House cleaning in the US is typically priced between $25 and $50 per hour per cleaner, or $120 to $280 as a flat rate for a standard home visit, with deep cleans running 1.5 to 2 times more. Those bands are a starting reference: the right price for your company comes from your costs plus margin. Here is the complete method.
The four pricing models (and when to use each)
| Model | Typical range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Per hour, per cleaner | $25–$50 | First-time or unknown-scope jobs |
| Flat rate per visit | $120–$280 standard home | Recurring residential plans |
| Per square foot | $0.08–$0.15 (janitorial) | Offices and commercial bids |
| Per room / per bedroom | $20–$50 per room | Quick quotes over the phone |
Ranges vary widely by metro; affluent areas commonly support prices above these bands. Treat them as a sanity check, not a target.
The formula: price from costs, not from nerves
Calculate your real hourly cost before quoting anything:
- Labor: what you pay per hour, plus payroll taxes if you have employees
- Supplies: products and equipment wear, usually $3 to $6 per job
- Drive time and fuel: count it; it is real paid time
- Overhead: insurance, phone, software and marketing spread across jobs
- Margin: add 25% to 50% on top of total cost; that margin is the business
Example: a 3-hour job with one cleaner at $18/hr labor ($54), $5 supplies, $10 drive time and $8 overhead costs you $77. At a 40% margin you quote roughly $108 minimum. If the local flat-rate band for that home is $140 to $180, quote inside the band and keep the difference.
What moves the price up or down
- Size and number of bathrooms (bathrooms cost more time than bedrooms)
- Condition: months without professional cleaning means a first-visit surcharge
- Pets (hair, dander) and kids (more surface contact)
- Frequency: weekly clients earn the lowest rate, one-time the highest
- Extras priced individually: inside fridge, inside oven, windows, laundry
Specialty jobs deserve specialty prices
- Deep cleaning: 1.5–2× the standard visit
- Move-in/move-out: commonly $250 to $500+; empty does not mean easy
- Post-construction: the premium tier; fine dust takes multiple passes
- Airbnb turnovers: flat per turnover with a strict checklist and a hard deadline
Three mistakes that quietly kill margins
- Copying competitors' prices. You do not know their costs. Yours are the only ones that pay your bills.
- Skipping the walkthrough. Photos or a 10-minute visit before quoting prevents the classic "this house is twice what they described" loss.
- Never raising prices. A small annual increase (3% to 5%) with notice rarely loses good clients, and compounds enormously.
Track every job, or the math is fiction
Cost-based pricing only works if you know how long jobs actually take and what gets spent. That is operational data: cleaning business software records the real time per visit (GPS check-in to check-out), the extras sold and the invoice per client, so your next quote is based on evidence. For getting started end to end, see how to start a cleaning business.