Before accepting a job it is good practice to meet your prospective employer in their home so you can assess the cleaning requirements and determine which tasks you’re expected to do, in order to charge the correct price.
When arriving at a quote for the price of a job consider:
- Size of the home, usually measured in number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
- Frequency of cleaning, will you be required daily, weekly or fortnightly?
- How many people and animals live in the house?
- General tidiness, is the property safe and easy to move through?
- The variety of surfaces to be cleaned: hard floors, carpet, wood and marble work surfaces for instance.
- Special tasks, such as cleaning windows or steaming curtains.
- Your experience and skills, are you able to tackle more specialist tasks such as oven cleaning?
- The number of people employed on the job, will you work alone or with a team?
- Whether you will be paid by the job or by the hour.
Rough estimates of what to charge for housecleaning services
- In large metropolitan areas such as London it is normal for an individual to expect upwards of £8 per hour with more specialist jobs such as steam-cleaning being charged separately at a set rate. Fees in less urban areas are only slightly less, perhaps starting at £7 per hour.
- An agency may charge clients approximately 30% extra to cover administrative fees and other costs with the same amount being paid to the cleaner.
- Make sure you run a postcode check on Care.com to see what other employers are offering per hour, or what hourly rate other providers are charging.
Establishing your fee
- Ask other housekeepers in your area how much they charge for cleaning services.
- Compare their level of experience with yours.
Be prepared to negotiate with prospective employers in order to arrive at a fair price that reflects your skills and experience.