Last Updated on August 24, 2023 by The ZenMaid Team
Have you ever found yourself staring at the phone, client on the line, sweating over what number to say? You’re not alone. One of the most common questions among residential cleaning business owners is how much should I charge for my services?
Charge too high, and you might scare clients away. Too low, and you’re undercutting your value. It’s enough to make anyone second-guess their math skills. In this article, weโre breaking down industry standards and how to calculate the best price to charge for your maid service.
Now, letโs get to it.
Hourly vs. flat rate pricing:
The debate between hourly vs. flat rate is as old as the industry itself. Many seasoned experts advocate for flat-rate pricing as the golden ticket to scaling your business. It offers predictability for your clients and ensures you’re compensated for the value you provide, not just the time you spend.
However, don’t toss the idea of knowing your hourly rate out the window just yet. Understanding your approximate hourly rate is crucial for accurately setting your flat rates. It serves as the foundation upon which you build your pricing structure, ensuring that you’re not only competitive but also profitable.
The trick is to calculate your hourly rate based on your operating costs, desired profit margins, and the market rates, and then transition to a flat-rate model that reflects the value and efficiency of your services. In this article, weโre giving you step-by-step instructions on how to determine this rate. But first, letโs cover some industry averages:
Industry average prices for cleaning services
The standard flat rate for cleaning services can vary widely depending on the location, the size and condition of the space, the type of cleaning required, and the cleaning company itself. Here’s a quick breakdown of standard cleaning rates based on averages from HomeAdvisor and Angi.
1. Hourly Rates:
- Standard cleaning prices also range from $35 to $60 per hour for each cleaner.
- The national average cost of house cleaning is noted to be $40-$50 per hour, per cleaner.
2. Per Room Rates:
- The rate is about $30 to $50 per room.
3. Square Footage Rates:
- Cleaning a 2,000-square-foot home can cost about $0.06 to $0.16 per square foot, which would total $110 to $320.
4. Flat Fee Rates:
- For a typical three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home, the cleaning cost usually ranges from $160 to $200.
- A one-bedroom apartment is priced at around $80 to $110.
Cleaning type | Hourly rate | Flat rate | Sq Ft Rate |
Residential Cleaning | |||
Standard Cleaning | $25 – $50 per cleaner | $100 – $200 | $0.05 – $0.16 |
Deep Cleaning | $40 – $100 per cleaner | $200 – $400 | $0.13 – $0.17 |
Move-In/Out Cleaning | $40 – $100 per cleaner | $300 – $400 | $0.13 – $0.20 |
Commercial Cleaning | |||
Standard Cleaning | $25 to $90 per cleaner | Varies by size | $0.10 to $0.25 |
Deep Cleaning | $40 to $150 per cleaner | $200 to $500 | N/A |
Special Services | Varies by service | Varies by service | Varies by service |
Additional Services You Can Charge: For residential cleaning, add-on services such as changing bed sheets, laundry, interior and exterior window cleaning, fridge cleaning, oven cleaning, etc., come with additional costs ranging from $4 to $50 per serviceโ. In ZenMaid, you can easily add these extra charges to your cleaning job.
The pricing strategy formula
Now that weโve covered some average industry rates, letโs break down a bit more. Everyone likes a good roadmap, right? Here are the four steps for how to find your cleaning service rate:
- Step One: Find your target hourly rate
- Step Two: Calculate how much square footage you can clean in an hour
- Step Three: Develop a pricing strategy
- Step Four: Use the pricing formula
How to find the hourly rate for your business
The first step to finding an hourly rate for your business starts with doing local market research. When conducting your market research, consider these targeted questions:
- What are other businesses charging? More specifically, what are businesses the same size as yours charging?
- How often do they offer services?
The easiest way to find out what your competitors are charging is when prices are listed on their website. Unfortunately, that’s not very common. So, pick up the phone and call up your competitors to ask.
Once you know what your competition is charging, try to understand how much you can get for what you offer.
- Will the demographic in your area pay for a premium service?
- Do you want to charge the same as a franchise’s cleaning business?
Facebook groups, client surveys, and competitors are great places to find these answers.
After you’ve done your market research, you’ll need to figure out how to position your company in the marketplace. Are you just another residential cleaning service? Or, do you offer a premium, specialized product?
When you know the direction you’re headed, the road to your pricing strategy is easier to find. Some cleaning services like to specialize in large homes or luxury homes. Others just want the โmeat and potatoes’ of a basic cleaning service. The good news is that there’s plenty of business for everybody.
Employee pay
The next factor that influences your hourly rate is how much you pay your employees. If you want to pay the bare minimum needed to hire people, that’s going to put you on the lower end of the hourly rate.
If you aim to offer a livable wage with benefits, you’re going to need to charge more. There are no correct answers here, but you need to understand these factors when developing your hourly rate.
The average employee pay range for cleaners is $15.30/hour. You can use this for calculating your hourly cleaning rate.
Consider your marketing strategy
The final factor for your hourly rate is your marketing strategy.
Are you trying to grow your business?
Your rate will need to be competitive if you’re hoping to grow at a fast pace.
If you need to grow rapidly but don’t want to lower prices, read this article three ways to get more cleaning customers without lowering your prices.ย
If your business has grown to a place you’re comfortable with, or if you’re well-known in the area, you can probably charge a higher hourly rate. And you can definitely charge a higher rate if you have a waiting list of clients!
How many square feet can you clean per hour?
After you’ve found your hourly rate, understand how many square feet you can clean per hour. Now, at first, this can seem hard to find, but you likely already have the information you need โ it’s just a matter of finding it!
It’s important to know your square footage per hour because you will use it as a baseline for all your prices.
Use data from past cleaning jobs to learn how fast you can clean 500 square feet. You’ll want to calculate an average from your recent jobs.
- How long did the last ten *typical jobs take you?
- How many employees were on the cleaning job?
- How many square feet were the homes?
Don’t have any recent data?
No worries! Start recording this data for the next week and then use it to find your average.
*Several variables can affect your average cleaning rate, so use only typical homes when calculating your average cleaning pace. Your typical homes are the predictable ones that are simple to clean, requiring only your basic cleaning services. (We’ll touch on how to avoid pricing disasters in these kinds of homes at the end of this article!)
How to find your pricing strategy
The next step to nail down your pricing system is to identify your pricing strategy.
In other words, how frequently do you hope to charge for services? We’re going to use your pricing strategy to calculate our prices based on frequency.
Do you want your main revenue to come from weekly cleans, bi-weekly, or monthly with extra fees?
Many residential cleaning companies push for bi-weekly cleans. Offering a small discount of around 5% is a great option to incentivize clients to choose these more frequent cleans.
On the other hand, charging more for monthly cleans is a good way to help clients choose more frequent cleans. It’s often reasonable to charge an additional 50% for a monthly clean.
We see too many cleaning business owners charge the same rate for bi-weekly and monthly cleans. When this happens, your client has no reason to choose bi-weekly over monthly.
Determining an effective pricing strategy is crucial and should align with your current business standing and long-term goals. Assessing your booking rates and understanding your clientele’s price sensitivity are pivotal steps.
More factors to consider:
- If you find that your services are in high demand, with a fully booked schedule being the norm, it might be an indication that your clientele values your services highly. In such a scenario, adopting a premium pricing strategy could be beneficial. This approach reflects the high quality and demand for your services and provides additional revenue that can be reinvested into growing and enhancing your business further.
- On the flip side, a different approach is warranted if your booking rate is lower than desired and you’re struggling to cover your operational costs. Penetration pricing, where you initially set a lower price to gain market share and cover your fixed expenses, might be a viable strategy. This can help attract a customer base and establish a foothold in the market. Once a loyal clientele is built and market recognition is achieved, prices can be gradually adjusted to a higher point.
- Alternatively, crafting custom packages could be a smart move. By offering tailored cleaning packages, you encourage customers to engage with your services over a longer term. This not only helps cover your fixed costs but also enhances each customer’s lifetime value, thereby boosting your overall profitability. Structuring packages that provide value while ensuring profitability will create a win-win scenario for your business and clientele.
To learn more about building a pricing strategy for your cleaning business, check out this article!
How to calculate your pricing
We’ve made it to the pricing formula. After you’ve gone through all the steps above, this next step is pretty simple.
First, take the square footage of your client’s home and divide it by your rate of square feet cleaned per hour. Then, multiply it by your hourly rate. The total number is how much you’ll charge for a single job in that client’s home.
So let’s use an easy number as an example: If a client with a 2,000 square-foot home calls you looking for a quote, divide 2,000 by 500 (rate of square feet cleaned per hour) multiplied by $50 (an hourly rate.) The total one-time clean for that client is $200.
Bi-weekly rate
Offering a 5% discount for bi-weekly cleans is a great incentive for clients. Using the $200 example above, this would mean a client can have a 2,000-square-foot home cleaned twice a month for $380 (after the 5% is applied.) This is an example of a baseline bi-weekly rate.
Monthly rate
Your monthly cleans can have an additional 50% charge to encourage more frequent cleans and account for the extra dust and dirt the home will accumulate between cleans. Using the $200 example, a monthly clean would cost a 2,000-square-foot client $300 (after an extra 50% is added.) This is an example of a baseline monthly rate.
You can use this formula to calculate any specialty service in your business. Just play around with different percentages and values until you come to a reasonable and profitable baseline.
Minimum rate
No matter what kind of service you’re offering, it’s important to set a minimum rate to avoid losing money on out-of-scope services. This will save you the headache of negotiating with a client who might only want a certain room in their home clean. Or perhaps, if they have a smaller home that would only require an hour of cleaning based on your square footage cleaning rate. Set this minimum rate using the pricing calculator and the base amount required to make a profit per clean.
Factors affecting cleaning service pricing
Sometimes, you will find people reaching out to you for a quote, but once you get to the location, you find out there are a lot of factors at play that affect pricing.
Other than the factors mentioned earlier, here are some factors to be aware of:
- Size of the Area to be Cleaned: The total square footage or the number of rooms and bathrooms can greatly affect the time, effort, and resources required to complete the cleaning task.
- Level of Clutter: A cluttered space can take longer to clean as it might require decluttering before the actual cleaning can commence.
- Type of Cleaning Required: Whether it’s a standard cleaning, deep cleaning, or a specialized service like carpet cleaning or window washing, different types of cleaning have different pricing structures.
- Frequency of Cleaning: Regularly scheduled cleanings may be priced differently than one-time or less frequent cleanings.
- Accessibility: If certain areas are hard to reach or the location is in a high-traffic urban area, it may add to the cleaning time and cost.
- Special Requests or Preferences: Clients may have special requests such as using eco-friendly cleaning products or working outside standard hours, which can also affect costs.
- Pet Situation: Homes with pets may require additional cleaning efforts like fur removal, which could influence the price.
- Parking Facilities: In urban areas, the availability of parking near the location can be a factor as it may affect the ease with which cleaning crews can access the site.
- Additional Services: Services like laundry, dishwashing, or organizing could be additional and would affect the overall pricing.
- Supplies Provided: Whether the cleaning company needs to provide all cleaning supplies or some are provided by the client can also impact the cost.
- Lifestyle Factors: Does the client smoke indoors? Does the client keep surfaces clean during the week? Do they host a lot of guests?
- Urgency: Urgent or last-minute cleaning requests may carry premium pricing.
Protecting yourself from pricing disasters
With flat-rate pricing, you need to protect yourself from pricing disasters. We’ve all been there: after quoting a home, we walk into a cleaning job that takes way longer than estimated. There are mountains of clutter, piles of dust, and floors in need of a little too much love. So what do you do?
When taking any new job, set the precedent that you may need to overcharge if any visit takes longer than planned. An example line you can add to your contracts is, โquoted prices assume average-sized rooms in average condition. Extra hours needed to clean will be priced with an additional $50 per hour.โ When a client agrees to this ahead of time, you’ve protected yourself from being underpaid.
Then, when you find yourself in a job taking longer than expected (which is bound to happen at some point), take a break from cleaning to notify the client that an extra fee will be added to keep cleaning. If they give you the go-ahead, you can proceed and charge extra as needed.
If the client declines moving forward, then you can wrap up the job without any penalty. Don’t wait until you’re at the end of a job to notify the client of an extra charge.
Wrapping up
Your cleaning business’ success starts with finding the right rates to charge.
Luckily, finding the perfect pricing strategy for your cleaning business doesn’t have to feel like solving a complex puzzle. With ZenMaid, you can take the guesswork out of quoting and make the process as clean and simple as the services you offer. Our software comes equipped with an instant booking form feature, making it effortless for your clients to get accurate quotes online directly from your website.
Say goodbye to pricing woes and hello to a smoother, more professional booking experience with ZenMaid.
Why your money mindset matters
If youโre a cleaning business owner, you probably love the flexibility, freedom, challenge, and competition that comes with your job. Otherwise, you wouldnโt be in this business! And youโre no stranger to everything it takes to run a successful business โ itโs fun at times, and at other moments, itโs draining.
As a successful maid service owner, you know that you need to constantly improve and learn more to keep up with our ever-changing world. Marketing strategies change, hiring platforms come and go, and the cleaning industry seems to evolve overnight.
So, you might search high and low for any type of helpful advice.
How do other business owners hire?
Where can I find reliable workers?
How should I format my website?
What should my budget look like?
Can I take my business remote?
What technology should I use?
How can I keep clients?
What should I charge for my services?
The questions go on and on, and while theyโre important topics, one of the main things we miss out on first is our mindset. Believe it or not, your mindset dictates how well you do in your business. You need to know where youโve been and where you want to go.
In this article, weโre unpacking how to have a more positive money mindset so you can build up your maid service from a solid foundation. Grab a notepad and get started! Hereโs the five-step checklist weโll take you through:
- Understand your WHY
- Define your income goals
- Decide what youโre willing to sacrifice
- Understand all levels of your business
- Use systems to make your maid service more profitable
Understand your WHY
This may sound simple upfront, but can get a little tricky when you sit down with a notepad and actually write your โwhy.โ Ask yourself – Why did I want to start a maid service in the first place? Then, answer the question! You may have more than one answer and thatโs fine.
When things get challenging (and they always will), you can go back and look at your answers and remember why you started this business.
Mindset work, like the exercise above, isnโt a one-and-done task. Itโs continuous. To be the best business owner you can be, you need to focus on your mindset โ otherwise, youโll get swept up in whatever crisis is in front of you and get stuck in reactive mode.
Define your income goals
With that same notepad as before, take a few minutes to jot down your upcoming income goals.
When you know your income goal, itโs easier to understand what youโre working toward. So, answer the leading questions: What do you need to bring in so that you can payโฆ
- Your employees
- Your taxes
- Your expenses
- Your insurance
- Your salary
Additionally, youโll need to budget a cash flow for your business. With this in mind, do you need to make $80,000 this year? Or $100,000? Perhaps itโs $300,000. Whatever you calculate, you need to work towards that income goal.
Build a budget so that the dream in front of you can turn into a reality. Wishes alone donโt get you anywhere, and neither do dreams. But when you pair a dream with an actionable step, thatโs where the real magic starts.
As you continue to work towards your financial goals, look for books, podcasts, and articles to help you build your financial literacy and strategy. Find stories from other service-based entrepreneurs (like our ZenMaid community) who have hit their financial goals and use them as inspiration to stick to the course.
To learn more about financial planning for your maid service, head over to this article in our magazine next!
Decide what youโre willing to sacrifice
This may sound bleak at first, but we promise itโs not meant to: Weโre all bound by time.
There are only 24 hours in the day and they seem to go too fast and too slow at the same time. After all, we canโt do everything. So, we have to prioritize what we want in life.
Maybe you need to cut down on your Netflix binges at the end of the day, or your Wednesday happy hour with friends. Whatever it may be, you need to give it up for the time being. Your sacrifices donโt have to be forever, but they do need to happen soon. The stage that youโre in now is just a season in life. Take hold of it and make it count!
The truth is, until you start automating your home cleaning business entirely, you will have to take calls, revise training programs, and even clean homes if thatโs what it takes. Entrepreneurs like us have to make short-term sacrifices for our long-term good.
Before we move on to the next step, ask yourself – How soon do I want my business to run the way it should? If you write down a date, youโre more likely to stay on track.
Understand all levels of your business
If you want to grow your cleaning business, itโs important to understand all of the moving parts that make it operate. As the owner, itโs your job to know how everything fits together on a daily basis.
For example, how long does it really take to do a cleaning?
If you donโt know the answer, add it to your to-do list for next week. Time yourself so that you know how long it takes to do the quality job that you are expecting from your cleaning team. Whoโs the mastermind behind your business? Itโs you!
Understand your home cleaning business from the ground up, what each team member does (and how), and how all these roles contribute to the bigger picture and your income goals. In your notepad, write down every working part of your business which includes a detailed description of;
- How long each task takes
- The cost of each operation
- What systems you have in place
- The roles of each job description
Successful cleaning companies donโt magically appear overnight โ itโs not about luck. Instead, youโll find that your company soars in profit when you have a strong mindset and commitment to continuous improvement for both yourself and your cleaning team.
Use systems to make your cleaning business more profitable
Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions?
- Why do I spend so much time responding to clients?
- Whatโs the best platform to hire new employees?
- Why do I spend a huge part of my budget on marketing and it barely helps?
- How can I spend more of my day on the things that matter and not on repetitive delegation tasks?
- How do I get more people to look at my website?
If you ask yourself these questions over and over again, it could be a sign that you donโt have the right systems in place.
(Weโre not done with that notepad yet!) You need to understand and document how all areas of your home cleaning business are done and what areas you need better systems. Systems, automation, and delegation are the key to a profitable business. So, hereโs what you should review:
- How you onboard new clients
- Your house cleaning checklists
- How your employees ask for time off
- The ways that potential clients can contact you
- Your communication channel between all of your employees
There are so many things to review โ these are just a few to get you started. The best part is that you can use automation tools for each of these processes. You donโt need to go at it alone. Remember, it comes back to mindset. Ask yourself how you can make life easier for you, your clients, and your employees. Then, implement the systems to achieve your vision.
Systemize what you do if you want to free up your time to focus on strategy and growth in your business, rather than repetitive day-to-day tasks. (Weโve got more resources about systemizing your maid service right here.)
Next steps
Remember: everything in your business comes back to your mindset.
First and foremost, your business is an extension of you. How you budget, treat your employees, add value to your customers, design your website, and market your business is an extension of your mindset and values. Itโs not a burden, but an exciting journey that you as an entrepreneur get to go on every day. Be intentional, look for ways to improve, and enjoy the process!
If you found this article helpful for your maid service, you may also like:
- Q&A with Stephanie Pipkin: Boosting Your Maid Service Profits and Other Tips
- How to brand and grow your cleaning business
- (Case Study) Washe Cleaning’s Formula for a Million Dollar Maid Service
- (Case Study) From Laying Off 75 Cleaners to Thriving Post-Pandemic: How Custom Maids Did it
- How to Price Your Cleaning Services
For more resources on how to grow and perfect your cleaning business, check out the replays from the latest Maid Summit, hosted by ZenMaid. The summit featured more than 60 presentations from other maid service owners who shared tools and strategies to help you achieve the highest levels of success in your business.
To hear Caren Fernโs full talk from the Maid Summit, click here.ย
About the presenter
Caren Fern is the owner of My Cleaning Company and Services and the coach of The Money Mindset Academy. She has a passion to help cleaning business owners realize their dreams of success and create a business they love. In her academy, Caren teaches entrepreneurs to let go of the negative ways they think about money, and instead, use an abundance mindset to grow a profitable home cleaning business.
You and your maid service deserve a little peace and quiet. Try ZenMaid for free today!