The complete guide to pricing house cleaning

This guide covers how to price residential cleaning from the ground up: the price structure, what the cleaner earns, the job types that price differently, recurring discounts, what’s left of a booking after costs, and the tax side. I’m Bryan Griffin. I founded Patriot Maids in 2017, I run it from home, and today it operates in 26 states and 40 major cities.

When I started, I wasn’t very good at cleaning, but I did know how to price, and that’s where I put my effort.

Charge a flat fee, not hourly

For residential cleaning, charge a flat fee. When a customer asks “how much?”, they want a number they can plan around. An hourly rate gives them a guess, and a guess makes people nervous about letting a stranger into their home.

A flat fee also lets customers get a quote and book from a form at any hour, without a phone call. That’s a real advantage, because a lot of cleaning companies still make people call for a price. Keep hourly for the odd job nobody can estimate until they see it. More in should I charge hourly or a flat fee.

Build the price backwards from the cleaner’s pay

I don’t price off competitors. I start with what a good cleaning professional in your market expects to earn. Ask the cleaners you interview what they charge their own private clients; that tells you where the bar is. Then I build a price that gets them there after their percentage.

At Patriot Maids the split is 60% to the cleaning professional and 40% to the agency. The split is your choice: 50/50, 65/35 and 70/30 all exist. What matters is what it works out to per hour for the cleaner. What to pay house cleaners covers splits, tips, fees and the weekly pay cycle.

Priced this way, my prices end up about 30% to 40% above the market. That’s what lets the revenue share work for both sides. If I charged what everyone else charges, there wouldn’t be enough in each job for the cleaner or the agency.

I also use one price list for every city. When I open somewhere new, I charge what I charge in my other cities. It keeps things simple across a lot of locations.

Turn hours into a flat fee

A flat fee is built from estimated labor hours. Add up working times for each room, then price the total at your hourly value. Six labor hours means six hours of one cleaner, or three hours for a team of two, so spell that out with an example.

If a job estimates at four to six hours, build the price on six. You’re quoting sight unseen, and pricing to the top means the cleaner comes out ahead on most jobs and roughly even on the hard ones. If you’re the cheapest option in your market, you’ve made a mistake. The full method, with room-by-room times, is in how much to charge for house cleaning.

Here’s what that looks like at Blank Canvas Cleaning, the newer brand I started in October 2026. The planning numbers are about $50 per hour of cleaning work, with 65% to the cleaner. A 3 bed, 2 bath standard clean up to 2,000 square feet comes out around 4.1 hours and $209. Those are planning numbers, not results yet.

When the house doesn’t match the quote

A flat price is based on what the customer told you. So the cleaner does a quick walk-through on arrival. If a standard clean turns out to need a deep clean, with trash everywhere, built-up dirt or soap scum, they stop, take photos and send them to us right away. Then I call the customer and we agree on the next step before the extra work happens.

Renegotiate at the start of a job, never at the end. Get a yes to a specific dollar amount. Photos prevent all the he said, she said.

Deep cleans and move-outs price differently

Most quality complaints come from a customer who thought they bought a deep clean and paid for a standard one. Publish both checklists side by side so the line is clear. In my business the quote follows how people live: a home with a long-haired dog probably needs baseboards, and someone who lives on takeout might need the fridge done, not the oven. Deep cleaning vs standard cleaning lists what belongs in each.

Move-outs are the job most likely to lose money, because a vacant home takes much longer per room. Nothing is covered, so nothing gets skipped. At Patriot Maids, move-out quotes are built around the home, so if the oven and fridge left with the tenant, we don’t charge for them. At Blank Canvas Cleaning the move-in/move-out price is published and already includes the oven, fridge, dishwasher, empty cabinets and blinds. Both styles work. Pick one and make it clear up front.

The Blank Canvas planning numbers put a 3 bed, 2 bath move-out at about 6.1 hours of one person’s work, against about 4.1 for a standard clean. Planning numbers, not results yet. And I never promise a deposit back, because that’s the landlord’s decision. See move out cleaning pricing.

Price recurring visits lower, with flat discounts

Recurring customers give the business its baseline. If you paid to win a customer, a one-time clean may only cover that cost. So weekly, every 2 weeks and every 4 weeks should each be priced below one-time, and shown that way on the booking form.

At Patriot Maids, recurring customers get a flat discount: $20 off weekly, $15 off every 2 weeks and $10 off every 4 weeks. We used to use percentages (20%, 15% and 10%), but every discount is shared by the agency and the cleaner, and the percentages were hitting both. Flat amounts raised cleaner pay and ended the complaints.

At Blank Canvas Cleaning we’re testing a different start: a $59 Priority Clean, then a call within 2 hours and 14 days of follow-up offering every-2-weeks service. It’s early and unproven. Turning one-time cleans into recurring clients covers the rest, including why the same cleaner every visit matters so much.

Follow one booking all the way down

Revenue is the least useful number in this business, because most of it belongs to the cleaners. Look at margin one booking at a time instead.

Here’s an illustrative one, simplified from a real booking. A $171.50 service with $15 off for every-2-weeks service comes to $156.50. The split is on that discounted total, so at 60/40, $93.90 goes to the cleaning professional and $62.60 to the agency. Tips go 100% to the cleaner.

Stripe’s processing fee comes out of the agency’s share, not the cleaner’s. At 2.9% plus 30 cents, that’s about $5.21 here, so the agency is down to about $57.39 before software, insurance, marketing and support. This is one example to show how the money moves, not a forecast of what you’ll make.

The expenses in this business aren’t big. They’re random: booking software, a CRM, tools, insurance. Track every one. More in cleaning business profit margins, honestly.

Sales tax, 1099s and the money that isn’t yours

Sales tax isn’t revenue. At Patriot Maids, the agency collects it on a booking where the state requires it, and the agency pays it. Texas taxes cleaning services. Massachusetts, where we also operate, doesn’t tax our cleanings. Same business, two answers, so check every state you work in. Our split is figured on the discounted total before tax, so the tax never gets split.

If you work with independent contractors, collect a W-9 before their first job, and issue a 1099-NEC to each one who crosses the IRS reporting threshold. You don’t withhold taxes for contractors. Taxes and 1099s for a cleaning business walks through it, and the classification side is in independent contractor or employee.

Line up a CPA, a bookkeeper and a lawyer early. I call them my business trinity.

This is general education, not legal or tax advice. Check your state’s rules.

Where to go next

Once your prices are set, the next job is finding cleaners who’ll accept them. Start with how I find and screen house cleaners.

If you’re still at the very beginning, read the complete guide to starting a cleaning business and what it costs to start a cleaning business. And to protect the prices you’ve set, see cancellation, lockout and late fees that actually hold up.