How to price a house cleaning estimate without guessing

The problem with pricing by gut feel

Most cleaning companies start by matching what the competitor down the road charges, or by eyeballing the square footage. That works until it doesn't: the "easy" 3-bedroom takes six hours, the crew runs late for the next job, and you discover you lost money on a house you were happy to win.

A better starting point is the one thing every job actually costs you: time. Here is a method you can use on every estimate. The numbers below are examples only, so swap in your own.

Step 1: Estimate the labor hours

Labor is most of your cost, so get it right first. For each job, estimate how many cleaner-hours it will take, which is the number of cleaners multiplied by the hours on site.

Things that change the time:

• Rooms and bathrooms. Bathrooms and kitchens take far longer than bedrooms.
• Type of clean. A first-time deep clean or move-out takes much longer than a recurring maintenance clean of the same house.
• Condition. Pets, clutter and how long it has been since the last clean.

Keep a simple table from your own jobs: "standard clean, 2 bed / 1 bath, recurring = about 3 cleaner-hours." After a few weeks of timing real jobs, your estimates stop being guesses.

Example: a first deep clean of a 3 bed / 2 bath with two cleaners for 2.5 hours is 5 cleaner-hours.

Step 2: Know what a cleaner-hour costs you

Your price has to cover more than wages. Add up what one hour of a cleaner on site really costs:

• Wages
• Payroll taxes and workers' comp
• Insurance
• Supplies and equipment wear
• Drive time between jobs, which you pay for but cannot bill directly

Example: $20 wage + $5 taxes and insurance + $3 supplies and drive time = $28 per cleaner-hour.

Step 3: Set your hourly rate with margin

Now set what you charge per cleaner-hour, leaving room for office time, marketing, software and profit.

Example: charging $50 per cleaner-hour leaves $22 over your $28 cost. For the 5-hour deep clean, the labor price is 5 × $50 = $250.

Step 4: Add supplies, travel and add-ons separately

Price the extras as separate line items, so the base price stays comparable from job to job and clients can see what they are paying for:

• Add-ons such as inside the oven, inside the fridge, interior windows or laundry
• Travel, if the job is outside your normal area
• Special supplies, for example eco-only products a client requests

Example: inside fridge + inside oven = $40, so the estimate becomes $290.

Step 5: Set a minimum, and price first visits differently

Two rules protect you from bad jobs:

• A minimum charge. Small jobs still cost you travel and setup. Decide the smallest job worth sending a crew to, and never quote below it.
• First clean vs recurring. The first visit to a new home is almost always a deep clean. Quote it on its own, then offer a lower recurring price for weekly or biweekly visits once the home is in shape.

Step 6: Put it in a price book

Once the method works, stop doing the math by hand. Turn it into a price book: your base rates, your add-ons and your minimum, so every estimate uses the same numbers no matter who builds it.

In Joblinkers, you can build price book items as hourly, per-unit (per room or per square foot) or flat-rate lines and drag them into any estimate. Send the estimate from the app, and if the client goes quiet, the follow-up can send itself.

Start a 14-day free trial, no credit card needed, or book a call and we will build your price book with you.