How much to charge for house cleaning
Most standard recurring house cleans price between $120 and $220 a visit for a 1,500 to 2,000 sq ft home, or $30 to $75 per cleaner per hour. A first or deep clean is two to three times a maintenance visit.
Those are US national bands. A dense metro supports the top of them; a rural county does not. What follows is how to land on your own number inside that range.
Rates by job type
| Job | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard recurring, 1,500–2,000 sq ft | $120–$220 | Weekly cheapest, monthly dearest |
| Hourly, per cleaner | $30–$75 | Solo operators mostly $40–$55 |
| Deep / first clean | $250–$500 | 2–3× a maintenance visit |
| Move-out | $250–$600 | Empty, inside everything, price by job |
| Per room | $30–$50 | Premium on kitchens and bathrooms |
The formula
(Estimated hours × your hourly cost) ÷ target labour percentage = your price.
Work it backwards from what you need, not forwards from what a competitor charges.
A 1,800 sq ft house, two bathrooms, no pets, fortnightly:
- Estimated time: 2.5 hours for one cleaner
- Your fully-loaded hourly cost — wage, tax, insurance, supplies, travel, admin: $28/hr
- Labour cost: 2.5 × $28 = $70
- Target labour at 45% of revenue: $70 ÷ 0.45 = $156
Quote $155. Then check it against the market band above — $155 sits comfortably inside $120–$220, so the number is defensible.
If the formula produced $260, either your time estimate is wrong or this is a customer you should decline.
Price a house cleaning job
Your numbers, the formula above. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser.
$162 base (1,800 square feet × $0)
This is a starting number, not a bid. Walk the property before you send it.
What actually moves the price
Frequency. The single biggest factor and the one most often ignored. A monthly clean on the same house is nearly a deep clean every time. Weekly should be cheapest per visit, monthly dearest.
Bathrooms, not bedrooms. Bathrooms and kitchens take three to four times as long per square foot as a bedroom. Two extra bathrooms changes a job more than 500 extra square feet does.
Pets. Hair adds twenty to forty minutes to a typical house and it is almost never quoted for.
Condition and clutter. You cannot clean a surface covered in things. A cluttered house takes longer, every visit, forever.
Access and parking. A city apartment with no parking and a lift is a different job from a suburban house with a driveway.
The mistakes that keep cleaners broke
Charging the same for the first clean. The most expensive mistake in this trade. Every new customer costs you money in week one and you never notice because you are busy.
Pricing off a competitor. Their costs are not yours. Somebody working from home with no employees and no insurance can charge less than you and still eat.
Quoting from square footage alone. Ask about bathrooms, pets and condition before giving any number.
Never raising prices. Wages, supplies, fuel and insurance all rose. If your rate did not, you took a pay cut. Raise annually, in writing, thirty days ahead.
Absorbing the extras. Inside the oven, inside the fridge, interior windows, laundry. A cleaner who is already there just does them, and gives away the highest margin work in the business.
Quoting consistently once you have staff
The moment somebody else quotes for you, the maths above has to live somewhere other than your head.
Housecall Pro includes a flat-rate price book from Essentials at $189/mo for five seats — which is what stops two cleaners quoting the same house differently. Jobber at $49/mo plus $29 per seat handles saved line items and recurring billing for a smaller round. QuoteIQ at $29.99/mo is the cheapest way for a solo cleaner to get quotes and invoices out on time.
Questions operators actually ask
How much should I charge for house cleaning?
Most standard recurring cleans on a 1,500 to 2,000 sq ft home price between $120 and $220 a visit, or $30 to $75 per cleaner per hour. Frequency matters more than size — a monthly clean on the same house is closer to a deep clean every time and should cost more per visit than a weekly one.
Should I charge hourly or flat rate?
Flat rate for recurring work, hourly for one-offs and unknown condition. Flat rate rewards you for getting faster, which is the whole economics of cleaning; hourly punishes you for it. Once you know a house, price it as a job.
How much more should a deep clean cost?
Two to three times a maintenance visit. A first clean on a property that has not been properly cleaned in a year takes far longer, and charging your standard rate for it means losing money on every customer you win.
What is a good hourly rate for a cleaning business?
$30 to $75 per cleaner per hour depending on market, with solo operators typically at $40 to $55. Remember that is the charge rate, not your take — supplies, travel, insurance and unbilled admin come out of it before you do.
How do I raise prices on existing customers?
Annually, in writing, 30 days ahead, with a specific figure rather than a percentage. Most customers accept a modest annual increase without comment. The ones who leave over 5% were going to leave over something.