What are the main ways to price house cleaning?
There are three common ways to price residential cleaning: by the hour, a flat price by home size (bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet), or a rate per square foot. Most owners settle on flat prices by home size and keep hourly pricing for jobs they cannot estimate well.
Your cleaning business pricing structure is simply the method you pick plus the list of prices it produces. Whatever method you use, every price has to cover the same four things: the cleaner’s pay for the hours the job takes, supplies, overhead and profit. The method only changes how you show that number to the client.
| Method | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly (per cleaner, per hour) | Heavy first cleans, hoarding or post-renovation jobs, homes you have not seen | Clients cannot compare it or budget for it, and a fast crew earns you less |
| Flat price by bedrooms and bathrooms | Standard recurring cleans, online booking, quoting by phone | Two homes with the same room count can differ a lot in size and condition |
| Flat price by size bracket | Combining room counts with square feet, which covers most homes well | Needs a few timed jobs per bracket before the prices are reliable |
| Per square foot | Quoting from a listing, very large homes, commercial work | Ignores bathrooms and kitchens, which take the most time |
Hourly pricing
Charging by the hour protects you on jobs where the time is a mystery. It is honest and simple to explain. The downside is that clients do not know the total until you leave, and many will hesitate to book. Hourly pricing also caps your income: when your crew gets faster, you earn less per visit. If you charge hourly, give a time estimate and a cap (“about 4 hours, no more than 5 without asking you first”).
Flat pricing by home size
A flat price, such as $150 for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home cleaned every two weeks, is what most homeowners expect. They can book without a walkthrough, you can show the price online, and an efficient crew keeps the time it saves as margin. Flat prices work best when you build them from timed jobs and adjust for size with brackets, for example 1,000 to 2,000 square feet and 2,000 to 3,000 square feet.
Per square foot pricing
A house cleaning price per square foot is quick to quote, but it treats every square foot the same. A 2,000 square foot home with four bathrooms takes far longer than one with two, because bathrooms and kitchens eat the most time. Use square feet as one input next to room counts, not as the whole price. The worked table below shows why: the price per square foot falls as homes get bigger.
How do you build a cleaning price from your costs?
Start with the hours the job takes, multiply by your loaded hourly labor cost, add supplies, then divide by what is left after overhead and profit. That gives a price that pays everyone and leaves a margin, whatever the competitor down the street charges.
Here is the formula, step by step. It is the same model our free calculator uses.
- Hours. Total cleaner-hours for the job. Two cleaners for 2 hours is 4 cleaner-hours.
- Loaded hourly labor cost. What you pay a cleaner per hour, plus what each paid hour really costs you on top: employer payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, and paid drive time between jobs.
- Direct cost. Hours × loaded hourly cost, plus supplies for the visit.
- Price. Direct cost ÷ (1 − overhead % − profit %). Overhead is insurance, software, phone, fuel, marketing and your admin time. Profit is what the business keeps.
- Round up to the next $5. The rounding goes to profit.
Why divide instead of adding a markup? Overhead and profit are shares of the price, not of your costs. Adding 35% to $100 of cost gives $135, but $35 is only 26% of $135. Dividing $100 by 0.65 gives $153.85, and 35% of that is exactly the $53.85 left over.
The assumptions in this guide
Every number in the next sections comes from these assumptions. They are an example to adapt, not market data, so replace each one with your own.
- Cleaner pay: $20 an hour. For reference, the median wage for maids and housekeeping cleaners in the US was $17.07 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That occupation includes hotel and hospital housekeepers, not only home cleaners, so check what cleaning companies near you pay.
- Loaded labor cost: $25 an hour. The $20 wage plus 25% for payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and paid drive time. Your real figure depends on your state, your insurer and how tight your routes are.
- Supplies: $10 for a standard clean, $15 for a deep clean, $20 for a move-out clean.
- Overhead: 20% of the price. Insurance, software, phone, fuel, marketing and admin.
- Profit: 15% of the price. So every price is direct cost ÷ 0.65.
For a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom recurring clean that takes 3.5 cleaner-hours: 3.5 × $25 = $87.50 in labor, plus $10 in supplies, is $97.50 of direct cost. $97.50 ÷ 0.65 = $150. Of that $150, $30 covers overhead and $22.50 is profit.
House cleaning prices by home size: a worked example
Using the assumptions above, a standard recurring clean runs from $95 for a 1 bedroom apartment to $250 for a 5 bedroom house, a deep clean from $160 to $410, and a move-out clean from $185 to $455. These are the output of a worked example, not a survey of what businesses charge.
The hours are example times for a team that already knows the home, measured in cleaner-hours. Your own times will differ, so time ten jobs of each type before you trust any row.
| Home | Standard recurring clean | Deep clean | Move-out clean |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bed, 1 bath (about 700 sq ft) | 2 h: (2 × $25 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $92.31, so $95 | 3.5 h: ($87.50 + $15) ÷ 0.65 = $157.69, so $160 | 4 h: ($100 + $20) ÷ 0.65 = $184.62, so $185 |
| 2 bed, 1 bath (about 950 sq ft) | 2.5 h: ($62.50 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $111.54, so $115 | 4 h: ($100 + $15) ÷ 0.65 = $176.92, so $180 | 4.5 h: ($112.50 + $20) ÷ 0.65 = $203.85, so $205 |
| 2 bed, 2 bath (about 1,200 sq ft) | 3 h: ($75 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $130.77, so $135 | 5 h: ($125 + $15) ÷ 0.65 = $215.38, so $220 | 5.5 h: ($137.50 + $20) ÷ 0.65 = $242.31, so $245 |
| 3 bed, 2 bath (about 1,600 sq ft) | 3.5 h: ($87.50 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $150 | 6 h: ($150 + $15) ÷ 0.65 = $253.85, so $255 | 7 h: ($175 + $20) ÷ 0.65 = $300 |
| 4 bed, 2.5 bath (about 2,200 sq ft) | 4.5 h: ($112.50 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $188.46, so $190 | 7.5 h: ($187.50 + $15) ÷ 0.65 = $311.54, so $315 | 8.5 h: ($212.50 + $20) ÷ 0.65 = $357.69, so $360 |
| 5 bed, 3.5 bath (about 3,200 sq ft) | 6 h: ($150 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $246.15, so $250 | 10 h: ($250 + $15) ÷ 0.65 = $407.69, so $410 | 11 h: ($275 + $20) ÷ 0.65 = $453.85, so $455 |
What the table tells you per hour and per square foot
Divide each standard price by its hours and the client pays about $42 to $48 per cleaner-hour. That is in line with what clients report paying: house cleaners charge $40 to $55 an hour on average, according to Thumbtack’s 2026 house cleaning price guide, which puts a standard clean at $146 to $202, a deep clean at $190 to $265 and a move-out clean at $200 to $286 on average. Those are national averages for one visit, so treat them as a sanity check, not a target.
Per square foot, the same standard prices fall from about $0.14 for the 700 square foot apartment to about $0.08 for the 3,200 square foot house. A single rate per square foot would overcharge small homes or undercharge big ones, which is why size brackets combined with room counts usually work better.
To run this math with your own wage, overhead and margin for seven common home sizes, use the house cleaning price calculator. It shows every step, so you can check it against this table.
How much to charge for deep cleaning and move-out cleaning
Charge for deep and move-out cleans from the hours they take, which is usually about 1.6 to 2 times a standard clean of the same home. In the worked example, that puts a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom deep clean at $255 and a move-out clean at $300.
Deep cleaning prices
A deep clean covers everything in a standard clean, plus the build-up a regular visit skips: baseboards, door frames, light switches, vents, the outside of cabinets, behind and under movable furniture, and heavy scale in showers. Most first visits for a new recurring client should be a deep clean, because the home has not been kept to your standard yet.
Write down what your deep clean includes and what it does not. Inside the oven, inside the fridge and interior windows are usually add-ons, even on a deep clean, so the client is not surprised and you are not working for free.
Move out cleaning cost
A move-out (or move-in) clean is a deep clean of an empty home, plus the inside of every cabinet, drawer and closet, and usually the inside of the oven and fridge. Empty rooms are faster to reach, but there is more to clean: shelves, wall marks, and every appliance. Landlords and agents often judge it against a checklist, so it needs to be thorough.
Ways to keep move-out prices fair to both sides:
- Include the appliances. Most clients expect inside the oven and fridge on a move-out clean, so build that time into the price rather than listing it as an extra.
- Ask for photos first. A few room photos show condition far better than a description.
- Set a condition clause. State that heavy grease, mold, pet damage or items left behind are charged by the hour at a stated rate, with a call before you go over.
- Take a deposit. Move dates change. A deposit, or a card on file with a cancellation fee, protects the day you block out.
When to switch to hourly
For homes far dirtier than normal, after a renovation, or after years without cleaning, quote an hourly rate with an estimate and a cap. In the worked example, $25 loaded cost ÷ 0.65 is about $38.50 per cleaner-hour at cost plus overhead and profit, so an hourly rate of $45 to $50 also covers the extra supplies and wear these jobs bring.
How much should recurring clients save?
Give recurring clients a discount that matches the time a regular clean saves. A home cleaned every week takes less time than one cleaned every four weeks, so you can charge the weekly client less and still keep the same margin.
In the worked example, the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home takes 3.5 hours every two weeks. Say it takes 3 hours weekly and 4 hours monthly, because dirt builds up between visits. Run each through the formula:
| Frequency | Example hours | Price | Versus monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every 4 weeks or monthly | 4 | ($100 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $169.23, so $170 | List price |
| Every 2 weeks | 3.5 | $150 | About 12% less |
| Weekly | 3 | ($75 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $130.77, so $135 | About 21% less |
Every price keeps the same 20% overhead and 15% profit, because the discount comes from saved time, not from your margin. That is the rule to follow: if you give 20% off weekly cleans, check that weekly visits really take about 20% less time. If they do not, the discount is coming out of your profit.
Recurring clients are also worth more than their price per visit. They fill your calendar weeks ahead, cut the time you spend quoting and marketing, and make routes predictable. That is a good reason to make the weekly and every-two-weeks prices the most attractive on your list, and to price one-time cleans as deep cleans.
To see what a mix of weekly, every-two-weeks and monthly clients means for your monthly profit, enter it in the cleaning business profit calculator.
How do you price add-ons like ovens, fridges and windows?
Price each add-on from the minutes it adds, using the same formula as the main clean. In the worked example, every minute of cleaner time costs $25 ÷ 60 ÷ 0.65, or about $0.64 at full price, so a 30 minute task is about $20 before rounding up.
| Add-on | Example time | Math | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inside oven | 45 min | ($18.75 labor + $2 degreaser) ÷ 0.65 = $31.92 | $35 |
| Inside fridge | 30 min | ($12.50 + $1) ÷ 0.65 = $20.77 | $25 |
| Interior windows (about 10 windows) | 60 min | $25 ÷ 0.65 = $38.46 | $40 |
| Baseboards, whole home | 45 min | $18.75 ÷ 0.65 = $28.85 | $30 |
| Inside kitchen cabinets (empty) | 45 min | $18.75 ÷ 0.65 = $28.85 | $30 |
| Wall spot cleaning | 30 min | $12.50 ÷ 0.65 = $19.23 | $20 |
| Laundry, one load washed, dried and folded | 20 min hands-on | $8.33 ÷ 0.65 = $12.82 | $15 |
| Change bed linens, per bed | 10 min | $4.17 ÷ 0.65 = $6.41 | $10 |
| Inside microwave | 10 min | $4.17 ÷ 0.65 = $6.41 | $10 |
A few rules keep add-ons profitable and easy to sell:
- Scale with size. Baseboards and windows in a 5 bedroom house take far longer than in an apartment. Price them per home size, or per window, rather than one flat fee for every home.
- Count only hands-on time for laundry. Your cleaner keeps working while the machine runs, so charge for loading, moving and folding, not the full cycle.
- Bundle into deep and move-out cleans where clients expect it. Inside the oven and fridge belong in a move-out price. On a recurring clean they stay optional.
- Time them like everything else. If inside the oven regularly takes an hour, your $35 price is losing money.
How should you set Airbnb cleaning rates?
Set a flat price per turnover built from cleaning time, laundry, restocking and the photo report, then add set extras for same-day turnovers and extra beds. Hosts usually pass your price to guests in their cleaning fee, so a predictable price matters more than a low one.
A turnover is not a standard clean. On top of the cleaning, your cleaner strips and remakes beds, handles towels and linens, restocks supplies, checks for damage and sends photos before the next check-in. All of that is time, and it belongs in the price.
For example, a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom rental using the worked-example assumptions:
- Cleaning: 2 hours
- Beds, towels and laundry handling: 0.75 hours
- Restocking, inspection and photo report: 0.25 hours
- Total: 3 hours × $25 = $75, plus $10 in supplies = $85 of direct cost
- Price: $85 ÷ 0.65 = $130.77, so $135 per turnover
Set extras so the base price stays simple:
- Same-day turnovers. When check-out and check-in fall on the same day, your schedule loses its flexibility. A fixed premium, such as $20 to $25, pays for that.
- Extra beds. A sofa bed or bunk adds about 10 minutes of bed-making, or about $10 in this example.
- Heavy turnovers. A set fee, agreed in advance and backed by photos, for stays that leave the home much dirtier than normal.
- Off-site laundry. If you take linens away to wash, price the drive, the machine or service cost and the folding time separately.
Finding hosts, writing a turnover checklist and handling linens are covered in our guide to starting an Airbnb cleaning business.
How do you adjust cleaning prices for your area?
Adjust the inputs, not the final number. Change the wage you need to pay to hire and keep good cleaners where you work, then run the same formula. Your prices follow your local labor cost, which is the biggest single cost in every clean.
Wages vary a lot across the country. For maids and housekeeping cleaners in May 2025, the lowest-paid 10% earned less than $13.29 an hour and the highest-paid 10% more than $23.35, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The same 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom recurring clean looks very different at each end:
| Cleaner pay | Loaded cost (pay + 25%) | 3.5 hour clean |
|---|---|---|
| $16 an hour | $20 an hour | ($70 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $123.08, so $125 |
| $20 an hour | $25 an hour | ($87.50 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $150 |
| $26 an hour | $32.50 an hour | ($113.75 + $10) ÷ 0.65 = $190.38, so $195 |
Other local factors to build in:
- Drive time. Spread-out rural routes mean more paid driving per clean. Raise your loaded labor cost, add a travel fee for distant addresses, or tighten your service area.
- Insurance and taxes. Workers’ compensation rates, sales tax on cleaning services and local license fees all vary by state and city. Ask your accountant whether you need to charge sales tax where you work.
- Parking and access. Paid parking or long building check-ins in dense cities are real costs. Add them to overhead or to the job.
- Local prices. Check a handful of local competitors’ published prices as a sanity check. If you are far below them, you are probably leaving money on the table. If you are far above, make sure your quality and reliability show it.
If you are still setting up the business, our guide on how to start a cleaning business walks through costs like insurance and licenses that feed your overhead.
When and how should you raise your prices?
Raise prices when your costs go up, when your calendar is full, and at least once a year. Give existing clients written notice, about 30 days, explain the change in one or two sentences, and do not apologize for it.
Signs it is time
- You raised cleaner pay, or your insurance, fuel or software costs went up.
- Your schedule is full for weeks ahead and you are turning down new clients.
- Certain homes regularly take longer than the time their price assumes.
- You have not changed prices in over a year.
How to do it
- Re-run your numbers. Put your new wage and costs through the formula so you know what each home size should cost now.
- Raise new-client prices first. Update your booking page and quotes right away. New clients never see the old price.
- Give existing clients notice. Thirty days lets them plan. A modest increase is easier to accept than a big jump after years of no change.
- Fix the problem homes. If one home always runs long, re-quote it based on real times rather than raising everyone.
A short notice you can adapt
Hi Maria, thank you for having us in your home every two weeks. Starting November 1, your clean will be $160, up from $150. The change covers higher pay for our cleaners and higher insurance costs this year. Nothing else changes: same team, same day, same checklist. If you have any questions, just reply to this message.
Most clients who value a reliable cleaner stay through a fair, explained increase. Write your price change policy into your cleaning service agreement so nobody is surprised when it happens.
How should you show prices to clients?
Show a clear flat price as early as possible: an instant quote online for standard, deep and move-out cleans, and a written estimate for anything unusual. Clients who see a price up front book faster and argue less afterwards.
Instant online quotes
An online booking form that asks for bedrooms, bathrooms, size, type of clean, frequency and extras can show the price immediately and let the client pick a time. That turns your price list into bookings while you are busy cleaning. BroomBook’s online booking page works this way, with home-size brackets, frequency discounts and add-ons priced by size, and you can embed it on your own website. You can try it with sample data in the live demo; plans are on the pricing page.
Flat prices with clear conditions
Whether you quote online or by phone, say what the price assumes: the home size, the type of clean and the frequency. Add a short line on what changes the price, such as heavy build-up, pets or a home that is much larger than described. Set a minimum visit price so small jobs still cover your drive.
Written estimates
For move-outs, post-renovation cleans and anything you have not seen, send a written estimate that lists each service, its price, what is included and how long the quote stands. The free cleaning estimate template builds one you can print or save as a PDF.
Once prices are set, the next step is filling your calendar with clients who pay them. Our guide on how to get cleaning clients covers where to find them.