How to price house cleaning

The four common ways to price

Most house cleaning businesses use one of four methods, or a mix. Each has a place.

Hourly pricing

You charge a rate per cleaner per hour. It is simple and it protects you on messy homes. The downside is that clients cannot tell what the bill will be, and some feel they are paying for a slow cleaner. Hourly works well for one-off jobs you cannot judge in advance, like hoarding situations or heavy post-party cleanups.

Flat rate pricing

You quote one price for the whole visit. Clients like knowing the total up front, and you earn more as your team gets faster. The risk is underquoting a home that takes longer than you thought. Flat rates work best once you have timed enough jobs to estimate well.

Per-room pricing

You price by bedrooms and bathrooms, often with a base price plus an amount per extra room. Bathrooms usually cost more than bedrooms because they take longer. This is the easiest method for clients to understand and the easiest to put into an online booking form.

Square-foot pricing

You charge by the size of the home. It handles big open layouts and small rooms more fairly than room counts. Clients often guess their square footage wrong, so build in a way to adjust after the first visit.

Work out your target hourly rate first

Whatever method you show clients, you need an hourly number behind it. That number is what one cleaner-hour must bring in to cover everything and leave a profit.

1. Labor. What you pay a cleaner per hour, plus payroll taxes and any benefits if they are employees.
2. Supplies. Chemicals, cloths, vacuum bags, gloves and replacement equipment, spread across your hours.
3. Travel. Gas, vehicle wear and the unpaid or paid time between homes.
4. Overhead. Insurance, software, phone, marketing, bookkeeping and your own office time.
5. Profit. A margin on top so the business can save, grow and survive slow months.

Add up your monthly overhead and divide by the cleaning hours you expect to bill in a month. Add that to your labor, supply and travel cost per hour. Then add your profit margin. The result is your target rate.

Worked example (illustrative numbers only)

This is an example. The figures below are made up to show the math. Replace every one with your own costs and local rates.

• Cleaner pay: $20 per hour, plus about $3 per hour for payroll taxes and workers’ comp. Labor cost: $23.
• Supplies: about $2 per hour.
• Travel: about $3 per hour.
• Overhead: $1,500 per month across 300 billed hours, so $5 per hour.
• Total cost: $23 + $2 + $3 + $5 = $33 per hour.
• Add a profit margin. If you want profit to be 25% of the price, divide cost by 0.75: $33 / 0.75 = $44 per cleaner-hour.

Now turn that into a flat price. Say a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home takes one cleaner about 3.5 hours for a standard clean. At $44 per hour, that is $154. You might round to $155 and set that as your standard price for that size of home.

Repeat this for your common home sizes and you have a price list grounded in real costs, not guesses.

First-clean and deep-clean surcharges

The first visit almost always takes longer. Built-up grime, baseboards nobody has touched and a home you do not know yet all add time. Most owners handle this one of two ways:

• A first-clean surcharge, such as a percentage on top of the regular price, for the first visit only.
• Requiring a deep clean before a client can start a recurring plan, priced as its own service.

Either way, explain it clearly when you quote. Clients accept a higher first price when they know the regular price that follows. See deep clean vs standard clean for what each one should include.

Recurring discounts

Recurring clients are worth more than one-time jobs. Their homes stay cleaner, so visits are faster. They fill your schedule predictably and cost nothing to re-market to. A small discount rewards that.

A common setup is a larger discount for weekly, a smaller one for every two weeks and little or none for monthly, since monthly homes get dirtier between visits. Keep the discount small enough that recurring visits still hit your target hourly rate. If a weekly home takes noticeably less time, you can afford a bigger discount there.

Extras and add-ons

List extras as separate line items instead of folding them into the base price. Clients see exactly what they are paying for, and you do not lose money when someone asks for the inside of the oven every visit. Common extras include:

• Inside the oven
• Inside the fridge
• Inside cabinets
• Interior windows
• Baseboards and blinds
• Laundry, folding or changing bed linens
• Pet hair beyond normal

Price each extra by the time it takes at your target hourly rate.

Set a minimum

A tiny studio or a quick touch-up still costs you travel, setup and admin time. A minimum price makes sure every visit is worth taking. Base it on the smallest job that covers travel and still hits your target rate. Show it clearly so nobody is surprised.

Make quoting consistent

The hardest part of pricing is applying it the same way every time. Write your price list down and use it for every quote. If you take bookings online, an instant quote by bedrooms and bathrooms or square feet, with extras added on, keeps prices consistent and saves back-and-forth messages. Sweepivo’s online booking does this, then lets the client pick a real open time.

Review your prices at least once a year and whenever your costs change. If you are fully booked for months, that is usually a sign your prices are too low.

Want a quick starting point? Try our free house cleaning price calculator.

Written by the Sweepivo team, October 2026. General guidance only: check your state and local rules, and talk to an accountant or lawyer about tax and legal questions.

Questions

Should I charge hourly or flat rate for house cleaning?

Many owners use flat rates for regular homes because clients prefer a known total, and keep hourly pricing for unusual one-off jobs. Either way, base your prices on a target hourly rate built from your costs.

How much should I charge for a deep clean?

Estimate how many extra hours a deep clean takes compared with a standard clean of the same home, then price those hours at your target rate. Our house cleaning price calculator can help you start.

Should I give a discount for recurring cleaning?

A small discount for weekly or every-two-weeks service is common because those homes are faster to clean and fill your schedule. Keep it small enough that each visit still covers your costs and profit.

Try it yourself

Every plan comes with a 30-day free trial, no card needed, in English and Spanish. Set up your services and prices, share your booking link, and see if it fits.

Rather see it first? Book a demo call and we’ll walk you through it.