How much to charge for cleaning: a UK pricing guide for operators

Most UK cleaners charge between 15 and 25 pounds an hour, with self-employed operators clustered around 18 to 22 pounds and agencies higher at 25 to 40 pounds. Flat job prices run from roughly 50 pounds for a small maintenance clean to 250 pounds plus for a deep or end-of-tenancy clean. Set yours from your costs, your area and the job type, not a guess.

That is the short version. The longer answer is that the rate you can name depends on how you price, what the job actually involves, and whether you quote in a way that wins the work. Get that wrong and you are either too cheap to make money or too slow to land the booking.

What UK cleaners actually charge in 2026

Here are the rate bands operators are quoting around the country. Use them to see where you sit, not as a fixed price list. London and the South East run at the top of each band; smaller towns sit lower.

The spread inside each band is real. A solo cleaner in a market town charging 18 pounds an hour and an agency in central London charging 38 are both pricing correctly for their costs. Your job is to know your own numbers and quote to them.

Hourly vs flat vs per-room vs per-square-foot

There are four ways to price a clean, and the right one depends on the job.

• Hourly is simplest and safest for one-offs and anything unpredictable. You get paid for the time it actually takes. The downside is it caps your earnings and makes clients watch the clock.
• Flat / per-job is what most regular clients prefer because they know the cost up front. It only works once you can estimate the property accurately, or you will keep underquoting.
• Per-room is a quick way to build a flat quote: a set price per bedroom and bathroom, plus the kitchen and living areas. Handy for end-of-tenancy work.
• Per-square-foot suits offices and large commercial spaces where rooms are not a sensible unit.

A worked example. Say your target is 22 pounds an hour. A regular three-bed takes you two and a half hours, so the flat price is 55 pounds. Quote that as a flat fee, not "22 an hour for about two and a half hours", and you look more professional and you protect your rate if you get faster.

Rate bands by job type

The four methods above set the mechanism. The job type sets the band.

Regular maintenance cleans are your bread and butter: recurring weekly or fortnightly visits at 15 to 25 pounds an hour, or a 50 to 90 pound flat fee once you know the home. Price these to keep the slot, because the repeat value is the whole point.

Deep cleans are slower and dirtier, so charge a premium: 20 to 30 pounds an hour, or 120 to 300 pounds flat depending on size and condition. Always see the property or get photos first.

End-of-tenancy cleans are the highest-stakes domestic job. The clean has to pass a checkout inspection, so price for that standard: 150 to 350 pounds for a typical flat to family home. Per-room pricing makes these easy to quote.

Office and commercial cleaning is usually contracted: a fixed price per visit or per month rather than per hour, often at 15 to 25 pounds an hour equivalent. These jobs come by direct approach and tender, and they are won on reliability, not the lowest price.

Airbnb and holiday-let turnarounds are quick, repeat, time-pressured jobs: 40 to 80 pounds a changeover, often with a same-day window. Charge for the urgency and the laundry.

What drives your price up or down

Two cleaners can quote the same house and land 20 pounds apart, both correctly. The difference is the factors they load into the price:

• Frequency. Recurring work earns a small discount; one-offs carry a premium.
• Access and condition. Stairs, no parking, heavy clutter and pets all add time.
• Supplies. If you provide products and equipment, build that into the rate.
• Travel. Unpaid driving between jobs is a real cost, so charge more outside your core area.
• Specialism. End-of-tenancy, after-builders and Airbnb work command more than a standard maintenance clean.

Decide which of these apply before you name a number, and the quote stops being a guess.

Common pricing mistakes that kill profit

The fastest way to stay broke while staying busy is to make one of these:

• Underpricing the first job to win it. A cheap client is cheap forever and expects the next quote to match.
• Forgetting your overheads. Fuel, insurance, supplies, phone, admin and your own unpaid time all come out of that hourly rate before you earn a penny.
• No minimum charge. Tiny jobs at a per-hour rate lose money once you count travel.
• Never raising prices. Costs go up every year. If your rate has not moved in two years, you have taken a pay cut.

The quote you never send earns nothing

Here is the part the pricing guides skip. You can have the sharpest rate card in your town and still lose the job to a cleaner who simply answered the phone.

Most cleaning enquiries still come by call, and they come while you are mid-clean, gloves on, hoover running, phone in the other room. The caller does not leave a voicemail. They ring the next cleaner on Google and book with whoever picks up. A perfect price quoted an hour too late is worth exactly the same as no price at all: zero. Every missed enquiry is a job you priced at nothing.

That is why getting paid well starts before the quote. It starts with answering the enquiry. The same logic runs through everything in how to get more cleaning clients: winning the lead is wasted if you cannot convert the call.

So work out your real costs, pick the method that fits each job, and price to the bands above with confidence. Then make sure the phone gets answered every time, because that is where the money is actually won or lost. See how that works for a cleaning business in our overview of call answering for cleaning services.