How to Price House Cleaning Services (Flat Rates That Hold Up)

Price house cleaning as flat rates by home size and frequency, built from an internal hourly target that covers your pay, your costs, and a profit margin. Quote the flat rate to the customer, never the hourly number. The method has five steps: work out the hourly target, measure how long each type of clean actually takes, multiply to get base rates by home size, step the rates down by frequency, then add fixed prices for add-ons and a minimum charge. The result is a price list you can put on a booking form and defend without apology.

This guide gives the method with worked examples. The example figures are illustrations to show the arithmetic, not market rates. Cleaning prices vary a great deal by region, home type, and what is included, so the numbers that matter are your own costs and your own time records.

Step 1: Work out your internal hourly target

Your hourly target is the amount each billable hour has to bring in for the business to work. It comes from three numbers:

1. What you need to earn. Your own annual pay, plus wages for any cleaners you employ or contract, including the employer costs that come with them.
2. Annual business costs. Supplies and equipment, fuel and vehicle costs, software (see the scheduling software guide for what that runs), phone, marketing, payment processing fees (covered in the invoicing guide), and anything else you pay to operate.
3. Target profit. An amount above your pay that stays in the business for slow months, equipment, and growth.

Then divide by billable hours, which is the number you are most likely to get wrong. A solo cleaner working 40 hours a week does not bill 40 hours. Driving between homes, buying supplies, quoting, invoicing, and gaps in the schedule all come out of the week. Track a few typical weeks and count only hours inside a customer’s home.

Worked example (illustrative). Suppose a solo cleaner wants to earn $52,000 a year, has $9,000 in annual costs, and wants $5,000 in profit, for $66,000 total. Suppose they can bill 28 hours a week for 48 weeks, or 1,344 hours. The hourly target is $66,000 divided by 1,344, about $49 an hour. If they only manage 22 billable hours a week, the same income needs about $62 an hour. That difference is why measuring billable hours matters more than any pricing formula.

For a crew, do the same calculation with all wages included and total billable hours across the team. The target is per labor hour, so a two-person team in a home for two hours is four labor hours.

Step 2: Measure how long each clean takes

Flat rates only hold up if they are based on real times. For the next several jobs, record the start and finish time for every visit along with the home’s bedrooms, bathrooms, rough square footage, the type of clean, and the frequency. Most scheduling tools with a cleaner app record this automatically; a notes app works too.

Within a few weeks you will have averages for the combinations that make up most of your work: a standard clean of a 2-bed, 1-bath; a standard clean of a 3-bed, 2-bath; a deep clean of each; and the difference between a weekly visit and a monthly visit to the same size of home. Those averages are the foundation of the price list.

Two patterns show up almost everywhere. First cleans of a new client’s home take noticeably longer than the recurring visits that follow. And the more frequent the visit, the less time it takes, because less builds up between visits.

Step 3: Build base rates by home size

Multiply your hourly target by the average labor hours for each home size and clean type to get a base flat rate, then round to a number you are comfortable saying out loud.

Worked example (illustrative), using a $50 hourly target:

The hours in the table are placeholders; yours come from step 2. The structure is what to copy: a small grid by bedrooms and bathrooms, a separate column for deep cleans, and a quote request above the largest tier you can price blind. This is exactly the grid that a booking form needs, and it is how BookingKoala and similar tools present instant pricing to customers, as described in the online booking guide.

If square footage or condition varies a lot in your area, add a second dimension such as under 1,500, 1,500 to 2,500, and over 2,500 square feet, or a “needs extra attention” option on the form. Keep the grid small enough that a customer can find their home in it in a few seconds.

Step 4: Set frequency steps from your own times

The base rate is for a one-time or first clean. Recurring visits are cheaper to deliver, so they are priced lower, and the steps should follow the time difference you measured in step 2, not a percentage borrowed from someone else.

Worked example (illustrative), 3-bed, 2-bath standard clean at a $50 hourly target:

Notice that the weekly rate is lower per visit but far higher per month: four visits at $110 is $440, against one visit at $140. That is the point of recurring work, and it is why the first clean of a new recurring client should be priced as a deep clean or carry a first-visit amount. Doing the first visit at the recurring rate is the most common way cleaning businesses lose money on new clients.

State the frequency prices on the booking form side by side so customers see the per-visit saving for booking more often.

Step 5: Add-ons, minimums, and the quote path

Add-ons are anything that predictably adds time and is not part of the standard clean: inside the oven, inside the fridge, interior windows, laundry, changing linens, dishes, heavy pet hair, and organizing. Give each a fixed price based on the extra time it takes, list them on the form, and let customers pick. Define clearly what a standard clean includes so nobody expects the oven without paying for it.

A minimum charge protects the smallest jobs. A studio apartment still costs you a drive, setup, and a scheduling slot. Set the minimum at the smallest amount that makes a visit worth doing, and let it be the 1-bed, 1-bath rate on the grid.

The quote path handles what the grid cannot: very large homes, post-construction cleanup, hoarding situations, move-out cleans of neglected properties, and commercial space. For these, quote from an on-site or photo assessment, use your hourly target with a generous time estimate, and take a deposit. It is fine to quote these by the hour with an estimated range, because the customer understands the job is unusual.

Pricing by business size

Solo cleaners should price at the top of what their local market accepts, not the bottom. A solo owner is the whole business: when you are sick or on vacation, revenue stops, and there is no crew to absorb a slow week. Your hourly target must include that. The advantage you have is quality and consistency, which customers pay for, and a small, clear price grid with a professional booking form supports that positioning. Resist competing on price with large franchises; you cannot win that, and you do not need to.

Crews of 2 to 5 have to price per labor hour with wages and employer costs fully loaded, and then watch the time records closely, because the gap between what a job is priced at and what it actually took is now paid out in wages. This is where flat rates earn their keep: a team that gets faster keeps the difference. It is also where per-job checklists matter, since a flat rate only works if every cleaner delivers the same standard clean. Set a first-clean rate and stick to it, and review the frequency steps every few months against the real times.

Growing companies of 6 or more usually move to tiered service packages and add the quote path for commercial work. At that size, price increases and margin tracking become a monthly habit, and job costing in tools such as Jobber or Housecall Pro shows which home sizes and frequencies are actually profitable.

Raising prices without losing clients

Review prices once a year, and raise them for new customers first; the grid on your booking form can change today with no conversation. For existing recurring clients, send a short written notice at least a month ahead with the new price, a one-line reason (costs, wages, or simply an annual adjustment), and a thank-you. Keep the increase modest and apply it to everyone at once rather than client by client.

Some clients will leave. The ones who leave over a reasonable annual increase were usually the underpriced ones, and the time they free up is filled at the new rate. If you have not raised prices in two or more years, do it in two steps six months apart rather than one large jump.

Mistakes to avoid

• Quoting your hourly rate to customers. It invites haggling over hours and punishes you for being efficient. Use it internally only.
• Guessing billable hours. Overestimating them makes every rate too low.
• Copying a competitor’s prices. Their costs, speed, and included services are not yours.
• Doing first cleans at the recurring rate. Price the first visit as a deep clean or add a first-visit amount.
• Leaving “standard clean” undefined. Write down what it includes, and make everything else an add-on.
• Hiding the price until after a walkthrough. For standard homes, publish the grid; save walkthroughs for the quote path.
• Never raising prices. Costs rise every year; a business that holds prices for three years has taken a pay cut.

Key takeaways

• Build an internal hourly target from your required income, annual costs, target profit, and real billable hours, then never quote it to customers.
• Measure how long each clean type and home size takes, and multiply by the target to get flat base rates in a small grid by bedrooms and bathrooms.
• Step rates down by frequency according to your own time records, and price the first clean of a new client higher than the recurring visits.
• Give add-ons fixed prices, set a minimum charge, and route unusual jobs to a quote with a deposit.
• Review prices yearly, raise them for new customers first, and give recurring clients a month’s written notice.