A client accepts your cleaning service price increase from CZK 1,600 to CZK 1,800, then adds one condition: "Let's book every six weeks instead of every four." It sounds like a reasonable compromise. It may actually cost the cleaner several thousand crowns a year, turn each visit into a longer job and leave an awkward gap in the diary. A higher visit price tells you very little until you check the full year.
Here is the model job I will use: a flat in Prague 10, cleaned every four weeks for four hours at CZK 1,600. The cleaner sets the 2027 price at CZK 1,800. The client does not reject the new figure. They stretch the interval. That is a second negotiation, and in my experience it receives far less attention than the original price announcement.
Start by recalculating the client for a full year
Every four weeks is not the same as monthly. A 52-week year contains thirteen four-week slots. At the old CZK 1,600 price, the theoretical annual value was CZK 20,800. Keep the same recurring cleaning frequency after the increase and the figure becomes CZK 23,400.
A six-week schedule produces eight or nine visits. Even with an optimistic nine, annual revenue is only CZK 16,200. That is CZK 4,600 below the old arrangement and CZK 7,200 below the new price at the original frequency. The visit price rose by 12.5%, yet annual revenue fell by roughly 22% compared with the old schedule.
Real diaries are messier. Christmas lands badly, someone gets ill, a family goes away in August, or the client decides the flat can last another week. I keep two counts: possible visits and likely completed visits. If twelve of the old thirteen appointments usually happened, but only eight of the nine six-week appointments are likely to happen, I compare CZK 19,200 with CZK 14,400. I do not compare 1,600 with 1,800.
| Arrangement | Likely visits per year | Price per visit | Annual revenue | |---|---:|---:|---:| | Old four-week schedule | 12 | CZK 1,600 | CZK 19,200 | | New price, four weeks | 12 | CZK 1,800 | CZK 21,600 | | New price, six weeks | 8 | CZK 1,800 | CZK 14,400 |
One small table often settles the question. Frequency can change a client's value far more than the headline increase.
A longer interval usually creates a longer, harder visit
The same flat is not waiting for you after six weeks. Dust has had another fortnight to settle along furniture edges. The shower screen carries more limescale; greasy finger marks have spread around the kitchen handles. Add children or a dog and you notice the difference before you have even unpacked the cloths.
The expensive mistake is to keep the CZK 1,800 price and promise the old scope within four hours. Suppose the job now takes four hours and forty-five minutes. The new hourly return falls from CZK 450 to about CZK 379. That is below the old CZK 400 rate, even though the client has just received a house cleaning price increase. Travel, supplies and pre-visit messages are still missing from that calculation.
I would not guess the extra time from behind a desk. Track the first two visits under the new schedule. Note the start, finish and what changed in the bathroom, kitchen, dusting and floors. There is no need to time every tap with a stopwatch. Two honest notes after the job will show whether the first overrun was bad luck or the new normal.
Tell the client that the longer interval will be reviewed after two visits. Then set a realistic duration or fixed price. This protects both sides: the client understands what could change, and the cleaner does not quietly donate the fifth hour.
An empty slot has value only when you sell it
"At least I will have more space in my diary" can be true. A Tuesday morning opening in Vinohrady, between two existing jobs, may be easy to fill. Friday at 1:30 pm on Prague's edge, with a forty-minute journey afterwards, is a different product.
Ask three blunt questions about the released slot:
- Do genuine enquiries arrive for that day and time?
- Can another job fit the route without a costly gap or extra trip?
- Is there a lead or waiting list, or merely a hope that somebody will appear?
Replacing the visit with a CZK 2,100 job in the same neighbourhood may improve the week. Leaving the space empty for three months does not. Nor does filling two hours if the journey breaks the rest of the afternoon.
For cleaning client profitability, I track revenue from the reduced client and actual revenue earned in the freed time. Until the replacement appears on an invoice, it is not income. It is spare capacity.
Offer three options instead of an automatic discount
Many clients are not trying to leave. They are trying to keep annual household spending under control. The answer does not have to be "six weeks on the old terms" or "then we stop." Give them three clear options built on the same hourly logic.
1. Keep four weeks and reduce the standing scope
The cleaner visits every four weeks for 3.5 hours at CZK 1,575. Each visit covers the bathroom, kitchen worktops, dusting and floors. Doors, detailed skirting-board work or the oven are separate requests. The client pays less per visit, but the hourly rate has not been discounted. They are buying a smaller, named service.
2. Use six weeks with a new duration or fixed price
The first two visits average five hours. The ongoing quote becomes CZK 2,250 for the agreed scope, or CZK 450 per hour with a 4.5-to-five-hour estimate. A demanding visit now has its own price. The extra labour is no longer hidden in a free hour.
3. Alternate basic and extended visits
Keep the four-week rhythm. One visit is a three-hour basic clean at CZK 1,350; the next is an extended five-hour clean at CZK 2,250. The longer slot rotates tasks that do not need attention every time, such as doors and frames, bathroom detailing, cabinet fronts or skirting boards. The client can budget for the year, while the flat never reaches the point where every appointment feels like a small deep clean.
This is usually the most honest way to retain recurring cleaning clients without quietly restoring the old discount. Options are not pressure. They make the trade-off between price, time and result visible.
Confirm the arrangement in writing and review it after two visits
A phone call is not enough. Send a short email or message that records the price, interval, expected duration, standing scope and rule for extra work. For a six-week plan, include the review date. For example: "After two visits, we will compare the actual time. If the job regularly takes more than five hours, we will agree a revised scope or price."
After each of those visits, record time in the flat, travel, paid parking, unusual supply use, unplanned tasks, the invoiced amount and the actual hourly return. The list takes two minutes. It is more useful than a vague memory that the last clean "felt long".
A recurring price has to work in the diary, not just on a rate card. If the numbers still fail after two visits, change the scope, price or interval again. When the client refuses every sustainable version, ending the job may be the better business decision. An empty slot hurts for a while. A loss-making client occupies it indefinitely.
If you need cleaning in Prague and want the scope, frequency and price to be clear from the start, send ČistýKout a no-obligation cleaning enquiry. We will suggest an arrangement that fits the home rather than forcing every client into the same schedule.
