and cleaning. Salaries for household help are about US $200-300/month. - Jun 2020
There are lots of options. Someone full time will likely cost between US$300 and 400 a month.` - Oct 2018
Cheap and available. Cooks, nannies, gardeners are most common. I believe I paid around US$350/month for our nanny, housekeeper and gardener. We were told we paid more than most, but it was worth the peace of mind as we both worked. Our nanny worked 6 days a week, including some late evenings. Our housekeeper/cook did everything including overseeing our menus for entertaining. Our gardener worked twice a week and took care of the yard and our dogs. - Jan 2014
