A Guide to Pricing House Cleaning Jobs
One of the most challenging things about starting a house cleaning business is coming up with the right price for the services that you offer. If you set the price too high, you may end up losing clients, while if you set the price too low, you may end up making losses and even closing your business.
So, how do you come up with the right prices for house cleaning services?
In this house cleaning pricing guide, we’re going to help you know how to properly set your prices for different house cleaning services.
Do research on other cleaning businesses online
Begin by researching what other house cleaning businesses are charging and for what services. If you don’t find the rates online, pose as a client and find out what your competitors are charging.
Apart from just asking about the rates, call the companies and know what they are charging and why. This will help to have an overview of how you should charge your clients and for what services.
If possible, you can go ahead and call the house cleaning companies in your area and get prices and cleaning package from them. Then, create a spreadsheet and compare all the prices from different cleaning companies.
Record your average cleaning time
When coming up with prices, you should base them on your average cleaning time. To do this, you need to know your per room average.
You can know how much time you take to clean a certain area by either cleaning your house or offering your cleaning services to friends or family and recording the time that you take to clean every single room.
Time yourself in every room and come up with a baseline for every room average. This makes providing your client’s with an accurate estimate to be easy as you know the average time it will take to tidy a particular room. Furthermore, you will be in a position to quote a more accurate price.
Decide on your pricing model
Different clients will have different needs. Some will want you to charge them hourly others will want a flat rate. So, it is important to know what pricing models work best for you and the client.
- Hourly
This is the best pricing model for beginners. This is because it allows the cleaner to pay attention to quality and value. But if you decide to use this model, just know that you will be working to beat a certain deadline.
Therefore, you will have to be as efficient as possible and at the same time deliver outstanding results. So, you will need to have a proper plan on where you will start and finish and how long every room will take to clean.
Most of the house cleaning companies in the UK charge from £12 upwards with some companies charging up to £19 per hour.
- Flat rate
On paper, this might be the best model for pricing your cleaning services but don’t just get full of yourself first. Clients find this pricing model to be good as they understand what they are paying for in advance.
It is important to know how many rooms are in the house and the state that they are in. If you are new to the house, have a quick view of its state before quoting. Some clients may give wrong information about the status of their homes as they may be dirtier than you think, especially if it’s deep house cleaning.
For instance, you may charge £28 for a living room and £6 for a bathroom.
- Square footage
The square footage pricing model works great for homes of a similar size. If the homes are of the same size, you know how long it takes to clean each room unless it is deep house cleaning. This model works great for homes that measure 2000 to 3000 square foot range.
If you want to know how much to charge for deep cleaning a house, just add up all your individual room costs and that will be the price of the deep clean.
Price your cleaning services for profit
One of the greatest mistakes that new house cleaning businesses make is by basing their prices on the current market prices. As a matter of fact, most new house cleaning business set lower prices in order to compete with other well-established businesses in the market.
This is not bad but can be wrong at the same time. Before setting your prices, ensure that all costs and expenses are included. After all, who wants to open up a business to make losses instead of profits? Calculate the cost of supplies, employees, and drive time and fuel.
But don’t set your prices too high as you will chase away potential clients or even existing ones. Do proper marketing and offer the best services. In a matter of time, you will soon be competing with the rest.
What is included in a deep house cleaning?
Most people or even cleaning companies do regular cleaning on a regular basis. A deep clean is not usually performed but when it is carried out, it is normally done after 6 months or so. Unlike regular cleaning, deep cleaning takes more time and it is also more costly.
The best time to do a deep cleaning is when you are moving in or out of a house, when preparing for a holiday or when planning a special event. Deep cleaning involves more than just cleaning the bathroom, mopping floors, cleaning the kitchen, or tidying up.
Heres what’s included in a deep house clean:
- Cleaning inside window frames and patio doors
- Washing all window blinds
- Washing inside and outside windows
- Removing scales from all kitchen tiles, bathroom tiles, shower heads, taps, etc.
- Cleaning inside the oven with the oven door included
- Cleaning under the sink
- Full and deep dusting including all of the corners of different rooms for cobwebs
- Cleaning behind the kitchen appliances such as the oven and washing machine
- Scrubbing the stovetop and drip pans
- Washing countertops
- Cleaning light fixtures
- Closet and stair floors dusted
These are some of the activities carried out during a deep house cleaning. Most of them usually take at least 3 to 12 hours, depending on what you’re cleaning. Before setting rates for deep cleaning services, find out what your competitors are offering just like with regular cleaning services.
Conclusion
With this house cleaning price guide, you should be able to come up with an ideal price list for your house cleaning services. It doesn’t matter if its regular house cleaning or deep house cleaning, it should help you set out the right prices that will help you to compete favourably in the market.
So, follow our guide and price your services accurately to maintain or even get more customers and at the same time make profits.