PristineThis post is written for the business owner setting the price, not the homeowner paying it.
The three pricing methods, and when each one makes sense
Hourly pricing. You bill for the time the job actually takes. Rates for house cleaning generally run in the $20-50 per hour per cleaner range, depending on your market and experience level. Hourly makes sense for a first-time cleaning on a home you haven't seen, where you genuinely don't know how long it will take, or for irregular one-time jobs where scope is unpredictable.
The downside: clients dislike not knowing the final number up front, and a slow cleaner gets paid more than an efficient one, which is backwards from what you want to reward.
Flat-rate pricing. You quote one price per visit based on the home's size, condition, and what's included, regardless of exactly how long it takes. A standard single-family home commonly runs somewhere in the $100-200 range per visit for a standard recurring clean, though your market and home size will move that number meaningfully in either direction.
Flat-rate is what most cleaning businesses use for recurring residential clients, because it's predictable for the client and it rewards your crew for working efficiently instead of stretching a job.
Square-footage pricing. You set a rate per square foot and let the home's size do the math — commonly somewhere around $0.06-0.16 per square foot depending on the level of clean and your market. This method is useful as a starting point for quoting sight-unseen, especially for larger homes, but most owners still adjust the flat-rate quote up or down after a walkthrough based on actual condition, number of bathrooms, pets, and clutter.
Many cleaning businesses use square footage to build the initial quote, then convert to a flat rate once the scope of work is confirmed on a walkthrough.
Pricing add-ons separately
Standard cleans should have a clear scope of work — what's included and what isn't. Add-ons like inside the fridge, inside the oven, baseboards, blinds, and interior windows should be priced and offered separately rather than baked into every visit. This does two things: it keeps your standard price competitive, and it gives clients an easy way to spend more without you having to renegotiate the whole relationship.
Deep cleans and move-in/move-out cleans cost more, on purpose
A deep clean — the kind you'd do for a first-time client, after a long gap in service, or before a big event — takes meaningfully longer than a standard recurring visit. Pricing it at roughly 30-50% above your standard rate is common in the industry and reflects the real difference in labor.
Move-in and move-out cleans are their own category. These are typically empty homes needing a full top-to-bottom clean, often with a tighter deadline tied to a lease or closing date. Price these based on the full scope — every cabinet, every closet, appliances — not your standard recurring rate, since the labor and the stakes (a landlord inspection, a new tenant moving in) are both higher.
Why recurring clients should get a discount
Weekly and biweekly clients are typically priced 10-15% lower per visit than a one-time clean of the same home. This isn't a discount out of generosity — a home cleaned regularly builds up less grime between visits, so each recurring visit genuinely takes less labor than a first clean or an infrequent one. Pricing that reflects reality builds trust, and it gives clients a real incentive to commit to a standing schedule instead of booking one-off jobs, which is what actually stabilizes your revenue.
When and how to raise your rates
Rates should move for a few honest reasons: rising supply costs, rising labor costs, or a service level that's grown since the price was set (you're doing more than you were quoted for). A once-a-year review, with 30-60 days' notice in writing, is standard practice and gives clients time to adjust without feeling ambushed.
Raise new-client pricing first if you're testing a higher rate — it's lower risk than raising an existing client's price, and it tells you quickly whether the market will bear it before you touch your recurring base.
The part pricing software actually helps with
Once you're running more than a handful of recurring clients, tracking who's due for a rate review, who's on which pricing tier, and who has which add-ons gets hard to hold in your head or a spreadsheet. That's less a pricing question than a systems question — which is the gap PristineCircuit's CRM is built to close. See how the pipeline and client records work on the Features page.