Pricing Regular Cleans Without Underquoting Yourself

Recurring work is the best thing about running a cleaning business. It fills the calendar, it smooths the cash coming in, and it means you are not quoting from scratch every week. It is also the easiest place to lock in a bad price, because a one-off job you underquoted hurts once and a fortnightly clean you underquoted hurts every fortnight for two years.

The problem is rarely the hourly figure. It is that the price was set from a walk-through and a guess, before anyone knew how long the job actually takes or what would quietly get added to it.

Time the job before you price the contract

Price the first clean as a one-off, do it, and time it properly — room by room if you can. Then quote the ongoing rate from what you measured rather than from what you estimated standing in the hallway.

If a customer wants a fixed ongoing price before the first visit, give a range and say plainly that you will confirm it after the first clean. Most people accept that, and the ones who insist on a firm number sight unseen are usually the ones whose place will take twice as long as it looks.

Time the second and third visits too. Ongoing cleans usually settle faster than the first, and you want to price for the settled time, not the deep-clean time.

Price the first clean separately, always

An initial clean on a house that has not had one is a different job to maintaining it. Oven, tracks, skirting, shower build-up — that work is done once and then held, and rolling it into the ongoing rate means you either lose money in week one or overcharge for the next hundred visits.

Quote it as its own line, explain what it covers, and say the regular rate starts from the second visit. Customers understand this readily. It is the same logic as a first mow on a paddock.

Decide what is in scope and write it down

Scope creep in cleaning is almost never a confrontation. It is one extra room, then the inside of the fridge, then the windows because someone is home that day, then the laundry because you were there anyway. Each request is small and reasonable, and none of them are in the price.

Write a short list of what the clean includes and what it does not, and give the customer a copy. It does not need to be a contract. Two columns on one page is enough, and it turns every future request into a simple, unawkward conversation: that one sits outside the regular clean, here is what it would be to add it.

Price your common extras in advance — oven, fridge, windows, balcony, inside cupboards — so you can answer on the spot instead of guessing or waving it through.

Count the costs that are not your time

Consumables, travel between jobs, laundering cloths and mop heads, equipment replacement, insurance, and the admin time spent invoicing and rescheduling all belong in the price. For recurring work they compound quietly, because they are per visit.

Travel deserves its own look. A fortnightly clean twenty-five minutes out of your way is a job that pays less per hour than the one down the road at the same headline rate. That does not automatically make it a bad job, but it should be priced as what it is, or clustered with other work in the same area so the trip carries more than one invoice.

Build a review date into the arrangement

Say at the start that you review pricing once a year, and name the month. That single sentence at the beginning removes the whole awkwardness later — the rise is something you told them about, not something you sprang on them.

Use the review for more than the rate. Households change. A place that took two hours when the kids were small takes a different amount of time five years later, in either direction. Re-time the job occasionally and adjust to what it is now, rather than to what it was when you quoted it.

Work out which recurring jobs are worth keeping

Once a quarter, work out the actual hourly return on each regular clean: what you invoice, minus consumables and travel, divided by the real time on site including the drive. Put them in order.

The bottom of that list is usually two or three jobs priced years ago, in awkward locations, that you have never revisited. They are also the reason you feel busy and thin at the same time. Reprice them at the review, and if a customer will not wear it, letting the job go frees a slot for better-priced work. Not every regular clean deserves the loyalty it gets.

Be careful with discounts for frequency

A discount for weekly over fortnightly only makes sense if the weekly clean genuinely takes less time per visit — which it often does, because less builds up between visits. Measure it before you offer it. Discounting purely to secure the frequency gives away margin on the most reliable work you have, which is the opposite of how it should go.

The short version

• Do the first clean as a one-off and time it before quoting the ongoing rate.
• Always price the initial deep clean separately from the regular visits.
• Put in-scope and out-of-scope work on one page and hand it over.
• Price your common extras in advance so you can answer immediately.
• Include consumables, travel, laundry, equipment and admin in the rate.
• Name an annual review month at the start of the arrangement.
• Re-time jobs at review — households change.
• Rank your recurring jobs by real hourly return each quarter and fix the bottom.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I charge by the hour or a flat rate for regular cleans?

Most customers prefer a flat per-visit price, and it is fine to give them one — as long as you built that figure from timed visits and a defined scope. Hourly protects you when the job is unpredictable, such as a first clean or an end-of-lease, so a common approach is hourly for one-offs and flat rate for the ongoing work once you know how long it takes.

How do I raise the price on a long-standing customer?

Give a month’s notice in writing, name the new per-visit figure, and keep it brief. If the job has changed since you quoted it, say so plainly — an extra room or a new pet is a concrete reason most people accept without argument. Do not apologise, and do not offer to hold the old rate, because you will then be running two prices for identical work.

What do I do when a customer keeps adding small extras?

Answer the next request with your price for it rather than with a yes or no: the fridge is an extra, here is what it would be, happy to add it to this visit or do it next time. Doing this once or twice, calmly, resets the pattern without any confrontation, and some customers will simply start paying for the extras they were previously getting free.