How to Price House Cleaning (The Flat-Rate Formula)
A simple flat-rate formula for pricing house cleaning by bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet, so every price pays your partners well and leaves profit.
Pricing makes or breaks a cleaning business, you guys. Price too low, and you can't pay your cleaners well, so the good ones leave. Price by guesswork, and every quote turns into a negotiation, right?
I'll tell you up front, I am not the cheapest cleaning company, and I never let what somebody else charges dictate my prices. I did the cleaning myself for my first month in business, so I know what the labor feels like. I know what it's like to go home after two or three cleanings in one day so tired and so sore you can't think. I value my clients, and I value my cleaners way too much to pay them nickels and pennies.
The fix for pricing stress is a flat-rate formula: one clear way to price every home, so the price is the price. Clients see it before they book, your partners know what they'll earn, and you know the business keeps its share. This guide walks you through the whole thing, from the research to the formula to what you say when somebody says it's too much.
Why flat rates beat pricing by the clock
When you price by the home instead of by the time spent:
- Clients know the exact price up front, so they book faster and don't worry about a cleaner working slowly.
- Your partners are rewarded for being good at their jobs. A skilled cleaner who finishes efficiently earns the same flat share.
- Your business can grow. Clock-based pricing caps what you can make. Flat pricing builds margins, and margins build a business that lasts.
Every home is not created equal, okay? Especially here in Texas, where a "three bedroom" can be 1,400 square feet or 3,400 square feet. So I price based on the size of the home, the type of cleaning and the bedrooms and bathrooms. That way I'm getting fully paid for the work, and I'm never making an emotional price on the phone.
Step 1: Do your market research first
Before you set a single number, find out what your market already pays. I'm a big researcher, and I love this part, because there's so much free data out there when you're starting a local service business.
Grab a sheet of paper and write down the top five to ten cleaning companies you can find in your area on Google, Yelp, Thumbtack and Bark. Then study them:
- Their prices, for as many home sizes and cleaning types as they show.
- What they offer, like which extras they have and what's included in each cleaning.
- How you book them. Are they old school, where somebody has to come look at your home, give you a quote and then come back to clean? Or can you book online in two minutes at 10 at night?
- Their website and social media. Is it clean and professional, or generic?
- Their reviews, which are the best data of all.
Reviews are your number one data source, you guys, because clients tell you the raw truth. If you keep reading "they're always late" or "they cancel all the time," you just learned what your business will do better. If you read "they sent me a gift card for a referral" or "my house smells amazing every time," you just learned what clients love.
And don't get discouraged if the list is long. A long list of cleaning companies means people in that area are paying to get their homes cleaned. If you can't find many at all, that's the time to look at another area.
Step 2: Know your ideal client
The clients you want are the ones who see their cleaning as a regular bill, like their water, their power and their internet. When money gets a little tight, they keep their cleaning, because it's part of how their house runs.
That's why I pay so much attention to the market before I pick prices. Areas with higher household incomes and more homes people own usually support better prices and more recurring clients. You can look up any of 242 U.S. cities on Busy Book's free city pages, with each city's household income, homes people own and families from the U.S. Census, at starting a cleaning business by city.
Step 3: Build your flat-rate formula
Every price is built from the same parts:
Price = base price + (bedrooms × bedroom price) + (bathrooms × bathroom price) + (square feet × square-foot price for that type of cleaning) + extras
The type of cleaning changes the square-foot price, because a deep cleaning or a move-out takes more work than a home that's kept up every two weeks:
- Standard cleaning: a home that's kept up regularly.
- Deep cleaning: first-time cleanings, or homes that haven't been cleaned in a while.
- Move-in and move-out cleaning: an empty home, inside cabinets and appliances.
Extras get their own flat price: inside the fridge, inside the oven, interior windows, baseboards, blinds, laundry and so on.
A worked example
This is an example for a deep cleaning of a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 1,800-square-foot home:
| Part | Example rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Base price | $35 | $35 |
| Bedrooms | 3 × $15 | $45 |
| Bathrooms | 2 × $20 | $40 |
| Square feet (deep cleaning) | 1,800 × $0.10 | $180 |
| Total | $300 |
Now the split. Say you pay your partners 50% of each job:
- Your partner earns $150 for the cleaning.
- $150 stays in your business for marketing, software, insurance, card fees and profit.
The same home as a standard cleaning every two weeks, at $0.06 a square foot, comes to $228 before any recurring discount.
You can play with your own rates on real homes in the free house cleaning price calculator. Put in a few homes you found prices for during your research, and see how close your formula comes.
Step 4: Reverse the math from your research
This is the part most people skip, and it's what makes your formula fit your market. Instead of guessing your rates, work backwards from the prices you collected.
- Pick one sample home, like a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 1,800-square-foot house.
- Write down what each company charges for a standard and a deep cleaning on that home, wherever you can find it.
- Throw out the very cheapest. You're not competing with somebody charging $99. Look at where the established companies with lots of reviews sit.
- Pick your spot in that range, based on the position you chose in Step 1.
- Adjust your rates until your formula lands on that number for your sample home.
- Test two more homes, a small apartment and a big house, and make sure the prices still look right.
Once your formula hits your target on three different homes, you can plug those rates into your booking page and every home gets priced the same fair way.
Step 5: Price each type of cleaning
The square-foot price is where the type of cleaning shows up, and it's the biggest lever you have.
Standard cleanings have the lowest square-foot price, because the home is already in shape. These are your recurring clients, and the price should feel like a fair regular bill.
Deep cleanings get a higher square-foot price, because they cover the buildup a standard cleaning skips: baseboards, inside the oven and fridge, grout, vents, blinds and more. Most first cleanings are deep cleanings, and saying that up front saves you a lot of awkward conversations.
Move-in and move-out cleanings are usually the highest, because the home is empty and the cleaning goes inside every cabinet, every drawer and every appliance. Property managers and realtors book these all year, so price them so they're worth your partners' time.
If you want to see exactly what each type includes, the free house cleaning checklist template marks which items are deep and move-out only.
Step 6: Price your extras
Extras are where a lot of owners leave money on the table. Give each one its own flat price, and make it easy for the client to add them when they book:
- Inside the fridge
- Inside the oven
- Inside cabinets (for a home that isn't empty)
- Interior windows
- Baseboards on a standard cleaning
- Blinds
- Laundry and folding
- Dishes
Price each extra by the extra work it really takes, and check what the companies you researched charge for the same thing. When a client tells you something during the quote that matches an extra, like "the oven is really bad," offer it right then.
Step 7: Recurring discounts
Recurring clients are the heart of a steady business, because they book every week, every two weeks or every month without you selling them again. Reward them with a discount by how often they book.
The common discounts I see in my research are around 20% for weekly, 15% for every two weeks and 10% for monthly. You'll see them when you do your own research too. And the beauty of owning your business is that you don't have to match those. You can give a smaller discount, or none at all, because you control your prices.
The first cleaning is usually priced as a deep cleaning, then the home moves to the recurring standard price.
Step 8: Decide your partner share
In the model I teach, I pay my cleaners a percentage of each job's total price. The client pays the business, the partner gets their share for doing the hands-on work, and the business keeps the rest.
The right share depends on your market and the cost of living there, so there's no one number for everybody. A few things I always check:
- Does their share cover their gas, their supplies and their time, and still leave them a good day's pay? If not, good cleaners will leave.
- Is it competitive with what other companies pay experienced cleaners in your area?
- Does what's left still cover your costs and your profit? If not, the fix is your price, not your partner's pay.
And let your partners keep all their tips. I always tell people happy cleaners make happy clients, happy clients make a happy company, and a happy company makes a happy owner.
What to say when they ask for a price
Ask a couple of questions first, so you sound like a company that knows what it's doing: How many bedrooms and bathrooms? About how many square feet? When was the last deep cleaning? Any pets? One time, or every two weeks?
Then give the price and two times, and stop talking:
Based on your home, your deep cleaning is $300. We have Thursday or Friday open. Which works better?
If they say it's more than they expected:
I hear you. Our price includes vetted, reliable cleaners, and if anything isn't right, we'll make it right.
Don't drop your price. The clients who haggle at the start usually haggle forever.
How to know your prices are right
Your prices are telling you something every week, so listen:
- If every single client says yes right away, you're probably priced too low. A healthy business hears "that's a little more than I expected" sometimes.
- If your partners are leaving or turning down jobs, look at what they earn per cleaning.
- If there's barely anything left after your partners' share, your marketing and your software, your price isn't doing its job.
- If nobody books at all, check your market, your listing and how fast you're answering before you cut the price.
Look at your prices at least once a year. Gas goes up, insurance goes up and lead costs go up, so your prices should keep up too.
Pricing the homes that don't fit the formula
Most homes fit your formula just fine. A few won't, and it helps to decide ahead of time how you'll handle them, so you're never making up a price on the phone, y'all.
- Pets. Pet hair adds real work, especially with more than one pet. Many owners add a small flat fee for pets or heavy pet hair. Ask about pets in every quote so it's never a surprise on the day.
- Homes that haven't been cleaned in a long time. That's a deep cleaning, and sometimes more. If a client describes a home in really rough shape, ask for a few photos before you quote, and price it as a deep cleaning with the extras it needs.
- Very big homes. Square feet handles most of this, but for very large homes, it can take two partners going together. Make sure the price is worth both of their time.
- Clutter. Cleaners clean surfaces, they don't organize. Say plainly that the client clears counters and floors before the cleaning, or offer organizing as its own extra.
- Last-minute requests. A same-day or next-day cleaning moves your partner's whole schedule around. Some owners add a rush fee. Whatever you choose, put it in writing.
Should you show your prices online?
Yes, and I'll tell you why, right? Clients today don't want to call you, wait for somebody to come look at their home and then wait again for a quote. That old-school way loses a lot of people who would have booked. They want to see the price and book from their phone in a couple of minutes.
When your prices come from a formula, showing them is easy, because the booking page does the math for every home. And when a client already knows the price before you ever talk, the conversation is about which day works, not about whether you're worth it.
The $99 cleaning trap
Beginners price low because they're scared nobody will book. The clients won't complain about $99. Your cleaners will, because they can't cover their gas and their time, and they'll go work with someone who pays better. Then you're stuck finding new cleaners every month, and your clients get a different person every time.
It's not cute to underprice, okay? Nobody knows you're new unless your prices tell them.
Mistakes that cost you money
- Copying the cheapest company. You'll match their price and never match their volume.
- Discounting on the phone. Offering a lower price before anybody asked takes money from you and your partner.
- Ignoring the condition of the home. A home that hasn't been cleaned in a year is a deep cleaning, not a standard one.
- Forgetting card fees. Payment processing takes a few percent of every cleaning, so build it into your price.
- Pricing extras at zero. "Sure, we'll do the inside of the fridge" for free adds up fast.
- Never changing your prices. The prices you picked when you were brand new and scared shouldn't be your prices forever.
Put your prices on a booking page
Once your formula is set, put it where clients can see it. With a booking page, clients pick their bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet, cleaning type and extras, see the exact flat price and book on the spot.
That's how Busy Book's booking page works: you enter your base price, bedroom and bathroom prices, a square-foot price for each type of cleaning, your recurring discounts and your extras once, and every home gets priced the same way. Irene uses the same prices when she quotes leads by text.
Watch me walk through pricing
Questions people ask
How much should I charge to clean a house?
It depends on your market, the size of the home and the type of cleaning. Build a flat price from a base price plus bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet, with a higher square-foot rate for deep and move-out cleanings, then compare your results to established companies near you.
Should a cleaning business charge flat rates?
Flat rates are easier for clients to say yes to, reward efficient cleaners and let the business build margins. Most remote cleaning businesses price by the home rather than by the time spent.
How much should I charge for a deep cleaning?
Use a higher square-foot rate than your standard cleaning, because deep cleanings take more work. First-time cleanings are often priced as deep cleanings before a client moves to a recurring standard price.
How much should I charge for a move-out cleaning?
Move-out cleanings usually have the highest square-foot price, because the cleaning goes inside every cabinet, drawer and appliance in an empty home. Check what established companies near you charge for the same size home.
How much do I pay my cleaners out of each job?
Many remote owners pay partner cleaners a set percentage of each job's flat price. The right share depends on your market and cost of living; it should be fair for experienced cleaners and still leave room for your business costs and profit.
How do I figure out cleaning prices in my area?
Write down five to ten cleaning companies near you from Google, Yelp, Thumbtack and Bark, note their prices for a sample home, skip the very cheapest and pick your spot in the range. Then adjust your formula until it lands on that price.
Should I charge more for homes with pets?
Many owners add a small flat fee for pets or heavy pet hair, because it adds real work to the cleaning. Ask about pets in every quote, and show the fee on your booking page so the client sees it before they book.
