Now that you’ve taken a plunge to start a house cleaning business, you must understand how to price your services. There are various ways to price your cleaning services, as you’re about to discover below. Each pricing model has good and bad sides. After evaluating the various pricing options, it will be easier for you to draft a cleaning service price list.
Read on to discover how much should i charge to clean a house.
Consider Your Pricing Factors
How much you charge for house cleaning requires considering some pricing factors. You have to charge enough to make a profit and cover expenses. Let’s go through some of the factors that you have to consider when determining prices for your house cleaning services.
Size Of The Area
You have to mind about the size of the area for cleaning to calculate the overall price. Clients usually need cleaning in the bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, and living areas. However, these might not be the same size for every house.
Additionally, some clients may request that you don’t bother with cleaning particular areas. So, the price of the project goes down. Homes with bigger square footage for cleaning will cost more than small homes.
Geographic Location
You should also price your house cleaning services according to the geographic location of your clients. Working-class clients in metropolitan cities usually don’t have time to clean their homes. So, they will regularly request your services to keep their homes clean and neat. The best thing is that they usually pay top dollar.
Additionally, homeowners in upper-class neighborhoods usually have enough to spend on getting a professional house cleaner to help them out. These homeowners usually throw parties and need house cleaning services before and after the party. You may capitalize on these to grow your business.
Cost Of Labor
The labor cost is the overall amount you pay your team to clean clients’ houses. Before calculating the price, you have to estimate how many employees will be enough to handle a project. Bigger homes usually have a lot of cleaning requirements and require a bigger team than smaller homes.
Additionally, homes with pets and kids have a lot of mess around and may require a bigger team. Making the house clean will require more time and effort. Alternatively, bachelor houses are not always messy since the owner may spend most time away from home.
Cost Of Cleaning Supplies
Another important consideration when pricing house cleaning services is the cost of supplies. If you pride yourself on using premium quality cleaning products, you will likely spend more on supplies. You have to reflect this in the quote. Some clients may provide cleaning suppliers to lower the project’s overall cost.
House Cleaning Type
Clients usually have different cleaning requirements. You should mind about this when giving them a quotation for their project. Take a look at some of the types of house cleaning likely to be requested by clients.
General Cleaning
This is the basic type of house cleaning. It usually involves vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, sanitizing, and dusting the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, and living spaces. You’re likely to charge from $100 to $200 for general house cleaning.
Deep Cleaning
This is a more time-consuming and thorough type of cleaning. It may involve cleaning the furniture, baseboards, lamps, walls and removing grime in the kitchen and bathroom. Homeowners usually need this floor-to-ceiling or top-to-bottom cleaning at least once every year to keep all corners of their houses clean. To answer how much to charge for deep cleaning a house, charge not less than $400.
Moving-In Or Moving-Out House Cleaning:
When tenants are moving in or out, house cleaning services are essential. You’re likely to get booked to clean the baseboards, window runners, bathroom grime, ovens, and other parts of the home usually overlooked. You may charge about $200 to $400 for this service.
Taxes
You also have to mind taxes when determining the price for your house cleaning services. This is very important since you have to factor in state taxes, employees’ federal taxes, and worker’s compensation in case of accidents. Your pricing should cover taxes and other expenses while allowing you to make a profit.
Number Of Bathrooms
People’s homes are not the same. Apart from the overall size, they may have various rooms of different sizes. One of the reasons to request professional house cleaners is to help with cleaning the bathrooms. However, you have to price your services according to the number of bathrooms you’re to clean.
Cleaning the bathrooms includes:
- Mopping
- Sweeping
- Polishing the faucets
- Scrubbing the sinks
- Cleaning the mirrors
- Disinfecting the toilets and bowls
- Scrubbing the tub or showers
A home with more bathrooms will require more effort and time to meet the client’s sanitary requirements. So, you have to charge more for every extra bathroom.
Pets
Homes with pets don’t have the same cleaning requirements as those without. Pets are likely to leave furballs, paw prints, pet dander, and urine stains. Keep in mind that some homeowners may have more than one pet. Homeowners with pets need professional house cleaning more regularly to keep their environment healthy.
However, extra effort and time are required to clean up all the pet messes. Additionally, you may need some specialized supplies leading to a bigger budget for supplies. You will have to reflect on all of these when making a quotation for the project.
Use of Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
House cleaning products are not made the same. And clients may have special requests regarding the cleaning products you may use. Eco-friendly products are safer for pets and occupants, especially those with allergies. However, these products might cost a bit more than regular cleaning products. So, you have to factor this when calculating the project’s overall cost.
Extra Cleaning Services
Some clients may have special cleaning requirements. To make more money, you have to be ready to do whatever the client requests but at an extra cost. Some of the additional services clients usually request include:
- Mold removal
- Window cleaning
- Gutter cleaning
- Cleaning dusty curtains
Handling these may need extra manpower and equipment. However, you’ll have to factor all costs into the overall budget for the project,
Hourly Pricing Method
Hourly pricing is where you charge your services depending on the number of hours you have worked. You get a fixed amount for every hour. According to Home Guide, the average cleaning rates per hour range from $25 to $50. Keep in mind that regular home cleaning visits last about two hours.
To determine your hourly rate for house cleaning, add your labor and overhead costs with potential profits and divide by the hours worked. The answer is the minimum amount you should charge for your house cleaning services. This will be enough to cover your expenses, pay you a salary and make a profit.
Charging an hourly rate is a good idea since house cleaning jobs are not the same. Some jobs require more time and effort. So, it is understandable to charge for all the hours spent on the job.
Other reasons to use house cleaning cost per hour include:
- Gives insight into future projects
- Allows compensation for all the time spent on the job
- Clients know what to expect at the end of the project
- Allows giving customers estimated costs for projects
- Chance to explain your value’
Flat Fee Pricing Method
Flat rate pricing is where you charge a fixed fee for your house cleaning services. Your charges won’t change regardless of how long you’re to work on the project and the effort put in. This type of pricing works better when handling homes with bigger square footage. You may negotiate with the property owner about the cost of cleaning the property.
Here are the steps to determine the flat fee pricing for your house cleaning services.
- Estimate the number of hours to complete the project. Research your competition or work history to discover how much house cleaners charge.
- Multiply the potential number of hours to spend on the project by your rate per hour. This allows getting the overall labor cost.
- Determine the amount and cost of materials for the project
- Get the total cost of materials by multiplying the material cost by the percentage markup.
- Add all labor costs and materials to get the flat rate
Some of the things you’ll like about flat fee pricing include:
- Allows easy communication between you and your clients
- Transparent fees which are easy to understand by the customer
- Allows taking your time to offer quality services
Room Rate Pricing Method
You may also charge per room for house cleaning, with the average rate being $30 to $50 for each room. Alternatively, you may charge according to the number of occupants in the room. You’re likely to clean a lot more in a room used by many people.
Additionally, the nature of the room also matters when determining how much to charge for house cleaning per room. A master bedroom, bathroom, or living room costs more time and energy to clean. So, you have to charge a bit more to clean these rooms.
Some of the things you’ll enjoy about charging per room include:
- You may combine small areas to charge them as a room
- Earn more when a client adds more rooms to clean
- Price depends on how long to clean a room
- Chance to charge more for messier rooms
- Chance to negotiate a fair price with the client
Square Footage Rate Pricing Method
Another pricing method for house cleaning is by square footage. You just have to visit the client’s house and assess what it will take to clean it. The standard price for cleaning a house ranges from $0.10 to $0.17 for each square foot. You have to charge about $200 to $340 to clean a 2000-square-foot house.
The average price to deep clean a house is about $0.11 to $0.22 for every square foot. So, you may charge from $220 to $440 to deep clean a 2000-square-foot property. The formula to determine the price to clean a house according to square footage is multiplying the size of the house by the price for each square foot. You will get the amount to charge to complete the job.
Specialty Services Pricing Method
Specialty cleaning services include stripping, floor cleaning, polishing, buffing, stripping, and varnishing. Customers may also request your assistance for tasks including carpet cleaning, steaming, restoration, and shampooing. Additionally, services may include window cleaning and cleaning the ceiling and the walls.
Calculate Your Rate
After knowing the factors that determine pricing for housing cleaning services and the pricing methods, it is time to learn how to make a home cleaning services price list.
Do this by following the steps below.
Step 1: Determine Average Cleaning Times
Since time is money, you should stick to charging per hour. However, you have to determine how long it will take you to clean the house. You need to time yourself using a stopwatch while cleaning your house to estimate how long it will take to clean clients’ houses.
After knowing how long it may take you to clean all rooms, you must determine your baseline average. It will become easier for you to tell clients how long you’re likely to take while handling their cleaning requirements. Getting reasonable estimates makes pricing your house cleaning services better.
Step 2: Select a Pricing Model
At this stage, you determine the pricing model you’re to use. An hourly rate is a great choice for beginners to allow focusing on value and quality services. Charging per room allows giving clients the average rate for each room. This is very helpful since the clients may not need to clean all the rooms.
You may charge a flat rate for regular clients after knowing the size of their houses and cleaning requirements. Alternatively, you may charge according to square footage after determining the rate for each square footage. It is a very profitable pricing model and easy to sell to houses with more than 2000 square footage.
Step 3: Add your Profit
After selecting a pricing model and knowing how long your team will take to clean the house, you must draft a pricing list. The price should cover overheads including wages, supplies, gas, rent, and taxes.
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