How to price cleaning services
There are two common ways to price a clean: by the hour or by the job. Either way, the maths underneath is the same. You need each visit to cover its supplies, its share of your business costs and its share of your income goal.
Set hours per clean to the time one visit really takes, including the drive and loading the car. If two people clean together, enter the total labour hours, so a two-hour clean with two people is four hours. The calculator then gives you a price per visit and an effective hourly rate, so you can check that a flat price still works for a larger home.
Many cleaners find it useful to calculate a price for a typical clean, then add a rule of thumb for extras such as inside the oven, inside the fridge, windows or pet hair.
Finally, decide on a minimum price per visit. Small or quick jobs still cost you travel, setup and an hour of your day, so a minimum clean charge protects you from jobs that would otherwise earn less than your break-even.
What to include in your costs
The cost of a clean is more than the spray bottle. Count the items below.
- Supplies and consumables: cleaners, cloths, sponges, bin bags, filters, averaged per clean
- Fuel, vehicle running costs and parking. Use the "other" field for these monthly
- Insurance, bonding and any licence or registration
- Booking, invoicing and payment software
- Marketing: flyers, ads, uniforms and a website
- Equipment such as a vacuum, steam cleaner and replacement parts
- Employee or helper wages, if you pay them, as part of your costs
Rent is usually zero for a mobile cleaner, but if you rent storage space, enter it in the rent field.
Average cleaning services prices (and why yours may differ)
Cleaning prices differ a lot by region, home size and service level. As a rough guide, a standard clean of a small home or flat often costs $80 to $150, a three or four bedroom home $150 to $300, and deep cleans, move-out cleans or post-construction cleans $250 to $600 or more. Hourly rates for solo cleaners commonly sit between $30 and $70.
Prices tend to rise with insurance, team size and extra services, and fall in areas with lots of competition. If your answer is far from local rates, check your hours first, since it is the input most often underestimated.
When to raise your prices
Raise prices before you feel desperate. Good reasons include:
- Fuel, supply or insurance costs have gone up
- You are fully booked and turning clients away
- Your effective hourly rate has fallen below your goal
- You have added a helper or upgraded equipment
- You have been charging the same for a year or more
Give regular clients a few weeks of notice. A modest percentage increase once a year is better received than a large one after a long gap. If you are close to 180 hours a month, raise prices rather than adding more clients.
Common pricing mistakes
Watch out for these mistakes.
- Quoting by how a home looks, not by how long it will take.
- Forgetting travel time between jobs, which is unpaid unless you price it in.
- Charging the same for a first clean as a maintenance clean, even though a first clean takes much longer.
- Not charging extra for pets, heavy buildup or large homes.
- Underpricing recurring clients so heavily that those slots lose money.
- Forgetting insurance and vehicle costs.
