MaidBossPro Blog — Quotes & Pricing

Pricing House Cleaning by Bedrooms and Bathrooms

“How many bedrooms and bathrooms?” is the first question most cleaning companies ask, and for good reason. Nearly every homeowner knows the answer without thinking, it says a lot about how long the clean will take, and it lets you give a price over the phone in under a minute. Done well, bedroom and bathroom pricing is simple for the customer and fair for the company.

Why Room Counts Work

Once the service list is set up, as described in Building a Cleaning Service List Your Estimates Can Pull From, the next question is how each clean gets its price. Room counts are the most common answer for recurring residential work.

Bedrooms and bathrooms track the work reasonably well. Every bedroom means a bed, dusting, floors and maybe a closet. Every bathroom means a toilet, a tub or shower, a sink, a mirror and a floor, and bathrooms take far longer per square foot than bedrooms. A house with more bathrooms almost always takes longer to clean, even if it is smaller.

Room counts are also easy to confirm. The customer can tell you on the phone, and the team can see on arrival whether the numbers were right.

Building a Simple Price Grid

Start with your most common home and work outward. Suppose your typical recurring customer has a 3 bed / 2 bath home, and your team cleans it every two weeks in a known amount of time. Set that price first, for example $155. Then decide what each extra bathroom and each extra bedroom adds:

• 2 bed / 1 bath, every two weeks: $125
• 3 bed / 2 bath, every two weeks: $155
• 4 bed / 2 bath, every two weeks: $170
• 4 bed / 3 bath, every two weeks: $195
• 5 bed / 4 bath, every two weeks: $240

These are example numbers, not a recommendation. Work out your own from how long your teams actually take, what you pay them, your supplies and travel, and what you need to keep. The shape is the useful part: bathrooms step the price up more than bedrooms.

Half Baths and Odd Homes

Room counts break down at the edges, so decide ahead of time how to handle them:

• Half baths. A powder room is quick. Many companies count it as half a bathroom or add a small flat amount.
• Bonus rooms, offices and basements. A finished basement can be as much work as two bedrooms. Ask about them and count them.
• Very large homes. A 3 bed / 2 bath home at 3,400 sq ft is not the same job as one at 1,400 sq ft. Ask for square feet too and adjust, or price large homes by square feet instead. That comparison is covered in Square Feet, Hourly or Flat Rate: Choosing a House Cleaning Pricing Method.
• Condition. A home that has not been cleaned in months is a deep clean first, no matter how many rooms it has.

Tying Prices to Rooms in MaidBossPro

In MaidBossPro, prices on your service list can tie to bedrooms, bathrooms or square feet. When the office enters the home's bedrooms and bathrooms on the estimate, the price follows your setup instead of someone working it out on a notepad.

The room counts also stay on the estimate as cleaning details, along with square feet, pets, extras and entry notes. When the customer approves, they carry onto the job, and the team sees “3 bed / 2 bath · 1,800 sq ft” on their phone under the address. If the house turns out to be bigger than the customer said, the team can note it, and the office can adjust the price before the next visit.

Confirm on the First Visit

Phone quotes based on room counts rely on what the customer tells you. Most customers are accurate, but some forget the basement or the bathroom over the garage. Two habits help:

• Say on the estimate that the price is based on the bedrooms and bathrooms listed, and may change if the home is different.
• Have the team confirm the count on the first visit and note any difference on the job.

If the count is off, call or text the customer before the second visit, explain the difference and confirm the new price. Most people appreciate being told rather than surprised on an invoice.

Keep the Grid Consistent

The real value of room-count pricing is that everybody quotes the same number for the same home. That only works if the grid lives in one place and everyone uses it. When it lives on the service list, a new office hire quotes the same as the owner. For how room-count pricing fits with online approval and scheduling, visit the house cleaning estimate software page.