[Wc Solutions]

just thinking of putting our prices up and wondering what seems to be the average cost these days for domestic cleaning on a weekly or two weekly basis, with you providing the stuff...

[Pristine Clean]

Depends where you are based

Between £9.50 - £12 quid an hour

Dave

[Grant Whyte]

If you're offering the average kind of service you'll get an average kind of price, but if you're offering something that's genuinely above average then you can reasonably ask and expect an above average rate.

Grant

[Andy Foster]

I charge £20 per hour for the ones I do.  I have fewer customers with charging these prices but they get a top level of service and some have tried cheaper alternatives and have come back as they were unhappy with the drop in service.
You get what you pay for.

[Christopher Browne]

Between £15-20 here in Brum..

[Mike_G]

£6 plus materials

[Andy Foster]

£6 plus materials

What proportion of that goes towards your insurance?

[nat1]

£13.50 to £15.00 in Manchester inc materials


Nat

[gordonswindows]

£20 an hour Andy yet cleaning doesn't have to cost the earth

Oit of interest ball park figure only how many clients do you do at £20 an hour

Gordon

[Andy Foster]

£20 an hour Andy yet cleaning doesn't have to cost the earth
Oit of interest ball park figure only how many clients do you do at £20 an hour

Gordon

Not sure what you mean by this

[Londoner]

Round here domestic cleaning seems to be almost entirely done by "Polish" girls at between £6-8 PH. They are all very good, you hear nothing but praise.

[Wc Solutions]

thanks for all your posts on this.

it seems there isnt really an average!

some say a stupid price of £6 - £8 and some go all the way upto £20

i gonna go with a good fair price of £12.50 per hour and a min of 4 hours .... and £15 - £16 for commercial....

[Andy Foster]

That's the right thing to do, price at what is right for you.

The 'Polish' revolution in cleaning can only last so long before someone gets stung for not having the right insurances and equipment etc.

The rates you have suggested allow you to do the right job, do the job right and still make money.

Good luck to you

Andy

[Mike_G]

An awful lot of people earn less than £8 an hour so why is that a stupid rate? As long as it is plus overheads of course. Personally I would suggest you price up the work at a price which you are happy with, there will always be people more and less expensive no matter what you price up at.

[Rasoo Cleaning]

Hi

My name is Robert and im Polish.

I start my own cleaning business, because i was fed up with my work as a chef. We started at £6.75 and the cleaning was done by me and my wife, however at the moment we charge min. £8.5 and some customers even £20.

The "Polish Revolution in Cleaning"? what you mean by that? should i feel offended?

When you dont have support of you friends and familly and you are in foreign country its really hard to start a business, so the price is low to get some customers. I know Polish girls wich started at £6 and right now they want work for less then £10.

[Andy Foster]

At £6 an hour, your friends would have only been 7p per hour over the minimum wage!!!

Even if they worked an 8 hour day and 7 days a week for 52 weeks of the year (no time off at all!), they would only be earning £203.84 over the minimum wage for the whole year.

From this you would have to take off tax and national insurance, business insurance, fuel to travel to jobs (assuming you don't walk everywhere carring your kit with you of course), vehicle insurance (including business use of course), vehicle tax, maintenance etc. Not to mention accountancy fees and all the associated costs of payroll etc.

Unless your friends who were charging £6 an hour were able to do all of the above for under £208.84 then the were in fact working for less than minimum wage!

Could it be that they were not insured to be doing that work and were therefore putting their customers property at risk?

The 'Polish Revolution' is a phrase that has been used to describe the illegal running of businesses using exploited Polish workers who receive lower than minimum wage to do work in the UK, usually uninsured, unqualified and untrained.  The result of such practice is the lowering of prices to a point where properly run businesses find it difficult to compete on price alone.

If you are running a legitimate business and complying with all the rules associated with such an activity then there is no reason for you to be offended by this phrase, however if you are in fact running an illegal, exploitative and immoral business as described above then please feel free to be as offended as you like.

[Anna Warren]

I'm Polish too and I charge £10-11per hour, I've done some EOTs . I don't understand all ths negativity against us. Fine, some people are afraid of competition while country is still in crisis. I have some customers who told me "I used to have English cleaners but they weren't good, but I'm happy with your service". Quality really doesn't depend on  nationality.

[Andy Foster]

I don't care what nationality anyone is as long as they are running an honest and legal business.

I personally have nothing against Polish or any other nationality, but you cannot run a business on £6 an hour and do it right.

My issue is with illegal and immoral business practices, the phrase I used is not mine, it is one being used to describe the illegal exploitation of foreign workers which serves to drive down the prices of the services we provide at the expense of training and insurance.  These businesses are ruining the reputations we are all working so hard to build and should not be tolerated in our industry.

It is up to us (regardless of nationality) to drive them out of business so that our hard earned customers get the service, value and quality they richly deserve.

[Richard iSparkle]

I'm Polish too and I charge £10-11per hour, I've done some EOTs . I don't understand all ths negativity against us. Fine, some people are afraid of competition while country is still in crisis. I have some customers who told me "I used to have English cleaners but they weren't good, but I'm happy with your service". Quality really doesn't depend on  nationality.

from a purely business perspective....  if you are better than the English cleaners that they used to have, you should make sure you are charging more than them.  you should probably think to charge upwards of £15 an hour for your service in that case, if you are the person doing the cleaning yourself AND it is your business.

the problem for me is never whether you are polish or whatever, the problem for me is charging 'polish' prices which may seem good enough for you as a new immigrant, but are not enough for the service you are providing.

you should compete on service not on price.

it is of course the same mistake most new business make at the start.

[Bryan Griffith]

No legitimate business can operate on £6 per hour. There may be people working for this amount but you can bet your bottom dollar no tax Insurance etc is being paid by them or the company they work for.
There is no average price as there are many factors that determine what price should be charged, ie location of work, what is  required is it a light domestic clean or a one off deep clean? those quoting £20 per hour may find as the market gets tighter they will not be able to charge those prices.
I suggest you charge what you would be happy paying and deliver a service you would expect and you wont go wrong.
I have run my business for 13 years and therefore service and cost must be good.
best of luck.