How to Price House Cleaning: Do the Math on One Real Job

To price house cleaning, add up what one job really costs you (labor with payroll taxes, paid drive time, mileage, supplies and a share of overhead), then add the margin you want on purpose. In our worked example, a 3-bed, 2-bath standard clean costs about $136 to deliver, so $120 loses money and about $195 earns a 30% margin. Plug in your own numbers below.

• Start from your costs, not from what other companies in town charge.

• Count drive time and mileage. They are real costs on every job, not extras.

• Choose a margin, then price: cost ÷ (1 − margin).

• Charge more for first-time and heavy cleans, and give your best rate to recurring clients.

Why "what everyone else charges" is the wrong starting point

Most owners set their first price by looking around and going a little lower. The going rate is wide, though. Housecall Pro's 2026 price guide puts a standard residential clean at $120 to $280 per visit for a 2,000-square-foot home. A range that wide tells you what customers will accept. It tells you nothing about what the job costs you.

Two companies charging the same $150 can be in very different places. One pays its cleaners more, drives farther and carries more insurance. The other runs lean. The same price is profitable for one and a slow leak for the other. The only way to know which one you are is to cost out a real job.

What one standard clean actually costs you

Here is the math for a 3-bed, 2-bath standard clean that takes one cleaner 3.5 hours on site. The inputs are assumptions you should replace with your own, and each one says where it comes from.

• Cleaner wage: $20 an hour. The national median for maids and housekeeping cleaners was $34,660 a year, about $16.66 an hour, in the BLS May 2024 data. We used $20 because owners who keep good cleaners usually pay above the median.

• Payroll taxes and insurance: +15%, so $23 an hour. Social Security and Medicare alone are 7.65% for the employer. Unemployment tax and workers' comp vary a lot by state, so 15% in total is our estimate. Check your own payroll reports.

• Time on site: 3.5 hours × $23 = $80.50.

• Paid drive time: 30 minutes × $23 = $11.50.

• Mileage: 15 miles round trip × 72.5¢ = $10.88. 72.5 cents is the IRS 2026 business mileage rate, which is built to cover gas, wear and insurance on the car.

• Supplies and equipment wear: $8. Our estimate for products, cloths, mop heads and the vacuum you will replace.

• Overhead share: $25. If insurance, phone, software, marketing and admin come to $2,000 a month and you do 80 jobs, each job carries $25.

Total: about $136 to deliver the clean before you make a dollar. At $120, this job loses about $16 every visit. With a weekly client, that is roughly $830 a year lost on one customer.

Add a margin on purpose

Profit is not what is left over at the end of the month. It is a number you build into the price. Pick the margin you want as a share of the price, then divide your cost by what is left:

Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin)

At a 30% margin, $136 ÷ 0.70 = about $195. At 20%, it is $170. The margin is what pays for a slow month, a cleaner who quits mid-season, a new vacuum and your own salary if you stop cleaning.

Then check the result against the market. $195 sits inside the $120 to $280 range from the Housecall Pro guide, so it is a normal price, not a premium one. If your math lands far above the local range, look at the cost lines first: long drives and low jobs per month are the usual culprits.

Price the job, not just the bedroom count

Two homes with the same bedrooms and bathrooms can be very different jobs. Owners who price well adjust for:

• Condition. A first-time or heavy clean takes longer. Housecall Pro's guide says deep cleaning typically costs 50% to 100% more than a standard clean.

• Frequency. Weekly and biweekly homes stay easier to clean, which is why the same guide sees 10% to 15% lower per-visit rates for recurring clients. Run that discount through your cost math: $195 minus 15% is about $166, still above $136.

• Add-ons. Inside the fridge, inside the oven and windows each add time. Charge for them separately instead of absorbing them.

If you want more of those recurring clients, see how to turn one-time cleanings into recurring clients.

How to raise prices on the clients you already have

Once the math shows a job is underpriced, the fix for new customers is easy: quote the new price. Existing clients need a little more care.

• Give notice, usually one billing cycle, with the new price and the date it starts.

• Give the reason in one line: wages, gas and supplies went up, and you want to keep paying your team well.

• Start with the clients who are furthest below your new price, not everyone at once.

A few price-sensitive clients may leave. Run the math on them before you worry: a client who costs you $16 a visit is not one you need to keep at that price.

Where Allclean fits

Once your prices are set, the hard part is quoting the same way every time. Allclean's online booking page prices each job from the service, home size, add-ons and frequency you set, so every customer sees the same instant price whether they book at noon or midnight. And if prices are quoted on the phone, Kelly quotes from the same pricing. Missed calls cost you jobs at any price, which is the subject of what missed calls cost cleaning businesses.

Set up your pricing and booking page on a free Allclean account.