House Cleaning Pricing Guide: What to Charge for Your Cleaning Services

Many homeowners are willing to pay for a cleaning service weekly, biweekly, or monthly—but how do you know how much to charge? The average rate varies based on location, services provided, and other factors. This house cleaning pricing guide will help you understand all the factors you should consider before setting pricing for your business.

How Much to Charge for Cleaning Services

The national average for a maid service is $170 for a three-hour cleaning, with the typical range between $120 and $235 (the extreme low is $65 and the high is $350).

But these figures don't tell the whole story. You may be left wondering whether your professional cleaning company should be on the high or low end of these prices, and what kind of payment structure your customers expect.

Different Cleaning Service Pricing Models

The first thing you should consider before setting a price for your maid service is what kind of pricing model you want to use. That will set the foundation for whatever amount you wish to charge.

There are four primary pricing models in the cleaning business.

Per Hour

Maid services often charge on a per-hour basis. Generally, they will charge an initial fee for a three-hour cleaning, and an hourly rate if it goes beyond that.

Based on survey data, cleaning services typically charge $50 to $90 per hour. If a home is dirtier or larger than average, it will take more hours for the maids to complete their work, and therefore the price will go up.

House cleaning pricing example: Let’s say you typically charge $200 for a three-hour deep cleaning. However, you’ve just taken a job for a house that’s much larger than what you usually clean. Because it’s a full 30% bigger than a typical house, it takes your team an extra hour to get the job done. Because your hourly rate is $75, you add $75 to that $200 fee for a total of $275.

Per Room

Another way to price your services is to charge per room. You may have a price for each room, or you may have a "package" rate for common layouts that focus on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

This allows you to prepare an accurate quote for your client. However, this is not a perfect pricing method. Some homes have larger rooms than others, and some homes may have dirtier and harder-to-clean rooms than others.

House cleaning pricing example: A couple approaches you and asks if you’ll clean their home, which has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Fortunately, it’s easy to give them a quote because you have special package rates for each type of home. Your rate is $225 for a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house, and so that’s the price you give them. If they had a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house, you would have charged $150.

Per Square Foot

Nobody likes a higher-than-expected bill. By charging per square foot, you know exactly how much to quote them.

The typical cleaning cost per square foot is $0.05 to $0.10, although some services charge up to $0.20. That means a 1,000-square-foot home would be priced at $75-$125, whereas a 5,000-square-foot home would run from $250-$500.

House cleaning pricing example: A homeowner asks you to clean her 2,450 square-foot home. Since you charge $0.08 per square foot, all you have to do is multiply 2,450 by $0.08 to get a total price of $196.

Flat Fee

Generally, you aren't going to find a maid service that charges a flat fee because cleaning services have such a huge range based on the size of the home and other factors. The closest you're going to get is generally the three-hour cleaning mentioned above, which is usually enough to cover a large chunk of homes.

However, if a person owns a sprawling 10,000-square-foot mansion, they can't expect a maid service to handle all of that in three hours.

One possible way to make this pricing structure work is if you live in an area where homes are relatively the same size—perhaps one of those newly built suburban neighborhoods where all the homes are practically identical. You could offer a flat rate in that situation and just work out a special deal for the occasional exceptions.

House cleaning pricing example: You charge a flat rate of $150 for an initial cleaning, regardless of the size of the home. You can do this because you know the neighborhood well, and as a result, know that all the homes are about the same size. You decide to charge this because it’s easy to advertise your price to the community.

Additional Cleaning Services to Consider

Your company needs to make money, so you must ultimately charge a rate that earns you a profit, regardless of the typical rate. 

You could charge extra by offering additional cleaning services:

• Eco-friendly projects

• Rush requests

• Expertise in handling delicate fabrics and surfaces

• Laundry folding

• Cleaning inside refrigerators, ovens, and other appliances

The more you offer, the more your clients will be willing to pay and the higher your rates can be. Always look for ways to add value to your service to both justify the high rates and separate you from the competition.

What to Consider When Charging for Cleaning Services

When determining your home cleaning pricing, you must take a few factors into account to ensure you’re charging enough to cover your expenses and make a profit.

Overhead

All sorts of miscellaneous costs go into a cleaning business, which we call overhead. This includes things like cleaning supplies, transportation costs, marketing, administrative expenses, and more. Go through your budget and tally up everything you've spent money on in the past to ensure you capture everything in your budget.

Location

As they say in real estate, it's all about location, location, location. That's true to a certain extent when you're running a cleaning service. The range can be quite different depending on which part of the country you're in. 

For example, the typical range for cleaning services in Chicago is $90-$190 but it’s $125-$260 in Trenton, N.J. Find out the average price of similar services in your area so you can set a price your customers will think is fair.

Labor

Labor is expensive, so you don't want to forget to factor that into the price. Do you plan to have one maid cleaning a home, or a team of maids?

The median salary for a maid in the United States is $13 per hour, according to Salary.com. If you only need one maid to do general cleaning, that's certainly more affordable than if your strategy is to send a team of three maids to do a deep cleaning.

Do Your Research Before Setting a Price

Once you've set pricing, it's tough to change it without upsetting your customers. As a result, it's important to get it right at the get-go.

Here’s how you can come up with the right home cleaning pricing for your business:

• Research typical rates for your location

• Come up with a detailed budget and what profit margins you need to hit

• Determine what upsells you can offer

• Understand what your competition is offering

Once you've set your price, it's time to get some leads. Join Angi Ads so local homeowners can request a quote for your cleaning services.