About Us
Avid Commercial Cleaners Inc. sparked as a simple idea in 2018 by three friends who met working at a hotel that shared a passion for hospitality and customer service. It remained an idea for the following 2 years, until we unexpectedly lost our jobs due to COVID-19. We saw that there was a demand and a need for cleaning services, especially with the rise in numbers during the pandemic. We wanted to give back to our community and help in any way we could and thus, decided to make our idea a reality in 2021.
Meet the Owners.
Janeth Penafiel
Patience, persistence, and determination.
Immigrating from Ecuador to pursue a better quality of life in Canada, Janeth learned English, graduated high school, and went on to attend Humber College where she completed the Hospitality Management Program. During her time at Humber, she received the CHF Gordon Food Service Scholarship, was elected President to the Hospitality Association of Canada Alumni Chapter, and obtained a Front Desk internship at the IHG owned InterContinental Toronto Centre which led to a full-time position. She honed her skills and gained a great deal of experience. Her ambition became apparent as she was rapidly promoted to a senior position. After two years at the InterContinental, Janeth began a management position as Housekeeping Supervisor at the Hilton Toronto, a flagship hotel in which she managed and supervised a team of 100 room attendants in the housekeeping department. It is there where she developed her keen eye for detail, knowledge of housekeeping and what it took to maintain the highest standards of the industry with an emphasis on efficacy and efficiency. Needless to say, this position left a great impression on her as it has taught her to always strive for the highest standards.
After more than a year at the Hilton, Janeth stumbled upon a very challenging but highly rewarding opportunity that would foster her passion for meeting new people and seeing new places. She would be travelling the world as a Training Specialist for one of the top hospitality software companies, Amadeus Hospitality. Janeth would travel to 8 countries on 3 different continents where she would facilitate new installations, upgrades and system migrations, and led product training either onsite or remotely to thousands of employees on the Hotel Service Optimization System HotSOS and HotSOS Housekeeping software, respectively.
Today Janeth has decided in using all her experience in the hospitality industry and embark on this entrepreneur journey alongside Eddie Fernandez and Stacy Low.
Eddie Fernandez
Eddie Fernandez has an extensive history of entrepreneurship in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Having lived in the US for roughly 15 years, Eddie purchased his first cleaning franchise at the age of 21 years old. His experience with the franchise led him to start his own commercial cleaning company, which contracted with hotels in the US to provide all of their housekeeping services. Eddie’s company had nearly 50 employees across four separate hotel properties and was on track to expand further. However, Eddie decided to close the company to pursue a new dream that would lead him to Canada.
In 2018, Eddie immigrated to Canada and moved to Toronto with his husband, Tyler. His story was featured in the Netflix documentary titled “Living Undocumented” and followed his journey from his home in the US all the way to the US-Canada border, where he landed in Canada as a Permanent Resident.
Eddie absolutely loves his life in Canada and is eternally grateful to Canadians for giving his family an opportunity to resettle here. With that, his new dream is to take his professional success from his US opportunities and infuse them into Avid Commercial Cleaners here in Canada. Providing more immigrants and Canadians alike an opportunity to support themselves and contribute back to the country that has given him so much.
Stacy Low
Originally from Trinidad & Tobago, Stacy first came to Canada in 2008 to study at Ryerson University, achieving a Bachelor's of Commerce in Hospitality and Tourism Management. Stacy's hard work and determination opened up many opportunities including an internship in Australia over the summer and various hotels throughout the GTA.
Over the last several years, Stacy has managed to gain transferrable skills and experience throughout various departments in the hotel industry such as Operations (Food & Beverage, Front Office, Housekeeping), Human Resources and Sales & Marketing.
Stacy's eagerness to learn, attention to detail, dependable nature and exemplary references from Supervisors and Managers, lead her to rise through these various departments with ease, including being promoted to Housekeeping Supervisor and managing over 100 employees within the department ; making Impeccable Cleaning and Quality Service the standard.
Throughout her career, Stacy took pleasure in building professional relationships with all team members in various departments. It was that passion to build and maintain relationships that lead to the future collaboration and entrepreneurship between her and her partners, Eddie and Janeth. Stacy has a passion for mentorship, the environment and giving back to the community that has supported her studies, immigration and becoming a Canadian citizen. She remains passionate to discover new and innovative ways to give back.
“Our company found Avid Commercial Cleaners through a random search and we are very impressed with the level of professionalism, kindness and courtesy the Owners demonstrated during the information session. We didn't hesitate to sign up and sure enough, they deliver what they promised and more! Our office is now much cleaner and tidier than every before. You won't be disappointed. Guaranteed!”
B Y, AKB Architects