How to Price Cleaning Jobs for Profit

Cleaning is one of the easiest trades to underprice, because the barrier to entry is low and it's tempting to compete purely on being cheaper. The businesses that stay profitable price based on actual time and cost, not on what feels competitive.

Know your real cost per cleaner-hour first

Add up hourly wage or contractor pay, payroll taxes if applicable, insurance, supplies, and vehicle costs, then divide by billable hours. Most residential cleaning businesses need to bill $35-$55 per cleaner-hour to cover costs and leave real margin, even though the customer-facing price is usually quoted as a flat rate, not hourly.

Flat-rate by home size is the standard for residential

Typical flat-rate structures for a standard recurring clean:

Studio/1BR: $80-$130
2BR/2BA: $100-$160
3BR/2BA: $130-$200
4BR+ or 2,500+ sq ft: $180-$300+

Deep cleans (first-time cleans, or homes that haven't had regular service) typically run 1.5x-2x the standard recurring rate, since first visits take significantly longer to get a home to baseline. Move-in/move-out cleans are usually priced even higher — often $200-$400+ depending on size and condition — because they involve empty-home detail work like inside cabinets, appliances, and baseboards throughout.

Price recurring clients lower than one-time cleans, deliberately

A biweekly or weekly recurring client should get a modest discount (10-20%) off the one-time rate, because recurring homes stay closer to baseline and take less time per visit, and because predictable revenue is worth more to your business than one-off jobs. Make sure the discount reflects real time saved, not just goodwill — a home that's cleaned weekly genuinely takes less labor than one cleaned once every three months.

Commercial pricing works differently

Commercial contracts are usually priced per square foot per month, commonly $0.05-$0.20/sq ft depending on frequency (nightly vs. a few times a week), space type (office vs. medical vs. retail), and region. Walk the space before quoting — square footage alone doesn't capture how many restrooms, how much glass, or how much floor type variation (carpet vs. hard floor vs. tile) is involved, and all of that affects real labor time.

Add-ons should be priced separately, not bundled in

Inside oven, inside fridge, interior windows, laundry, and organizing are common add-ons that take real extra time and should carry their own line-item price ($25-$60 each is typical) rather than being thrown in "for free" to win the job — that's margin you're giving away on every visit if it becomes an expectation.

Revisit pricing at least once a year

Supply costs, wages, and drive time all creep up. Cleaning businesses that haven't adjusted pricing in two or three years are often unknowingly working for less than they did when they started. Reviewing your actual cost-per-job data — not just gut feel — is the only reliable way to know when it's time to raise rates.

Tracking cost per job against what you actually charged is hard to do from memory or a paper ledger once you're running more than a couple crews. Software like ServiQ that ties estimates, job notes, and invoices together makes it a lot easier to see which clients and job types are actually profitable.