How to price house cleaning jobs

By the Enqovo team · Published 2026-10-28

Start with what an hour of cleaning costs you

Before you pick prices, work out what one hour of cleaning really costs your business. Add up:

• Wages for the cleaner, plus payroll taxes and workers’ comp if you have employees
• Supplies and equipment, spread across the jobs you do in a month
• Travel time and gas between jobs
• Insurance, software, phone and other monthly costs, divided by the hours you clean in a month

Add those together and you have your cost per cleaning hour. Your hourly price needs to cover that cost and leave the profit you want. Use your own numbers here, not someone else’s. Wages, rents and gas prices are very different from one city to the next.

Hourly, flat rate or by square foot?

There are three common ways to charge:

• Hourly: simple for you, but customers can’t tell what they will pay until the job is done, and a faster cleaner earns you less.
• By square foot: easy to explain, but many customers don’t know their square footage, and two homes the same size can take very different times.
• Flat rate by bedrooms and bathrooms: customers know their bedroom and bathroom count, so they can get a price right away. You set the price from how long that size of home takes you.

Many owners use a flat rate grid for standard cleans and keep square feet as a check for very large homes.

Build a bedroom and bathroom price grid

Time a few of your real jobs for each home size. Then multiply the average time by your hourly price and round to a clean number. You end up with a small grid, for example:

• 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

Fill in your own price for each row. Set a top size too, such as 5 bedrooms or 3,500 square feet, and price anything bigger yourself after a call or a walkthrough.

Deep cleans and move-out cleans

A deep clean or move-in / move-out clean takes longer than a standard clean of the same home. The easiest way to price it is a multiplier on your standard price. For example, if a deep clean of a home usually takes you about one and a half times as long, set the deep-clean multiplier to 1.5. Check the multiplier against a few real deep cleans and adjust it.

Add-ons

List the extras customers ask for most often and give each one a fixed price:

• Inside the fridge
• Inside the oven
• Inside cabinets
• Interior windows
• Baseboards
• Laundry
• Pets in the home

Fixed add-on prices stop the back-and-forth over small extras, and they make your quotes add up the same way every time.

Recurring discounts

Weekly and every-two-weeks customers are easier to schedule, and the home is quicker to clean each visit. Many owners give a small percentage off for weekly, a little less for every two weeks, and less again for monthly. Decide your own discount for each, and make sure the discounted price still covers your cost per hour.

Set a minimum job price

A minimum price protects you from short jobs that are not worth the drive. Set it from your travel time plus the shortest job you are willing to take.

Check your prices every few months

Look at your prices every three to six months. If your costs went up, or most jobs of one size run longer than you planned, update that row. A price list you keep current is one you can quote from with confidence.

Quoting new customers you haven't seen

Most first quotes are given before you see the home. Ask for the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, roughly how long since the last professional clean, and whether there are pets. Then quote from your grid, and say clearly that the first clean may be a deep clean if the home needs it.

Common mistakes

• Pricing below your real cost per hour because a competitor does
• Giving the same price for a home with one pet and a home with four
• Forgetting travel time between jobs
• Giving recurring discounts without a minimum number of visits

Quick checklist

• Cost per cleaning hour worked out from your own numbers
• Price grid by bedrooms and bathrooms, with a top size
• Deep-clean and move-out multipliers checked against real jobs
• Fixed prices for your common add-ons
• A discount for weekly, every two weeks and monthly
• A minimum job price
• A date in your calendar to review prices