How to Price Cleaning Services: The Complete Guide for 2026
Learn the proven strategies to price your cleaning services competitively while maximizing profit. From flat-rate pricing to hourly models, discover what works best for your business.
Lucas Queiroga
Introduction to Cleaning Service Pricing
Pricing is the single most important decision you'll make in your cleaning business. Get it wrong, and you'll either leave money on the table or price yourself out of the market. Get it right, and you'll build a sustainable, profitable operation.
Most cleaning business owners approach pricing backwards. They look at what competitors charge and try to undercut them. This race to the bottom destroys margins and creates a commodity market where the only differentiator is price.
The better approach: understand your true costs, define your value proposition, and price based on the outcomes you deliver—not the hours you work.
This guide will show you exactly how to do that.
Understanding Your True Costs
Before setting any prices, you need complete clarity on what it actually costs to deliver your service. Most owners dramatically underestimate this.
Direct Costs: The Obvious Ones
Direct costs are expenses tied directly to each job:
- Labor: This isn't just wages. Include payroll taxes (7.65% FICA), workers' comp insurance (typically 3-8% for cleaning), and any benefits. A $15/hour cleaner actually costs you $17-19/hour.
- Supplies: Track your actual usage per job type. A typical residential clean uses $3-8 in supplies. Commercial jobs vary wildly.
- Transportation: At $0.67/mile (2024 IRS rate), a 20-mile round trip costs $13.40. Most owners forget this.
- Equipment depreciation: A $400 vacuum lasting 2 years across 500 jobs = $0.80/job. Add mops, buckets, microfiber cloths.
Indirect Costs: The Hidden Margin Killers
These are the costs that eat your profit while you're not looking:
- Insurance: General liability ($500-1,500/year), bonding ($100-500/year), umbrella policies. Divide by expected annual jobs.
- Marketing: Every customer has an acquisition cost. If you spend $500/month on ads and get 10 new customers, each costs $50 to acquire.
- Software and tools: Scheduling software, CRM, accounting—typically $100-300/month for a small operation.
- Administrative time: Every hour you spend quoting, scheduling, and managing is an hour you're not billing. Value this at your target hourly rate.
- Vehicle costs: Insurance, maintenance, payments. Often $400-800/month total.
The True Cost Calculation
Here's a framework most owners never do:
Monthly Fixed Costs: $3,500
Monthly Variable Costs per Job: $25
Target Jobs per Month: 80
Break-even per Job: ($3,500 ÷ 80) + $25 = $68.75
If you're charging $100 for a job that takes 2 hours with a 2-person team, your actual margin is:
- Revenue: $100
- Labor (2 people × 2 hours × $18 true cost): $72
- Supplies: $5
- Transport: $8
- Job overhead allocation: $43.75
- Actual profit: -$28.75
Yes, many cleaning businesses lose money on jobs they think are profitable.
Pricing Models Deep Dive
Each pricing model has strategic implications beyond simple math.
Hourly Pricing: When It Works
Hourly pricing makes sense when:
- Job scope is genuinely unpredictable
- You're building trust with new clients
- The client values transparency over predictability
The psychological trap: Hourly pricing creates an adversarial dynamic. Clients watch the clock. They question every minute. You feel pressure to rush.
Pro tip: If you must price hourly, quote a range and bill at the midpoint unless circumstances justify otherwise. "This typically takes 2-3 hours at $45/hour" feels safer to clients than open-ended billing.
Flat-Rate Pricing: The Professional Standard
Flat-rate pricing shifts risk to you but builds trust with clients. They know exactly what they'll pay.
The key insight: Flat-rate pricing rewards efficiency. Every minute you shave off your process goes straight to your bottom line. This creates positive incentives to systematize and improve.
How to set flat rates:
- Track your actual time on 20+ similar jobs
- Calculate the 75th percentile time (not average—you want buffer)
- Apply your target hourly rate
- Add a 15-20% margin for variability
Square Footage Pricing: The Scalable Model
Pricing by square foot removes subjectivity and scales well. It's particularly effective for commercial contracts where spaces are well-documented.
Typical ranges (2026):
- Residential maintenance: $0.08-0.15/sq ft
- Residential deep clean: $0.20-0.35/sq ft
- Commercial (office): $0.05-0.12/sq ft
- Commercial (medical): $0.15-0.30/sq ft
The catch: Square footage doesn't account for complexity. A 2,000 sq ft home with 5 bathrooms takes longer than one with 2 bathrooms. Build modifiers into your pricing.
Value-Based Pricing: The Advanced Play
Value-based pricing charges based on outcomes, not inputs. This is where the real money is.
Example: A property manager needs turnover cleaning. A vacant day costs them $150 in lost rent. If you can guarantee same-day turnovers, that's worth far more than your time.
How to implement:
- Understand the client's business model
- Identify the outcomes they value (speed, reliability, quality scores)
- Price against those outcomes, not your costs
- Back it with guarantees
The Psychology of Pricing
Anchor High, Justify the Value
When presenting prices, start with your premium option. This anchors the client's expectations. Your standard price then feels reasonable by comparison.
- Bad approach: "Our basic clean is $120..."
- Better approach: "Our comprehensive deep clean is $280. Most of our regular clients choose our standard service at $150."
Remove Price from the Decision
The goal is to make your price feel inevitable, not negotiable. You do this through:
- Social proof: "80% of our clients in your neighborhood choose this package"
- Specificity: "$147" feels more calculated (and fair) than "$150"
- Bundling: Package services so there's no direct comparison
- Framing: "$150 for 3 hours of your time back" vs "$150 for cleaning"
The Premium Positioning Strategy
There's a counterintuitive truth in cleaning: higher prices often increase demand.
Why? Price signals quality. A $200 residential clean attracts clients who value quality over cost. These clients:
- Are less price-sensitive
- Complain less
- Refer more
- Stay longer
The math: 10 clients at $120 = $1,200 revenue. 6 clients at $200 = $1,200 revenue, but less labor, less complexity, higher satisfaction.
Building Your Price List
The Three-Tier Strategy
Offer three service levels. Psychology research shows people gravitate toward the middle option.
- Tier 1 - Essential ($X): Core cleaning tasks. Position this as "maintenance mode" for budget-conscious clients or between deep cleans.
- Tier 2 - Standard ($X × 1.4): Your most popular option. Everything in Essential plus additional value. This is where you want most clients.
- Tier 3 - Premium ($X × 2): White-glove service. Everything plus extras like interior windows, organizing, laundry folding. Even if few choose it, it makes Standard look reasonable.
Add-On Menu
Create a menu of add-on services with clear pricing:
- Interior windows: +$5 per window
- Refrigerator deep clean: +$35
- Oven cleaning: +$40
- Laundry (wash/dry/fold): +$25 per load
- Organizing (per hour): +$45
Add-ons increase average ticket without increasing acquisition cost.
Recurring Service Discounts
Incentivize recurring bookings—they're the foundation of a stable business.
Recommended structure:
- Weekly: 20% discount
- Bi-weekly: 15% discount
- Monthly: 10% discount
Critical: Require a minimum commitment (3 months) for discounted rates. Otherwise, clients take the discount and cancel after one clean.
Handling Price Objections
"That's more than I expected"
Response: "I understand. Our pricing reflects the quality of service and reliability we provide. Let me ask—what's most important to you in a cleaning service? [Listen] We've found that clients who value [their answer] typically stay with us for years because we deliver on exactly that."
"Your competitor charges less"
Response: "They might. We're not trying to be the cheapest option—we're focused on being the best value. Our clients tell us the reliability, attention to detail, and the fact that they never have to follow up makes the difference worth it. Would you like to try us once and see the difference?"
"Can you do it for less?"
Response: "Our pricing is based on delivering consistent quality with properly trained, insured cleaners using professional-grade supplies. I could lower the price, but I'd have to cut somewhere, and that's not fair to you. What I can do is [offer alternative: different frequency, smaller scope, etc.]."
When to Raise Prices
Annual Increases Are Non-Negotiable
Costs rise every year. Labor, supplies, fuel, insurance—everything. If you don't raise prices, you're taking a pay cut.
The rule: Raise prices 3-5% annually, minimum. Communicate it professionally, 30 days in advance.
Script: "Hi [Name], I wanted to let you know that starting [date], our service rates will increase by [X]%. This reflects increased costs for supplies, insurance, and ensuring we continue to attract and retain the best cleaning professionals. We're grateful for your continued trust in us."
Strategic Price Increases
Beyond annual adjustments, raise prices when:
- You're at capacity (more demand than supply)
- You add meaningful value (new equipment, certifications, services)
- You've significantly improved quality or reliability
- Market rates have moved
Putting It All Together
Pricing isn't a one-time decision—it's an ongoing strategy. Here's your action plan:
- This week: Calculate your true costs. Be honest. Include everything.
- This month: Audit your current pricing against those costs. How many jobs are actually profitable?
- Next month: Implement tiered pricing if you haven't. Create your add-on menu.
- Quarterly: Review your numbers. Track profit by job type, client, and service tier.
- Annually: Raise prices. No exceptions.
The cleaning businesses that thrive aren't the cheapest. They're the ones that understand their value, price accordingly, and deliver consistently on their promises.
Your price is a statement about who you are and who you serve. Make it count.
Written by Lucas Queiroga
Founder of EasyCleanQuote. Helping cleaning businesses streamline operations and grow their customer base with practical insights from years of industry experience.
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