How Much to Charge for a Cleaning Job in 2026

What a cleaning quote needs to include

A quote that just says "house cleaning — £45" leaves too much unsaid. Cover these and neither of you is guessing later:

1. 1Your business details and, if VAT-registered, your VAT number.
2. 2The property address, size (bedrooms/bathrooms) and access details — keys held, code entry, or someone letting you in.
3. 3Whether it's a one-off clean, a deep clean, an end-of-tenancy clean, or a recurring arrangement — stated plainly at the top.
4. 4For recurring work: the frequency (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) and exactly what a standard visit covers, room by room.
5. 5Itemised tasks rather than "house cleaning" — kitchen, bathrooms, floors, dusting, and anything room-specific.
6. 6What counts as an extra — inside the oven, inside the fridge, windows, carpets, ironing, or a wardrobe clear-out.
7. 7Whether you supply cleaning products and equipment, or the client does.
8. 8Key holding arrangements and what happens if you turn up and can't get in.
9. 9Payment terms — per visit, monthly invoice, or on completion — plus notice periods for skipping or cancelling a recurring visit.

Three cleaning jobs, three different quotes

Recurring cleans, one-off deep cleans and end-of-tenancy cleans look similar from the outside but behave completely differently when it comes to pricing.

Recurring maintenance cleans

Once you've seen the property, price it as a flat rate per visit, not an hourly rate the client has to calculate against. State the frequency, what a standard visit covers room by room, and which extras (inside the oven, windows, ironing) sit outside it. A first visit to a home that hasn't been properly cleaned in a while will always run longer than the visits after it — quote that first visit as a separate, one-off "initial deep clean" line, then a lower ongoing rate once it's under control.

One-off deep cleans

These are genuinely harder to size sight unseen — a "spring clean" can mean anything from wiping down skirting boards to degreasing an oven nobody's touched in a year. Ask a few specific questions before quoting (last professional clean, any particular problem areas, pets), or quote a provisional price based on square footage and confirm it on arrival before starting. Being upfront that the final price depends on condition, rather than a vague headline number, avoids the argument at the end.

End-of-tenancy cleans

This is the highest-stakes version of the job — a tenant's deposit and a landlord's re-letting timeline both depend on the property passing a check-out inspection. Ask whether the letting agent has a specific cleaning checklist or inventory standard, and quote to that exact list rather than a generic deep clean. Ovens, carpets, windows and any professional certificates (carpet cleaning receipts are often required as proof) should be priced as clear add-ons, and it's worth being explicit that you can't guarantee a specific inspection outcome — only the standard of the clean itself.

How to price the work

UK domestic cleaning pricing varies by region and property size, but these ranges are a fair starting point for 2026:

• A self-employed domestic cleaner's hourly rate typically runs £15–£22 outside London and £18–£28 in and around it — work out your real rate from your target income divided by realistic billable hours, not just what a competitor charges.
• A regular fortnightly clean of a 2–3 bedroom home usually lands at £35–£55 a visit once converted to a flat rate; a weekly visit is often priced slightly lower per session since less builds up between cleans.
• A one-off deep clean of a 3-bed house typically runs £150–£280, reflecting the extra time on kitchens, bathrooms and areas a maintenance visit wouldn't normally touch.
• End-of-tenancy cleans run £150–£220 for a 1–2 bed flat and £220–£320 for a 3-bed house, with oven (£20–£40), carpet cleaning per room (£25–£40) and windows priced as separate add-ons.
• If you supply your own products and equipment, add £3–£8 a visit to cover the cost — or note clearly on the quote that the client's own supplies are being used instead.

A worked example

A fortnightly maintenance clean for a 3-bedroom house, priced the way described above:

£52 per fortnightly visit, covering kitchen, two bathrooms, all floors, dusting and bed changes, with an inside-oven clean added every third visit. Cleaner supplies products and equipment. Invoiced monthly. 24 hours' notice to skip a visit, two weeks' notice to end the arrangement. An initial deep clean, quoted separately at £180, was carried out before the recurring schedule began.

Five details that get cleaning quotes accepted faster

• Quote room by room, not "a clean". Listing kitchen, bathrooms, floors and dusting separately shows the client exactly what two hours buys — and makes it obvious why a bigger house costs more, rather than looking like an arbitrary number.
• Name the extras before the client has to ask. "Inside the oven, inside the fridge and windows are extra — priced on request" on the quote means the fourth visit's "could you also do the oven while you're here" is a billable add-on, not an awkward negotiation on the doorstep.
• Put the key and access arrangement in writing. Who holds a key, what the door code is, and what happens if a lockout means you can't get in — spelling this out avoids a wasted visit turning into a dispute about whether it should still be charged.
• Separate one-off deep cleans from the ongoing rate. A first deep clean of a home that hasn't been properly cleaned in months takes longer than every visit after it. Quote the deep clean as its own line, then a lower ongoing rate for maintaining it — so the client isn't shocked by visit one, or surprised the price drops for visit two.
• Make the quote look like a real business, even for a small job. A branded, itemised PDF for a £48 fortnightly clean signals reliability in a trade where trust and access to someone's home matter more than almost anywhere else.

The fastest way to do all of this

A one-off quote for a single deep clean is easy enough to knock together. A round of fifteen recurring clients, each with their own frequency, extras and key arrangements, is a different job entirely — and it's exactly the kind of thing that ends up as a half-remembered note on your phone rather than something either of you can point back to.

This is what QuoteRocket is for. Describe the job in plain English — "fortnightly clean, 3-bed house, kitchen, two bathrooms, floors, dusting, oven every third visit, cleaner supplies products" — and it turns that into a branded, itemised PDF quote in under a minute, with a valid-until date and clear pricing. Your client accepts it with one tap on their phone, and an accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click, so you're not chasing payment on top of a full diary of houses.

Whichever way you produce the quote, the principle holds: separate the standard visit from the extras, price the first deep clean differently from the ongoing rate, and put key arrangements and notice periods in writing so nobody's relying on memory three months in.

Frequently asked questions

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