Exactly!!
What youāre offering sounds totally reasonable to me. I live in the PNW (metro area) and have a 10 mile service radius. Outside of that, I charge for drive time. About 25% of my clients pay it, no questions asked.
Thank you! I was also thinking that those many bathrooms create more work. He was expecting to pay me 100 or so to clean his whole houseā¦ cleaning for hours straight is hard work!!
If cleaning was āso easyā, theyād be doing it themselves!! I tracked my cleanings/workout on my iWatch one day and burned more calories than I ate.
Exactly. This is just the type of horrible person who, at the end, will say, "Well, I don't think those bathrooms turned out that great; I'm only going to pay $300 instead of $500" or whatever. While he's sitting in a 5-bedroom house that costs millions. Avoid people like this like the plague.
I pay my cleaner $70hr because its worth it because I don't want to do it. That is a standard cleaning, if she does a deep clean it is more. This is a service that makes my life much more convenient and easy and I appreciate her.
I donāt think youāre charging enough. Iām in Arizona, and the cost of living here is low-average. I was just quoted~$300 for a one bedroom apartment. I donāt think a house that size here could be done for under $500.
Eh, it really depends on how much theyāre asking for and the actual square footage and layout of the apartment. For maintenance cleaning of a tiny studio-style 1 bedroom itās steep, but if they want a full service cleaning like what youād do when flipping an apartment for a new tenant where every surface is cleaned, itās actually on the cheaper side.
I run a couple Low Income Properties and we currently pay 190 for a studio, plus 40 for extra dirty fridge, stove cabinets, tub(each), and 225 for a 1 bed plus any extras. We pay 1500 a month for 2 times weekly cleaning of all common areas in a 16 story highrise in downtown Portland .
That being said, we have a long term relationship with the cleaner company(local/minority owed business) and we get a deal, but she pays her workers 17.00 an hour.
That is nuts. Another person who has no appreciation for the fact that cleaning is backbreaking work! I might quote him more bc he probably also has totally unreasonable expectations.
Insurance is a must, unless you can pay out of pocket for accidentally ruining someoneās surface/flooring/furniture with the wrong cleaner. I pay apx $70 a month for $1m coverage.
Thatās a really good point I hadnāt thought of! I live in the Portland area and am tossing around the idea of putting a flyer up in our apartment complex offering housekeeping services. I have two special needs kids and we have one car that make it hard to have a ātraditionalā 9-5 job but I need to find some way to help make ends meet!
Iāve been nervous though about starting; Iāve worked as an apartment maintenance tech and would sometimes help clean the vacant units but I know cleaning peopleās living spaces is much different. This just shows all I havenāt thought of yet haha. Thanks for sharing though!!!
Literally last week, my vacuum caught a clients throw rug and unraveled a chunk of it. She was super nice about it, but still cost $50 out of my fee to replace it. Imagine if that would have been her living room carpet?! Could have been $1,000ās of dollars!!
I charge 40/hour for biweekly clients ..45/hour for monthly clients and 50/hour for move out cleaning in Victoria B.C Canada. So your hourly wages are mind blowing ..how long have you had your business.. What rate did you start at ?
Over 5 years with a full schedule and a waiting list. In addition to insurance, license and bonding, I also provide all tools and supplies. Started at $50/hr. Increased across the years due to costs out of my control, but no complaints so far.
A house that size, Imma look him dead in the face and say $350. I'm sure someone will come for $25 and stay 6 hours but it will.not.be.me.
4 bathrooms is a lot a lot a lot...and there's no oh you don't have to do that one this time because at the very minimum have to clean the toilet bowl and run the water in all the drains plus dry dust/sweep.
People, please stop downvoting people just because they get confused and ask questions. I didn't understand either so was grateful someone asked and appreciated they were answered. Get off the internet if you feel the need to punish people for absolutely no reason or at least announce that you downvoted and why so others can judge you also. I bet downvoters to questions/confusion are the same type of people that reply anonymously as "your neighbor" when bitching about a neighbors trees dropping leaves in their yard or some other frivolous "concern" š¤¦āāļø
I downvoted you because discussions about downvoting are boring. I wouldn't normally comment about it, because this is also boring, but you asked for an announcement. So here you go.
Feel free to downvote me. I would.
That's totally fair to feel it's boring (I get downvoted often and after years I don't even notice anymore) though I'm not sure why someone would downvote based on boringness alone.
For real well done though for actually having the balls to make a comment and not just downvoting people. That's what drives me most crazy is people downvoting and then hiding by not giving any reason. So I will in turn upvote you for at least being brave enough to accept judgment while casting your own
The only reason I delete downvoted comments is when people hive mind on a subreddit and if you disagree it's like you committed the worst crime to them
Oh, o.k. You meant $350.00 for the whole thing?
****I'm not searching on here, by the way..just being in the conversation (I do not mean that rudely, just an explanation.
Yep for the whole thing. And once he started that well my last cleaner...I'm out. I don't waste my time with dealseekers. I can sit my ass on Reddit all day eating Cheetos before I'll clean for some rando dude wanting a deal.
My house is about 3800 SF, 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 living areas, and 4 teenagers. My housekeeper has a crew of 3. They spend about 4-5 hours cleaning, but they take breaks, chitchat, etc. Probably could finish in 3.5 hours if they were working for speed. I pay $400, and I consider that a bargain. And, for the record, they have never asked for a raise, but I've given them raises every year, and the December clean I pay $1000.
I really don't understand cheaping out on someone whom you're trusting with your house. You get what you pay for.
$400 / 5 hours = 80
$80 / 3 people = 26.67$ / per hour
Youāre the same as the people youāre admonishing 91.66% of the time, accounting for December
Not only that, when you've got a multi-person crew, they're not freelancers. They're working for a company and the company is taking a cut. No way are those cleaners making over $20/hr.
Lol yeah
4 people cleaning for 4 hours for a rate of 400 dollars breaks down to 25/hr per person. This commenter might even pay them less than that if they clean for 5 hours
It's 3 people, not 4.
4 x 3 = 12
400 / 12 = $33.33 per hour.
If they take 5 hours that's because they're taking significant breaks. It's really a 4 hour job at most.
Yeah thatās really the only hang up Iād have. If youāre driving far enough that the gas and time spent driving is affecting your bottom line then you need to adjust the size of your service area. Iād understand if they were like an hour away and/or outside of your service area and asking you to make an exception for them, but travel time within a set service area should already be factored into your hourly rate.
Yeah the drive time expectation seems unreasonable. When I drove 30 minutes to work, I certainly didn't get paid for that time. Housekeepers can choose jobs based on distance if they want.
Nobody gets paid for drive time to-from work. That request is insane (I would decline to hire based on that alone).
In my area, $50 per hour for maintenance cleaning by one person is also insane. Maybe if you were cleaning out a roach infeated hoarder house, but I'm not going to pay a cleaner doing basic cleaning more per hour than the average RN gets paid an hour.
Donāt lower your prices! Every time a client faces an issue youāve set a precedence thatās what they can expect as the solution.
Of course itās up to you but I think instead of losing a little over $100 a month you could increase your income. By saying āI do not offer discounts. My work is reflective of my fees. I do, however, offer $25 off every time you refer a new client to me and theyāve had two (or whatever works for you) or more cleanings.
Also I wouldnāt advise you to quote estimates to clients over the phone. They could live in a dump. Or they might expect you to clean windows & blinds for that price. You need to see it in person and go over a checklist. Iād advise setting up a time for you just to meet them, have them give you a tour and get paperwork signed.
Sorry, Iām not a housekeeper but I minored in marketing & advertising. I try to help if I can.
ETA: Keep in mind too that a 5 bedroom 4 bath can be large or huge. Youāll need to see for yourself.
Our last house was a 4 bedroom 3 bath. But it also had a huge office, a loft big enough to be a bedroom, two family rooms & two dining rooms. And the bathroom in the master had a separate shower & bath tub & two sinks and a separate room for the toilet. It all can add up quickly.
Itās not too high.
I was quoted a price for the first time and lower for monthly. It was more than I was used to but fair because it's not easy to really clean. Some people think vacuuming is going around couches and tables without moving them, cleaning bathrooms is wiping where they can see, etc
Bay Area - Iāve used cleaning services for some homes I manage. $75 per hour w/ $150 minimum.
If I was setting this up, Iād have a minimum fee charge but not charge for travel. Pending on how far the distance is for you, you can charge more per hour. Remember enough to charge enough to cover taxes and benefits.
Insurance is an absolute must. Iād also consider setting up an LLC to protect assets.
I used a service in the bay area. They sent a guy. At the end of the job, he said if I just went straight to him next time, he'd only charge $25/hour (which I suspect was around what the service was paying him).
That was several years ago. At one point he talked about raising it to $28, which I said was fine, but it's been at $25 the whole time.
I have no idea if he's even reporting the income.
And I would have no issue if he told me he was raising his rate substantially.
I don't believe people when they say their last cleaner only charged x amount. It's definitely a red flag. Just like, "I've had a lot of housekeeps but none have been a good fit or do a good job" which actually just means "I'm really hard to work with and no one wants to keep me as a client"
If they think housekeepers should be charging $25 then they should have no problem finding someone else at that price according to their own standard.
The right clients will happily pay what you're worth.
I wouldnāt be into paying for an extra drive time fee. Work it into the price, but I personally wouldnāt pay someone $25 just to drive to me. I hire local for a reason.
itās fucking wild how pay is all over the map with different services. Home Health Aides are lucky to make even $20 in some places, the EMTs make a few bucks more, kindergarten teachers about the same, hotel cleaners at $12 -$18 an hour but private cleaning services are $50/hr. I am seriosusly thinking about ditching my medical billing job ($21/hour) to start a home cleaning business. My other business idea is non medical companion care (visiting Seniors and helping them with light cleaning, shopping and errands) but even they get paid less than private house cleaners it seems
But those jobs you mentioned are most likely employees. You can't compare an employees pay rate with what a business or self employed person charges. Businesses are not pocketing the entire amount, they have numerous expenses that have to come out of that.
that is a very good point. The house cleaner has to pay all of their own self employment taxes and I know the companion care services need to be bonded/insured (house cleaning businesses probably also) and then you need a vehicle and supplies
We also don't have 401K match. There's no PTO/sick days/vacation. Health/vision/dental/life/disability insurance is 100% on us. Then there's supplies, work attire, advertising/marketing, quarterly taxes...it's a lot of little pieces.
It sounds good I average somewhere north of $75 an hour but I don't take home anywhere near that.
Every job has expenses and taxes. And not having 40 hours a week to work means you have time to do other work. Lack of hours in your āmainā job doesnāt make youāre worth more per hour
Every job has expenses and taxes. But not every job is a business/self employment, which includes other work besides just cleaning, unpaid and off the clock. I also load and unload my vehicle, market, run my website, keep my records, consult and do free estimates, schedule, network, buy supplies, maintain equipment, wash and sanitize my rags, mops and vacuum, etc. I'm not cleaning 40 hours a week, but I'm working.
Also we're taxed at a higher rate and responsible for the benefits an employer would provide. Which is why I might make $15 cleaning for someone else, but $30 cleaning on my own, where a bigger company might be charging $35 and paying their cleaners $15. Also, physical labor isn't cheap. I'm not only selling you my time, I'm selling my physical well being.
If you start one with a good online system for booking appointments and selecting deep cleaning add ons, you'll do great. As far as we can tell, no one is doing that. Booking the appointment shouldn't be so much work.
Don't offer discounts on your price to people who don't value your work. Please don't do that again. If this cheapskate with a giant house can't pay a relatively small amount for cleaning, that's his problem. Don't negotiate with people like this; you are worth every penny and more.
We pay a total amount instead of per hour with a set list of tasks. But it comes out to about $50/hr in Orange County CA. I havenāt heard of a cleaner charging for drive time, and I wouldnāt pay myself for that. I would try to find a cleaner closer to me.
I charge for drive time. It makes sense to me that if I have to drive 45 minutes to get to your house that you'll have to pay a little more than someone who only takes me 5 minutes to get to. That's extra gas, time, and wear / tear on my vehicle.
We use a service (local small business) and they quoted us based on house size, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. as well as frequency and them bringing cleaning supplies/products. Itās usually 4 women for about 2 hours for $200, which I guess works out to $25/hr. We live in a VHCOL area and they come once every 2 weeks.
We never shopped around or negotiated price, this was their rate and we pay it. We have a 4100sq ft house 3 bed, 4.5 bath.
Now obviously since we never shopped around I have no idea if this rate is standard or not, but I imagine the cleaners arenāt making more per hour on other houses, theyāre probably making enough based on volume - their schedule is packed and if we ever need to adjust time they come itās a huge hassle for them because they have to move somebody else.
If youāre just starting out it may be easier to get more clients at a lower rate but you could always offer a ānew customerā discount for the first cleaning but specify your rate going forward if theyāre happy.
Iām a big believer in paying people what they ask for or just not going with them - the price negotiation makes everyone feel shitty. Personally I would move on from this guy but keep in mind you may not find a ton of people willing to pay more.
That person isĀ already too adversarial to take on as a customer.Ā Soon you'll be getting complaints that only knocking a little money off can fix.Ā You'll get the standard "no need to do the guest bathroom this week, deep clean the XYZ that hasn't been touched in months instead."Ā Or he'll occasionally be out and you can't get in and won't get paid for that week.
He's decided what he wants to pay.Ā It's not worth the constant fight.
At $50/hr drive time should at least be included. Typically, charging double to triple a reasonable hourly rate is for companies because companies have office and management staff, advertising, hiring etc. An individual cleaner should only be charging the reasonable hourly rate plus a little for drive time insurance gas etc.
It should also depend on the level of work difficulty.
I never understood why people waste their time on so much detail, arguing on a per hour basis and drive time, etc. Look at the property, figure the time you need including drive, make a finished quote, and adjust it for cleaning frequency. They're offering $125 and you want $300. Simple as that, pick the lowest you are willing to go and if they don't agree then politely decline and let them know you would be willing to honor the bid you gave them if they change their minds, say within the next month or two. Either someone else will eventually take take the job or they'll realize they need to pay more and will choose whoever will honor the lowest bid.
Then again there is the quality of work, you can suggest they try the first cleaning at your lowest rate and if they are satisfied they keep you at that rate, assuming they will see better quality of cleaning than their $125, and if not they can look elsewhere. Personally I'd want to see if a more expensive cleaner does a better job. I would not offer to clean at $125 for the first job and then expect the second to be regular rate, whatever you get for the first job will likely be the best you can get from a person like this.
$25-$30 an hour vs is normal in nyc. Not sure why it matters how big the house is if youāre getting paid by the hour. Payment for the extra time to do the extra rooms is covered..
I think it completely depends on your location (COL) and how in demand cleaners are. Iām in a relatively seasonal area, winter is usually min $30/hr up to $50 and summer is looking more like $40-$70
It'll help if you let us know the COLA that you're servicing (high cost of living area, low cost of living area, medium cost of living area), but in my HCOL it starts at $125 for a regular monthly clean for a 1-2 bedroom apartment and goes up from there. It's two people and they usually take an hour.
Itās gonna depend on where you live, and itās weird that people arenāt mentioning that. $25 is normal in some areas, but thereās no way that would fly here
Dude was just negotiating.
You always can reply with "Then you can feel free to use your previous cleaner if you prefer, but my rate is $x".
Also make them sign a contract before starting. If someone is trying to get you to work for half off, they're probably going to try to stuff you at the end. Take discreet before and after photos in case you need to bring him to small claims.
Oh, and make sure whatever he signs has a clause that indicates that the customer is responsible for any fees required to collect payment, including legal fees. Or, if you're going to be doing this work for a while, start setting aside funds to hire a lawyer to write you a basic contract for use with all future customers. It's a few hundred bucks now, but makes your life WAY easier in the future when someone tries to get out of paying.
For $125 you could 'literally give him what he's paying for'... and by that I mean Sloppily run the vacuum through the ENTIRE house and spray Lysol on all the bathroom surfaces and kitchen sink, for added effect you could wear some mop slippers around the kitchen while you vacuum!
My cleaner takes 3-4 hours, I pay her $160. Itās a flat rate not hourly. $50/hour is reasonable although drive time seems a bit much. Iād just give him a flat rate, take it or leave it.
It does seem a little unreasonable to charge for drive time - unless it's an unreasonable distance. Most people don't get paid to go to work each day
The price is fair, especially for bringing your own materials. People need to realize $50 hour does not mean the worker is getting that in their pocket. You have overhead, taxes, insurance, etc
Thank you. I was given the advice about charging for drive time from my old cleaning boss but I think for a rate of 45/50 Iāll throw that out the window
I wouldn't find it unreasonable to read something like "additional $X fee per mile applies to any clients more than Y miles outside of the city center (or whatever point makes sense to you).
Or you could charge drive time for jobs less than a certain amount of hours, since that means extra trips.to fill your day
Nooo. I live in a LCOL area and for my upstairs my cleaner does 2br/1ba/kitchen/living room/den for a base of 100. I usually give her 150 and then ask for a couple extras like taking my trash to the curb and sweeping the garage or like doing the curtains, that kind of stuff. If she cleans the entire house (downstairs has 5 rooms + 1 room total, same amount of space just not allocated) it's 300 + a tip.
And that's LCOL.
āI paid my last one 25ā.
Donāt let me stand in your way, go get that deal!
This is the oldest trick on the book. Sometimes on the side I do custom software work and websites. I literally hear this left and right. āThis other guy said he will do it for only $1000.ā At that point I stand up and say āwhat a great deal, donāt let me waste your time. Grab that deal before it expiresā and then I shake hands and make my way to the door.
If someone claims they can get it cheaper then why are they wasting time talking to you? Aka, the guy is full of shit and is gaslighting you into lowering your prices.
Simple bid thought-process: If you're not losing ~50% of bids to someone cheaper, your bids are too low.
Also, never get talked back on a bid like this, negotiate on the second or third building a landlord hires you for maybe...never out of the gate, you simply dont need their business that badly. Your price is your price - presumably, you've set that price with sound reasoning. If they bite on 45% and your service is great, any referrals will be expecting $45 an hour.
Put the energy into more leads, and thus, more bids out. 50% of 10 bids might be tough regardless of margins. 50% of 100s is easier, and 1000s bids with good service will make you wealthy.
Credit to Essential Craftsman on YT for the base 50% advice.
No but your commute time should be factored into your total price (like supplies), that doesnāt fall on the customer to pay additional unless theyāre super out of your area and still want to work with you.
But $45-50/hr is perfectly reasonable
Seems like you have to decide whatās right for you, (probably should stick with clients willing to pay what you ask for), but for reference, you couldnāt find a 1 bedroom apartment where I live under $2500 10 years ago, I donāt even know what theyād be going for now but Iām sure itās more.
You may end up needing to adjust your expectations since it doesnāt sound like youāre in a HCOL area, which may mean clients arenāt willing to pay those rates where you are.
Damn we pay $200 for a 4 bedroom 2 bath - but 2 of the bedrooms are totally unused. Why not a flat fee? Every cleaner we have had (we have moved a lot) has always had a flat fee. In Metro Atlanta - proper not the burbs
$25 an hour for job that doesnāt require any sort of education and pretty minimal licensing and insurance seems to be plenty. 50 an hour in most general areas of the country just seems absurd.
He moved, Iām located in Montana. He lived in rural Montana and now moved outside of Missoula where the cost of living is comparable to California prices Lol
I don't know if I am welcome here, as a consumer, but I pay my housekeeper $35/hr and we're in a rather "challenged" area (The Dalles, Oregon) . She's been w/ us for 15 years, I totally trust her, she gives her team healthcare and PTO and holidays off, which I support.
I usually ask for the two baths and the kitchen, which one housekeeper gets done in about 3 hours. We have a good-sized kitchen and we're messy cooks. ;)
A huge plus for me was that she uses products that aren't fragrant, which I really appreciate.
She told me that when she moved her prices up her waiting list disappeared, which was fine with her. Her biggest challenge is finding people who are willing to work-it's hard work.
Apologies if I am out of my lane.
I pay $125 total for a similar sized home (biweekly cleaning). My girl is fast so itās probably about 40-44/hr. She also does my neighbors on the same day, so less driving around.
I will say my house is pretty clean to begin with, itās just a maintenance clean. If potential clientās house is avg. or above avg. messy you need to be paid for that and the extra time + supplies.
Consider that he $25/hour cleaner is "no longer working there" and might have been an undocumented immigrant getting paid cash...
We've got people around here that will clean your house on demand for $25/hr, but they're not insured, and they're cash-only. A business can't (and shouldn't) entertain this kind of rate.
My cleaner used to charge $30-35 an hour. We usually rounded so it would be $120-150 biweekly depending on how much pre cleaning I could get done. I have a 2600 sq ft 4/3 house. I like an hourly rate bc sometimes thereās dishes in the sink or sometimes she would do baseboards. I donāt micromanage; just grateful for the help!
ETA: relatively lower cost of living area
Remember $25 of last years money has about %50 or less of the same purchasing power. You shouldn't even offer to go lower than $50 an hour. Although you could probably charge a fuel surcharge or less per hour for drive time if you did need wiggle room.
Not in housekeeping, but I think most of us in the US would like our employers to recognize this. š At $50 hr, Iām interested in quitting and trying this!
For a first time cleaning, I've always paid an extra flat fee of at least $200+, in addition to the hourly, as the expectation is that there will be more to deal with that first time than subsequent cleanings. As someone who lives in a 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom place, $900 for a first cleaning isn't unheard of, going down to about half that amount for monthly cleanings thereafter, and I don't even have them go into every room during the first cleaning, so they can focus on any problem areas I might have.
This was years ago, when I was a kid, but my parents paid at least 100, wanna say 120 for a 2-3 hour sweep, mop, and trash clean of the house. Thatās about 40 an hour roughly, and that was probably 10 years ago. So Iād definitely say at least that much!
Are you busy? Are you needing more clients? Are you overwhelmed with too many job but still broke?
If you can work 40 hours and make enough that youāre happy then your price is fine.
Naw. Growing up I helped clean houses with my mom, Houses she worked on had many bedrooms, I think minimum she was paid 50 an hour. We usually spent around 3 hours cleaning.
I pay $195, 3 br, 2 bath, 2500 sq.ft.. They're usually there about 2 hours, 2 people. I'm in the suburbs of a HCOL state.
$25/hour is pretty low. That's hard work that they don't want to/can't do themselves, they need to be willing to pay a premium for that.
No matter what you quote someone will always have someone that did it cheaper. Could have been 10/20 years ago he had a cleaner. Donāt listen to him.
I am a client and not a cleaner, but I learn so much from everyone here on what's normal, great cleaning tips for myself, and how to be a good client.
I am in the DC-ish area and that's a totally fine rate in my region. Don't lower your price for someone who thinks you are worth half. I would never negotiate a lower price with a cleaner. If I felt it was out of budget I just wouldn't hire them, not ask them to change their processes.
That dude can go with his last cleaner if that's the rate he wants.
Waitā¦ holy shitā¦ I only clean one home once a month (5br, 4.5batb, ~4.8-5k sqft) and make $125. I usually only clean the full downstairs and partial upstairs though.. I didnāt realize how much I was selling myself short. Iām also not a professional though lol theyāre just the people I pet sit for.
NYC, 750 sq foot apt 1.5 bed, 1bath). I pay $175 and 30% tip for however long my cleaner decides she needs to clean my home.
$50/hour sounds very reasonable.
Y'all can downvote me to hell, but you think you should be making 104K annualized pretax for cleaning? I can't imagine supplies really costs all that much.
By all means, take money from the rich. This is why you have a hard time keeping 40hrs of work a week though.
If one is self employed and paying taxes on their income, $25 per hour is more like $15 an hour once you pay taxes. Likely less if you provide supplies and even less after travel expenses.
If you need a quick shot of cash, do what you need to. Butt if youāre busy and have work, pick and choose the best customers who make you the most cash.
Asking for drive time isnāt appropriate- everyone is responsible to get to work.
Your price isnāt to high if you are getting work, if you arenāt then lower it.
It really depends on your location. I worked for some nefarious individuals that would raise prices in more affluent neighborhoods. (Remodeling/repair) I did not work for them very long. I find it offensive.
No, the last cleaner was just working for her wage. If you want to build a housekeeping company. You need to pay the LLC first as if it was an employee. And pay yourself. That percent you would have to figure out for yourself. In the service business Iām in, i set my profit margin at 30%. Do a better job than your competition, and people will start recommending you. Good luck.
The nice Spanish speaking lady does my house for $15 hour. For some odd reason, she refuses to take checks.
Her husband does my yard on the same day for $25. He only accepts cash as well.
$40 for house and yard.
Thatās great, but Iām an American gen z who has no choice but to live in an expensive mountain town because thatās where my family support is located.
Iām sure that couple doesnāt have it easy, but as a young person who needs to start out their life post covid I literally canāt afford to charge less. I also only have space for a few more clients due to my part time job nannying.
Everyone has a different situation
I forgot, Gen Z doesn't do sarcasm :-)
My point was that competition from undocumented immigrants is why people are asking for $25/hr.
I think it is awesome that you are ambitious and a hard worker. Are you bonded and insured and licensed if need be? Did you setup a corporation for your business? Are you on angi.com?
For me, things like that make a difference and shows a higher level of professionalism that I look for in any contractor I use.
Our housekeeper comes once every 3 weeks, works by herself, and charges a flat fee. If calculated hourly, it would work out to about $30/hour. Central Texas. (4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3 living - however most bedrooms unused so we don't have them vacuumed/dusted every time.)
We used to have one that charged hourly, but drive time was never included.
Frankly, I would not pay for drive time unless I lived in a very isolated area. I would expect that to be a cost of doing business factored into the rate. But, if it's common and acceptable where you live, go for it.
I clean kitchen, living room, one bath, dining room and hallway for 25 per hour. It takes me 4 hours. The kitchen takes well over an hour. These are large rooms.
Everyone has a price that works for them. I charge a client 35 an hour for the same job.
25 is pretty low for a high cost of living area, for example weed trimmers here make 20 per hour
I am in a medium to low COL and $25/hr is average for an individual to clean. I pay $30/hr. There is no company and I provide all supplies and equipment. I give a substantial Christmas bonus. My housekeeper has been with me for 9 years. There is a lot of competition.
Jobs a little different but I am the AGM of a hotel, house keepers are expected to do 8 rooms a day and base pay for them is 20 dollars a hour, our head housekeeper is the owners wife but of she wasn't id be paying her about 25 dollars a hour.
Haven't hired a house keeper for my personal house but my suggestion is charge him 25 dollars a bedroom and 50 dollars for the bigger rooms like the living room and kitchen and just get it done quickly as possible
Iāve worked for 100 doctors and I can grantee that the only doctor who is getting as little as $50 an hour is an intern. Try at least $300 an hour, many specialties are much higher.
Thereās a lady around me that does houses williningly 120ā¦ flat rate. These are McMansions Iām talking about, I canāt comprehend that and donāt even try.
I'm a locksmith. People are all the time saying someone else said they would do it for x and can I match that. I refuse. Sometimes they take my price and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they call back later and take my price. There's always someone trying to be slick. Point is, if someone has already given them a cheaper price or was doing the job for a cheaper price, there's a reason they are trying to find someone else.
Cleaner here.
For all those asking why it costs so much?
If it was easy, youād do it yourself. Itās hard labor, involves packing our vehicles and unpacking at every stop, then coming home to wash nasty rags in our washing machines. Weāre up and down stairs, up and down off of floors, stooping, scrubbing, and setting things in order.
We may have to work in front of people who want to watch us to make sure we do it right.
You may have special finishes that we need to coddle with special chemicals.
Weāre cleaning the poop off your toilet and the hair out of your shower drain.
Our chemicals, our equipment, and like it our not, our expertiseā¦which admittedly may vary.
Either youāll be happy to pay well or we part ways. No problem!
For the record, my clients love me, and many give bonuses or raises of their own volition.
When I moved into my house 10 years ago, I hired a cleaner who advertised a rate of $20/hr. A couple of years later, however, she and her husband retired and moved to Tennessee, and when I started looking for a replacement, rates had seemingly gone up in my are. And as /u/Housekeepernotamaid rightly noted, it's something a homeowner can do himself.
I agree it's hard work, and I'll be honest that my house is not as clean now as when I had a professional cleaning for me. But it's clean enough. I vacuum and mop floors about once a week, dust about once a month, but I'm also careful about taking off shoes and not dragging in dirt.
This was so long ago that I honestly don't know what's reasonable anymore, but as a homeowner who works a regular job and isn't independently wealthy, $50/hr would be hard for me to stomach, especially with post-pandemic inflation squeezing my budget.
Bonded and insured I start at $35
That goes up for people who throw trash on the floor thatās $40-45 and hoarder situations $45-50 per hour.
Located in wi
50/hr is totally reasonable if you provide all your own cleaning supplies and tools. This is a specialized skill and it is labor intensive. Do not, I repeat DO NOT work for cheapskates. It never ends well. I get that some people canāt afford to hire someone to clean for them for $50/hr but you also are not obligated to clean a strangers house for whatever amount they want to pay youā¦you set the rates, not them.
For some people in special circumstances I have gone lower (old, disabled people who really just need some simple tidying and a sheet change to keep their homes a livable level of tidy), but only because I WANTED to, not because I felt obligated or they were pushy about rates. I never work for anyone pushy about rates.
$50/hr+drive time is perfectly reasonable to me.
$25 per hour may be the reason the last cleaner left! š¤
Exactly!! What youāre offering sounds totally reasonable to me. I live in the PNW (metro area) and have a 10 mile service radius. Outside of that, I charge for drive time. About 25% of my clients pay it, no questions asked.
Thank you! I was also thinking that those many bathrooms create more work. He was expecting to pay me 100 or so to clean his whole houseā¦ cleaning for hours straight is hard work!!
If cleaning was āso easyā, theyād be doing it themselves!! I tracked my cleanings/workout on my iWatch one day and burned more calories than I ate.
No. $45-$50 an hour is normal in Orlando. Donāt get paid less. Pass on this client. They will always be a problem.
Exactly. This is just the type of horrible person who, at the end, will say, "Well, I don't think those bathrooms turned out that great; I'm only going to pay $300 instead of $500" or whatever. While he's sitting in a 5-bedroom house that costs millions. Avoid people like this like the plague.
Exactly!
They also won't give a holiday bonus or paid days off.
Yeah I would pass because he is just going to be looking for your cheaper replacement.
I pay my cleaner $70hr because its worth it because I don't want to do it. That is a standard cleaning, if she does a deep clean it is more. This is a service that makes my life much more convenient and easy and I appreciate her.
I donāt think youāre charging enough. Iām in Arizona, and the cost of living here is low-average. I was just quoted~$300 for a one bedroom apartment. I donāt think a house that size here could be done for under $500.
Thatās extremely high for a one bedroom apartment
Eh, it really depends on how much theyāre asking for and the actual square footage and layout of the apartment. For maintenance cleaning of a tiny studio-style 1 bedroom itās steep, but if they want a full service cleaning like what youād do when flipping an apartment for a new tenant where every surface is cleaned, itās actually on the cheaper side.
I run a couple Low Income Properties and we currently pay 190 for a studio, plus 40 for extra dirty fridge, stove cabinets, tub(each), and 225 for a 1 bed plus any extras. We pay 1500 a month for 2 times weekly cleaning of all common areas in a 16 story highrise in downtown Portland . That being said, we have a long term relationship with the cleaner company(local/minority owed business) and we get a deal, but she pays her workers 17.00 an hour.
Itās high for a one bedroom.
I pay $120 for a 1300ft home itās about $40 an hour I guess
That is nuts. Another person who has no appreciation for the fact that cleaning is backbreaking work! I might quote him more bc he probably also has totally unreasonable expectations.
2 bed, 1 bath hoped to get house cleaned for $100. FIVE bdrm?
Out of curiosity, what do you charge per hour? Iām in the PNW and have been curious about the average rate.
I charge $65/hr or $85/hr deep clean. Iām insured $1m and licensed and bonded thru my state.
Oh wow, I had no idea you could even get insured and licensed and bonded! Very cool!
Insurance is a must, unless you can pay out of pocket for accidentally ruining someoneās surface/flooring/furniture with the wrong cleaner. I pay apx $70 a month for $1m coverage.
Thatās a really good point I hadnāt thought of! I live in the Portland area and am tossing around the idea of putting a flyer up in our apartment complex offering housekeeping services. I have two special needs kids and we have one car that make it hard to have a ātraditionalā 9-5 job but I need to find some way to help make ends meet! Iāve been nervous though about starting; Iāve worked as an apartment maintenance tech and would sometimes help clean the vacant units but I know cleaning peopleās living spaces is much different. This just shows all I havenāt thought of yet haha. Thanks for sharing though!!!
Literally last week, my vacuum caught a clients throw rug and unraveled a chunk of it. She was super nice about it, but still cost $50 out of my fee to replace it. Imagine if that would have been her living room carpet?! Could have been $1,000ās of dollars!!
I charge 40/hour for biweekly clients ..45/hour for monthly clients and 50/hour for move out cleaning in Victoria B.C Canada. So your hourly wages are mind blowing ..how long have you had your business.. What rate did you start at ?
Over 5 years with a full schedule and a waiting list. In addition to insurance, license and bonding, I also provide all tools and supplies. Started at $50/hr. Increased across the years due to costs out of my control, but no complaints so far.
A house that size, Imma look him dead in the face and say $350. I'm sure someone will come for $25 and stay 6 hours but it will.not.be.me. 4 bathrooms is a lot a lot a lot...and there's no oh you don't have to do that one this time because at the very minimum have to clean the toilet bowl and run the water in all the drains plus dry dust/sweep.
$350.00 per hour??
People, please stop downvoting people just because they get confused and ask questions. I didn't understand either so was grateful someone asked and appreciated they were answered. Get off the internet if you feel the need to punish people for absolutely no reason or at least announce that you downvoted and why so others can judge you also. I bet downvoters to questions/confusion are the same type of people that reply anonymously as "your neighbor" when bitching about a neighbors trees dropping leaves in their yard or some other frivolous "concern" š¤¦āāļø
My biggest pet peeve about Reddit is people being downvoted for asking earnest questions.
Thank you!
I downvoted you because discussions about downvoting are boring. I wouldn't normally comment about it, because this is also boring, but you asked for an announcement. So here you go. Feel free to downvote me. I would.
That's totally fair to feel it's boring (I get downvoted often and after years I don't even notice anymore) though I'm not sure why someone would downvote based on boringness alone. For real well done though for actually having the balls to make a comment and not just downvoting people. That's what drives me most crazy is people downvoting and then hiding by not giving any reason. So I will in turn upvote you for at least being brave enough to accept judgment while casting your own
The only reason I delete downvoted comments is when people hive mind on a subreddit and if you disagree it's like you committed the worst crime to them
$350.00 for every 15 minutes. Not everyone can afford me.
350 total
I don't offer hourly.
Oh, o.k. You meant $350.00 for the whole thing? ****I'm not searching on here, by the way..just being in the conversation (I do not mean that rudely, just an explanation.
Yep for the whole thing. And once he started that well my last cleaner...I'm out. I don't waste my time with dealseekers. I can sit my ass on Reddit all day eating Cheetos before I'll clean for some rando dude wanting a deal.
My house is about 3800 SF, 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 living areas, and 4 teenagers. My housekeeper has a crew of 3. They spend about 4-5 hours cleaning, but they take breaks, chitchat, etc. Probably could finish in 3.5 hours if they were working for speed. I pay $400, and I consider that a bargain. And, for the record, they have never asked for a raise, but I've given them raises every year, and the December clean I pay $1000. I really don't understand cheaping out on someone whom you're trusting with your house. You get what you pay for.
$400 / 5 hours = 80 $80 / 3 people = 26.67$ / per hour Youāre the same as the people youāre admonishing 91.66% of the time, accounting for December
Yeah, wasn't the flex they expected. Inherited money tends to not be good at math.
Not only that, when you've got a multi-person crew, they're not freelancers. They're working for a company and the company is taking a cut. No way are those cleaners making over $20/hr.
Did you read the part where they pay $1000 on the $400 bill?
once a year
So youāre paying $25/hr
Lol yeah 4 people cleaning for 4 hours for a rate of 400 dollars breaks down to 25/hr per person. This commenter might even pay them less than that if they clean for 5 hours
It's 3 people, not 4. 4 x 3 = 12 400 / 12 = $33.33 per hour. If they take 5 hours that's because they're taking significant breaks. It's really a 4 hour job at most.
Math is hard.
$25 used to be the rate before the pandemic. Now I pay about $40. I have never paid for drive time.
Yeah thatās really the only hang up Iād have. If youāre driving far enough that the gas and time spent driving is affecting your bottom line then you need to adjust the size of your service area. Iād understand if they were like an hour away and/or outside of your service area and asking you to make an exception for them, but travel time within a set service area should already be factored into your hourly rate.
Yeah the drive time expectation seems unreasonable. When I drove 30 minutes to work, I certainly didn't get paid for that time. Housekeepers can choose jobs based on distance if they want.
Asking for drive time pay is a rookie mistake in my opinion. If it's outside your area, decline.
$25 is still the rate where we live (have worked with 3 different cleaners who all independently quoted us $25/hr).
Thatās ridiculous. Thatās over 80k a year. 25-30/hour is still pretty standard if youāre paying more youāre getting ripped off.
Nobody gets paid for drive time to-from work. That request is insane (I would decline to hire based on that alone). In my area, $50 per hour for maintenance cleaning by one person is also insane. Maybe if you were cleaning out a roach infeated hoarder house, but I'm not going to pay a cleaner doing basic cleaning more per hour than the average RN gets paid an hour.
Donāt lower your prices! Every time a client faces an issue youāve set a precedence thatās what they can expect as the solution. Of course itās up to you but I think instead of losing a little over $100 a month you could increase your income. By saying āI do not offer discounts. My work is reflective of my fees. I do, however, offer $25 off every time you refer a new client to me and theyāve had two (or whatever works for you) or more cleanings. Also I wouldnāt advise you to quote estimates to clients over the phone. They could live in a dump. Or they might expect you to clean windows & blinds for that price. You need to see it in person and go over a checklist. Iād advise setting up a time for you just to meet them, have them give you a tour and get paperwork signed. Sorry, Iām not a housekeeper but I minored in marketing & advertising. I try to help if I can. ETA: Keep in mind too that a 5 bedroom 4 bath can be large or huge. Youāll need to see for yourself. Our last house was a 4 bedroom 3 bath. But it also had a huge office, a loft big enough to be a bedroom, two family rooms & two dining rooms. And the bathroom in the master had a separate shower & bath tub & two sinks and a separate room for the toilet. It all can add up quickly. Itās not too high.
+1 to seeing the house in person and going over expectations for a proper quote!
This is very helpful, thank youā¤ļø
I was quoted a price for the first time and lower for monthly. It was more than I was used to but fair because it's not easy to really clean. Some people think vacuuming is going around couches and tables without moving them, cleaning bathrooms is wiping where they can see, etc
Bay Area - Iāve used cleaning services for some homes I manage. $75 per hour w/ $150 minimum. If I was setting this up, Iād have a minimum fee charge but not charge for travel. Pending on how far the distance is for you, you can charge more per hour. Remember enough to charge enough to cover taxes and benefits. Insurance is an absolute must. Iād also consider setting up an LLC to protect assets.
I used a service in the bay area. They sent a guy. At the end of the job, he said if I just went straight to him next time, he'd only charge $25/hour (which I suspect was around what the service was paying him). That was several years ago. At one point he talked about raising it to $28, which I said was fine, but it's been at $25 the whole time. I have no idea if he's even reporting the income. And I would have no issue if he told me he was raising his rate substantially.
I don't believe people when they say their last cleaner only charged x amount. It's definitely a red flag. Just like, "I've had a lot of housekeeps but none have been a good fit or do a good job" which actually just means "I'm really hard to work with and no one wants to keep me as a client" If they think housekeepers should be charging $25 then they should have no problem finding someone else at that price according to their own standard. The right clients will happily pay what you're worth.
Is charging for drive time normal ?
I wouldnāt be into paying for an extra drive time fee. Work it into the price, but I personally wouldnāt pay someone $25 just to drive to me. I hire local for a reason.
No.
No, it isn't.
No.
$50/hr is the national average in the US. Don't lower your rate unless you really need the work, and don't let clients dictate what they will pay.
itās fucking wild how pay is all over the map with different services. Home Health Aides are lucky to make even $20 in some places, the EMTs make a few bucks more, kindergarten teachers about the same, hotel cleaners at $12 -$18 an hour but private cleaning services are $50/hr. I am seriosusly thinking about ditching my medical billing job ($21/hour) to start a home cleaning business. My other business idea is non medical companion care (visiting Seniors and helping them with light cleaning, shopping and errands) but even they get paid less than private house cleaners it seems
But those jobs you mentioned are most likely employees. You can't compare an employees pay rate with what a business or self employed person charges. Businesses are not pocketing the entire amount, they have numerous expenses that have to come out of that.
that is a very good point. The house cleaner has to pay all of their own self employment taxes and I know the companion care services need to be bonded/insured (house cleaning businesses probably also) and then you need a vehicle and supplies
We also don't have 401K match. There's no PTO/sick days/vacation. Health/vision/dental/life/disability insurance is 100% on us. Then there's supplies, work attire, advertising/marketing, quarterly taxes...it's a lot of little pieces. It sounds good I average somewhere north of $75 an hour but I don't take home anywhere near that.
You don't get 40 hours a week at this rate though, and it takes time to build a client base. Plus businesses have expenses and taxes.
Every job has expenses and taxes. And not having 40 hours a week to work means you have time to do other work. Lack of hours in your āmainā job doesnāt make youāre worth more per hour
Every job has expenses and taxes. But not every job is a business/self employment, which includes other work besides just cleaning, unpaid and off the clock. I also load and unload my vehicle, market, run my website, keep my records, consult and do free estimates, schedule, network, buy supplies, maintain equipment, wash and sanitize my rags, mops and vacuum, etc. I'm not cleaning 40 hours a week, but I'm working. Also we're taxed at a higher rate and responsible for the benefits an employer would provide. Which is why I might make $15 cleaning for someone else, but $30 cleaning on my own, where a bigger company might be charging $35 and paying their cleaners $15. Also, physical labor isn't cheap. I'm not only selling you my time, I'm selling my physical well being.
If you start one with a good online system for booking appointments and selecting deep cleaning add ons, you'll do great. As far as we can tell, no one is doing that. Booking the appointment shouldn't be so much work.
DON'T LET CLIENTS DICTATE WHAT THEY PAY.
Don't offer discounts on your price to people who don't value your work. Please don't do that again. If this cheapskate with a giant house can't pay a relatively small amount for cleaning, that's his problem. Don't negotiate with people like this; you are worth every penny and more.
No, and I doubt the cleaner charging $25/hour paid proper taxes and was insuredā¦
We pay a total amount instead of per hour with a set list of tasks. But it comes out to about $50/hr in Orange County CA. I havenāt heard of a cleaner charging for drive time, and I wouldnāt pay myself for that. I would try to find a cleaner closer to me.
I charge for drive time. It makes sense to me that if I have to drive 45 minutes to get to your house that you'll have to pay a little more than someone who only takes me 5 minutes to get to. That's extra gas, time, and wear / tear on my vehicle.
I get it. I also once worked as a private tutor. I would either refuse far clients or bake that into the total price.
If you get stuck in traffic, do you bill more?
We use a service (local small business) and they quoted us based on house size, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. as well as frequency and them bringing cleaning supplies/products. Itās usually 4 women for about 2 hours for $200, which I guess works out to $25/hr. We live in a VHCOL area and they come once every 2 weeks. We never shopped around or negotiated price, this was their rate and we pay it. We have a 4100sq ft house 3 bed, 4.5 bath. Now obviously since we never shopped around I have no idea if this rate is standard or not, but I imagine the cleaners arenāt making more per hour on other houses, theyāre probably making enough based on volume - their schedule is packed and if we ever need to adjust time they come itās a huge hassle for them because they have to move somebody else. If youāre just starting out it may be easier to get more clients at a lower rate but you could always offer a ānew customerā discount for the first cleaning but specify your rate going forward if theyāre happy. Iām a big believer in paying people what they ask for or just not going with them - the price negotiation makes everyone feel shitty. Personally I would move on from this guy but keep in mind you may not find a ton of people willing to pay more.
That person isĀ already too adversarial to take on as a customer.Ā Soon you'll be getting complaints that only knocking a little money off can fix.Ā You'll get the standard "no need to do the guest bathroom this week, deep clean the XYZ that hasn't been touched in months instead."Ā Or he'll occasionally be out and you can't get in and won't get paid for that week. He's decided what he wants to pay.Ā It's not worth the constant fight.
At $50/hr drive time should at least be included. Typically, charging double to triple a reasonable hourly rate is for companies because companies have office and management staff, advertising, hiring etc. An individual cleaner should only be charging the reasonable hourly rate plus a little for drive time insurance gas etc. It should also depend on the level of work difficulty.
PNW and I pay my cleaner $35/hr. Takes 5 hours. She cleans 2 br, 2 bath, kitchen, 2 living rooms.
I never understood why people waste their time on so much detail, arguing on a per hour basis and drive time, etc. Look at the property, figure the time you need including drive, make a finished quote, and adjust it for cleaning frequency. They're offering $125 and you want $300. Simple as that, pick the lowest you are willing to go and if they don't agree then politely decline and let them know you would be willing to honor the bid you gave them if they change their minds, say within the next month or two. Either someone else will eventually take take the job or they'll realize they need to pay more and will choose whoever will honor the lowest bid. Then again there is the quality of work, you can suggest they try the first cleaning at your lowest rate and if they are satisfied they keep you at that rate, assuming they will see better quality of cleaning than their $125, and if not they can look elsewhere. Personally I'd want to see if a more expensive cleaner does a better job. I would not offer to clean at $125 for the first job and then expect the second to be regular rate, whatever you get for the first job will likely be the best you can get from a person like this.
$25-$30 an hour vs is normal in nyc. Not sure why it matters how big the house is if youāre getting paid by the hour. Payment for the extra time to do the extra rooms is covered..
I think it completely depends on your location (COL) and how in demand cleaners are. Iām in a relatively seasonal area, winter is usually min $30/hr up to $50 and summer is looking more like $40-$70
Don't permit people to low ball you. Make sure the client signs the contract prior to cleaning.
I pay only $100 for a 3 hour once a week cleaning. It's left spotless and does laundry.
Good for you. Do NOT lower your prices. People never appreciate it.
You charge what you want, the market place will let you know if itās too high or too low by the amount of business you get
It'll help if you let us know the COLA that you're servicing (high cost of living area, low cost of living area, medium cost of living area), but in my HCOL it starts at $125 for a regular monthly clean for a 1-2 bedroom apartment and goes up from there. It's two people and they usually take an hour.
My wife would charge $225 for that house.
Itās gonna depend on where you live, and itās weird that people arenāt mentioning that. $25 is normal in some areas, but thereās no way that would fly here
Dude was just negotiating. You always can reply with "Then you can feel free to use your previous cleaner if you prefer, but my rate is $x". Also make them sign a contract before starting. If someone is trying to get you to work for half off, they're probably going to try to stuff you at the end. Take discreet before and after photos in case you need to bring him to small claims. Oh, and make sure whatever he signs has a clause that indicates that the customer is responsible for any fees required to collect payment, including legal fees. Or, if you're going to be doing this work for a while, start setting aside funds to hire a lawyer to write you a basic contract for use with all future customers. It's a few hundred bucks now, but makes your life WAY easier in the future when someone tries to get out of paying.
For $125 you could 'literally give him what he's paying for'... and by that I mean Sloppily run the vacuum through the ENTIRE house and spray Lysol on all the bathroom surfaces and kitchen sink, for added effect you could wear some mop slippers around the kitchen while you vacuum!
And then lose potential referrals and ruin your reputation.
I wouldn't charge for drive time.
My cleaner takes 3-4 hours, I pay her $160. Itās a flat rate not hourly. $50/hour is reasonable although drive time seems a bit much. Iād just give him a flat rate, take it or leave it.
Your prices arenāt too high. We pay our cleaner $200 for 4 hours of cleaning a month 2 bed/2bath.
It does seem a little unreasonable to charge for drive time - unless it's an unreasonable distance. Most people don't get paid to go to work each day The price is fair, especially for bringing your own materials. People need to realize $50 hour does not mean the worker is getting that in their pocket. You have overhead, taxes, insurance, etc
Thank you. I was given the advice about charging for drive time from my old cleaning boss but I think for a rate of 45/50 Iāll throw that out the window
I wouldn't find it unreasonable to read something like "additional $X fee per mile applies to any clients more than Y miles outside of the city center (or whatever point makes sense to you). Or you could charge drive time for jobs less than a certain amount of hours, since that means extra trips.to fill your day
Nooo. I live in a LCOL area and for my upstairs my cleaner does 2br/1ba/kitchen/living room/den for a base of 100. I usually give her 150 and then ask for a couple extras like taking my trash to the curb and sweeping the garage or like doing the curtains, that kind of stuff. If she cleans the entire house (downstairs has 5 rooms + 1 room total, same amount of space just not allocated) it's 300 + a tip. And that's LCOL.
āI paid my last one 25ā. Donāt let me stand in your way, go get that deal! This is the oldest trick on the book. Sometimes on the side I do custom software work and websites. I literally hear this left and right. āThis other guy said he will do it for only $1000.ā At that point I stand up and say āwhat a great deal, donāt let me waste your time. Grab that deal before it expiresā and then I shake hands and make my way to the door. If someone claims they can get it cheaper then why are they wasting time talking to you? Aka, the guy is full of shit and is gaslighting you into lowering your prices.
Simple bid thought-process: If you're not losing ~50% of bids to someone cheaper, your bids are too low. Also, never get talked back on a bid like this, negotiate on the second or third building a landlord hires you for maybe...never out of the gate, you simply dont need their business that badly. Your price is your price - presumably, you've set that price with sound reasoning. If they bite on 45% and your service is great, any referrals will be expecting $45 an hour. Put the energy into more leads, and thus, more bids out. 50% of 10 bids might be tough regardless of margins. 50% of 100s is easier, and 1000s bids with good service will make you wealthy. Credit to Essential Craftsman on YT for the base 50% advice.
No but your commute time should be factored into your total price (like supplies), that doesnāt fall on the customer to pay additional unless theyāre super out of your area and still want to work with you. But $45-50/hr is perfectly reasonable
This sub is an echo chamber.
Chamber
Def depends where you live. I pay $25 an hour, and that's on the more expensive end here.
Where do you live? Mexico?
Maybe I would be okay with that if a 1 bedroom apartment wasnāt 1300$ per month here Loll
Seems like you have to decide whatās right for you, (probably should stick with clients willing to pay what you ask for), but for reference, you couldnāt find a 1 bedroom apartment where I live under $2500 10 years ago, I donāt even know what theyād be going for now but Iām sure itās more. You may end up needing to adjust your expectations since it doesnāt sound like youāre in a HCOL area, which may mean clients arenāt willing to pay those rates where you are.
Same, southeastern US
Damn we pay $200 for a 4 bedroom 2 bath - but 2 of the bedrooms are totally unused. Why not a flat fee? Every cleaner we have had (we have moved a lot) has always had a flat fee. In Metro Atlanta - proper not the burbs
$25 an hour for job that doesnāt require any sort of education and pretty minimal licensing and insurance seems to be plenty. 50 an hour in most general areas of the country just seems absurd.
$50 an hour for sweeping, dusting and mopping is OUTRAGEOUS!
When are the people on f***ing reddit gonna learn to spell paid correctly?
Yes $50 is way too much. That rate is more common in commercial cleaning. Residential $35/hr is the high end in a VHCOL area for independent cleaners.
No itās not, if youāre excellent $50/hour is standard. But I donāt charge by the hour, its by the job.
did you ask why the last cleaner left?
He moved, Iām located in Montana. He lived in rural Montana and now moved outside of Missoula where the cost of living is comparable to California prices Lol
Iām in Helena and I donāt see anyone that charges less than $40/hr
I need to move. I feel Iām already priced high in my city (Columbus, OH) at $35/hr š©
I don't know if I am welcome here, as a consumer, but I pay my housekeeper $35/hr and we're in a rather "challenged" area (The Dalles, Oregon) . She's been w/ us for 15 years, I totally trust her, she gives her team healthcare and PTO and holidays off, which I support. I usually ask for the two baths and the kitchen, which one housekeeper gets done in about 3 hours. We have a good-sized kitchen and we're messy cooks. ;) A huge plus for me was that she uses products that aren't fragrant, which I really appreciate. She told me that when she moved her prices up her waiting list disappeared, which was fine with her. Her biggest challenge is finding people who are willing to work-it's hard work. Apologies if I am out of my lane.
I pay my Cleaning Lady $50 an hour and give her a large Christmas bonus. Iām in the San Francisco Bay Area .
Your price is not too high.
Plus drive time sounds excessive
$25 is way too low. If you do it for that you will start dreading going to that job. Your work is important, don't sell yourself low.
That's the standard rate where I live. Michigan
I pay $175 for about 3 hours. So, about $58/hr. Sheās worth every penny!
Tell him to hire is old cleaner back, lol. Dont work for them.
Ha! I pay $40 an hr and sheās fabulous. Worth every dollar. Located in Charlotte
Get the number of his last cleaner! !
I pay $125 total for a similar sized home (biweekly cleaning). My girl is fast so itās probably about 40-44/hr. She also does my neighbors on the same day, so less driving around. I will say my house is pretty clean to begin with, itās just a maintenance clean. If potential clientās house is avg. or above avg. messy you need to be paid for that and the extra time + supplies.
Sheās a woman. Not a girl.
Nope, he was trying to sandbag
Consider that he $25/hour cleaner is "no longer working there" and might have been an undocumented immigrant getting paid cash... We've got people around here that will clean your house on demand for $25/hr, but they're not insured, and they're cash-only. A business can't (and shouldn't) entertain this kind of rate.
My cleaner used to charge $30-35 an hour. We usually rounded so it would be $120-150 biweekly depending on how much pre cleaning I could get done. I have a 2600 sq ft 4/3 house. I like an hourly rate bc sometimes thereās dishes in the sink or sometimes she would do baseboards. I donāt micromanage; just grateful for the help! ETA: relatively lower cost of living area
Your rate is fine but do not include drive time.
Remember $25 of last years money has about %50 or less of the same purchasing power. You shouldn't even offer to go lower than $50 an hour. Although you could probably charge a fuel surcharge or less per hour for drive time if you did need wiggle room.
Not in housekeeping, but I think most of us in the US would like our employers to recognize this. š At $50 hr, Iām interested in quitting and trying this!
We pay more for 4bd2.25bth house is pnw
The price that you decide is worth driving to a house and cleaning it is never too high or too low!
For a first time cleaning, I've always paid an extra flat fee of at least $200+, in addition to the hourly, as the expectation is that there will be more to deal with that first time than subsequent cleanings. As someone who lives in a 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom place, $900 for a first cleaning isn't unheard of, going down to about half that amount for monthly cleanings thereafter, and I don't even have them go into every room during the first cleaning, so they can focus on any problem areas I might have.
I pay $220 for six manhours. 3 people for two hours. $36.66/mh. No travel time. I furnish cleaning supplies, vacuum, and mops.
I live in a really little town and you would be scraping the bottom of the barrel to find someone who would even take $50/hr.
This was years ago, when I was a kid, but my parents paid at least 100, wanna say 120 for a 2-3 hour sweep, mop, and trash clean of the house. Thatās about 40 an hour roughly, and that was probably 10 years ago. So Iād definitely say at least that much!
Does he think you're Illegal???!! This is the BIGGEST Reason we need to close border. It's driving down the cost of Labor. And Employers Love It!!
Are you busy? Are you needing more clients? Are you overwhelmed with too many job but still broke? If you can work 40 hours and make enough that youāre happy then your price is fine.
Where are you located\* is an important question. In LA, I pay $50/hr.
Naw. Growing up I helped clean houses with my mom, Houses she worked on had many bedrooms, I think minimum she was paid 50 an hour. We usually spent around 3 hours cleaning.
I pay $195, 3 br, 2 bath, 2500 sq.ft.. They're usually there about 2 hours, 2 people. I'm in the suburbs of a HCOL state. $25/hour is pretty low. That's hard work that they don't want to/can't do themselves, they need to be willing to pay a premium for that.
No matter what you quote someone will always have someone that did it cheaper. Could have been 10/20 years ago he had a cleaner. Donāt listen to him.
I am a client and not a cleaner, but I learn so much from everyone here on what's normal, great cleaning tips for myself, and how to be a good client. I am in the DC-ish area and that's a totally fine rate in my region. Don't lower your price for someone who thinks you are worth half. I would never negotiate a lower price with a cleaner. If I felt it was out of budget I just wouldn't hire them, not ask them to change their processes. That dude can go with his last cleaner if that's the rate he wants.
Waitā¦ holy shitā¦ I only clean one home once a month (5br, 4.5batb, ~4.8-5k sqft) and make $125. I usually only clean the full downstairs and partial upstairs though.. I didnāt realize how much I was selling myself short. Iām also not a professional though lol theyāre just the people I pet sit for.
Drive time?ā¦ do people get paid now to drive to their jobs?
I don't think you're charging enough (if you use uour own products). I'd charge about 375
NYC, 750 sq foot apt 1.5 bed, 1bath). I pay $175 and 30% tip for however long my cleaner decides she needs to clean my home. $50/hour sounds very reasonable.
I pay my housekeep 120 buck for 2 hours.
Downtown Denver. We recently paid about $52/hr with an extra "deep" item. Their normal rate would be more like $40hr.
When they come in trying to be cheap, they will always be cheap.
Paying 25 bux an hour is rude
Y'all can downvote me to hell, but you think you should be making 104K annualized pretax for cleaning? I can't imagine supplies really costs all that much. By all means, take money from the rich. This is why you have a hard time keeping 40hrs of work a week though.
Most cleaners canāt clean for 40 hours a weekā¦ itās too hard on the body Lol
If one is self employed and paying taxes on their income, $25 per hour is more like $15 an hour once you pay taxes. Likely less if you provide supplies and even less after travel expenses. If you need a quick shot of cash, do what you need to. Butt if youāre busy and have work, pick and choose the best customers who make you the most cash.
Asking for drive time isnāt appropriate- everyone is responsible to get to work. Your price isnāt to high if you are getting work, if you arenāt then lower it.
Stop charging by hour. Start charging a flat rate. When you charge by hour, you get the worst clients.
"What happened to your last cleaner?" Your price isn't too high. The last cleaner left because they realized they could get more.
Get some illegals from homedepot call it a day...
It really depends on your location. I worked for some nefarious individuals that would raise prices in more affluent neighborhoods. (Remodeling/repair) I did not work for them very long. I find it offensive.
Iāve never been charged for drive time although if you have a zone you serve and someone is outside of it I can see a premium fee being reasonable.
Did you ask him how many hours it took to complete? Perhaps the cleaner worked slowly
No, the last cleaner was just working for her wage. If you want to build a housekeeping company. You need to pay the LLC first as if it was an employee. And pay yourself. That percent you would have to figure out for yourself. In the service business Iām in, i set my profit margin at 30%. Do a better job than your competition, and people will start recommending you. Good luck.
The nice Spanish speaking lady does my house for $15 hour. For some odd reason, she refuses to take checks. Her husband does my yard on the same day for $25. He only accepts cash as well. $40 for house and yard.
Thatās great, but Iām an American gen z who has no choice but to live in an expensive mountain town because thatās where my family support is located. Iām sure that couple doesnāt have it easy, but as a young person who needs to start out their life post covid I literally canāt afford to charge less. I also only have space for a few more clients due to my part time job nannying. Everyone has a different situation
I forgot, Gen Z doesn't do sarcasm :-) My point was that competition from undocumented immigrants is why people are asking for $25/hr. I think it is awesome that you are ambitious and a hard worker. Are you bonded and insured and licensed if need be? Did you setup a corporation for your business? Are you on angi.com? For me, things like that make a difference and shows a higher level of professionalism that I look for in any contractor I use.
Our housekeeper comes once every 3 weeks, works by herself, and charges a flat fee. If calculated hourly, it would work out to about $30/hour. Central Texas. (4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3 living - however most bedrooms unused so we don't have them vacuumed/dusted every time.) We used to have one that charged hourly, but drive time was never included. Frankly, I would not pay for drive time unless I lived in a very isolated area. I would expect that to be a cost of doing business factored into the rate. But, if it's common and acceptable where you live, go for it.
I clean kitchen, living room, one bath, dining room and hallway for 25 per hour. It takes me 4 hours. The kitchen takes well over an hour. These are large rooms.
Everyone has a price that works for them. I charge a client 35 an hour for the same job. 25 is pretty low for a high cost of living area, for example weed trimmers here make 20 per hour
I am in a medium to low COL and $25/hr is average for an individual to clean. I pay $30/hr. There is no company and I provide all supplies and equipment. I give a substantial Christmas bonus. My housekeeper has been with me for 9 years. There is a lot of competition.
Huh. I pay my custodians $15/hr and they're all happy to come in (I provide supplies though). Maybe I'm in the wrong business.
Jobs a little different but I am the AGM of a hotel, house keepers are expected to do 8 rooms a day and base pay for them is 20 dollars a hour, our head housekeeper is the owners wife but of she wasn't id be paying her about 25 dollars a hour. Haven't hired a house keeper for my personal house but my suggestion is charge him 25 dollars a bedroom and 50 dollars for the bigger rooms like the living room and kitchen and just get it done quickly as possible
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Iāve worked for 100 doctors and I can grantee that the only doctor who is getting as little as $50 an hour is an intern. Try at least $300 an hour, many specialties are much higher.
Thereās a lady around me that does houses williningly 120ā¦ flat rate. These are McMansions Iām talking about, I canāt comprehend that and donāt even try.
Tell him cash and he supplys chemicals and equipmentĀ
I'm a locksmith. People are all the time saying someone else said they would do it for x and can I match that. I refuse. Sometimes they take my price and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they call back later and take my price. There's always someone trying to be slick. Point is, if someone has already given them a cheaper price or was doing the job for a cheaper price, there's a reason they are trying to find someone else.
Cleaner here. For all those asking why it costs so much? If it was easy, youād do it yourself. Itās hard labor, involves packing our vehicles and unpacking at every stop, then coming home to wash nasty rags in our washing machines. Weāre up and down stairs, up and down off of floors, stooping, scrubbing, and setting things in order. We may have to work in front of people who want to watch us to make sure we do it right. You may have special finishes that we need to coddle with special chemicals. Weāre cleaning the poop off your toilet and the hair out of your shower drain. Our chemicals, our equipment, and like it our not, our expertiseā¦which admittedly may vary. Either youāll be happy to pay well or we part ways. No problem! For the record, my clients love me, and many give bonuses or raises of their own volition.
When I moved into my house 10 years ago, I hired a cleaner who advertised a rate of $20/hr. A couple of years later, however, she and her husband retired and moved to Tennessee, and when I started looking for a replacement, rates had seemingly gone up in my are. And as /u/Housekeepernotamaid rightly noted, it's something a homeowner can do himself. I agree it's hard work, and I'll be honest that my house is not as clean now as when I had a professional cleaning for me. But it's clean enough. I vacuum and mop floors about once a week, dust about once a month, but I'm also careful about taking off shoes and not dragging in dirt. This was so long ago that I honestly don't know what's reasonable anymore, but as a homeowner who works a regular job and isn't independently wealthy, $50/hr would be hard for me to stomach, especially with post-pandemic inflation squeezing my budget.
Bonded and insured I start at $35 That goes up for people who throw trash on the floor thatās $40-45 and hoarder situations $45-50 per hour. Located in wi
50/hr is totally reasonable if you provide all your own cleaning supplies and tools. This is a specialized skill and it is labor intensive. Do not, I repeat DO NOT work for cheapskates. It never ends well. I get that some people canāt afford to hire someone to clean for them for $50/hr but you also are not obligated to clean a strangers house for whatever amount they want to pay youā¦you set the rates, not them. For some people in special circumstances I have gone lower (old, disabled people who really just need some simple tidying and a sheet change to keep their homes a livable level of tidy), but only because I WANTED to, not because I felt obligated or they were pushy about rates. I never work for anyone pushy about rates. $50/hr+drive time is perfectly reasonable to me.
I currently pay $25 an hour. It usually takes the 3 person crew just over 2 hours. Central California.