“It is only 55 square metres.” That word only has ruined plenty of first-clean quotes. I remember one small Prague flat where the allotted three hours vanished into a greasy kitchen and a shower screen that looked harmless in the photos. The later fortnightly visits really did take three hours. The first one did not. If you are deciding how to price a cleaning job, quote that initial reset as a different piece of work.
Why the first visit costs more than recurring cleaning
A familiar home gives you a map. Nobody has drawn it, but you know the route: bin bags in the left cupboard, little water on the parquet, acidic cleaner for the shower. You stop making tiny decisions and get on with cleaning.
Day one is slower. You find grease above the cupboards, cat hair under a low sofa and limescale tucked behind the tap. The building matters too. Vinohrady often means tall rooms and old double windows. In a Karlín new-build, one enormous glass wall can eat the time you expected to spend on the whole bathroom.
I use three plain labels. The initial clean establishes a baseline. A deep clean goes after neglected areas and old build-up. Recurring cleaning maintains whatever standard the customer has bought. No mystery there.
The hourly rate may be identical. The time allowance certainly is not. Put all three services under one recurring price and an oven, a set of blinds or forty minutes of scraping soon becomes your unpaid “extra”.
What to learn before giving a price
Floor area tells me whether I am looking at a studio or a family home. After that, bathrooms and condition are far more useful. I ask about pets, smoking, clutter, glass, the last thorough clean and the planned return frequency. Then I list the usual traps by name: oven, fridge, windows, balcony, cupboard interiors.
Do not accept “normally dirty” as evidence. My normal, your normal and the customer's normal are three different homes. Request wide shots of the rooms and close-ups of the hob, taps, shower and floors.
A quick video call is better. Ask the client to walk slowly, open the bathroom door and show the kitchen from both sides. Five minutes may reveal three litter trays, shelves covered in ornaments or a glass balustrade that never made it into the message.
Still, call the result an estimate. I like wording such as: “From the photos, I expect four to five labour hours. If we are likely to pass five, I will stop and agree the extra time first.” The client gets a sensible boundary; you are not legally or morally married to a flattering camera angle.
For a big house or a muddled brief, charge for an inspection. A 30-minute Prague visit might be 400 to 600 CZK with local travel, then credited against the booking. You are testing access, surfaces and scope. That judgement is part of the job.
A simple calculation for the first job
Here is the calculation I would scribble in a notebook:
labour hours × rate + travel + materials + extras + a small risk allowance
Watch the word hours. Two people in a flat for three hours produce six labour hours. The customer sees a three-hour appointment; your payroll sees six. Quick WhatsApp quotes have a nasty habit of forgetting the second number.
Work out your cleaning service hourly rate from actual costs: pay, compulsory contributions, unbilled travel, laundry, admin, equipment and profit. Suppose 450 CZK is your honest minimum. A 350 CZK offer does not make you competitive; it makes you the person paying the missing hundred.
Worked example: a Prague 2+kk flat
Take a 58 m² Vinohrady flat with one bathroom, one cat, moderate kitchen grease and visible shower limescale. The client hopes to book every other week.
- Labour: 5 hours × 450 CZK = 2,250 CZK
- Travel and parking: 250 CZK
- Products: 120 CZK
- Unseen-condition allowance: 225 CZK
That first cleaning quote comes to 2,845 CZK, rounded to 2,850 CZK. Send two cleaners and they may finish in two and a half hours. You still sold five hours of human work.
The next visit might need only three labour hours. With the provider's travel and product allowance, a recurring cleaning price near 1,550 CZK could be fair. Why the drop? Nobody is hunting for a system or lifting old grease now.
Set a minimum call-out as well. Crossing Prague and finding a parking space can take longer than a tiny task. I have used 1,200 and 1,500 CZK here as illustrations, not instructions. Your own costs get the final vote.
What belongs in the base price and what is extra
“Please clean the whole flat” sounds innocent until someone points at a burnt oven and six windows. Write the base down: accessible surfaces, dust, vacuuming, mopping, routine bathroom cleaning and the outside of the kitchen units, for example.
I would price oven and fridge interiors, extractor hoods, windows, blinds and inside cupboards separately. The same applies to mould, heavy limescale, post-renovation dust and badly discoloured grout.
Make heavy something the client can see. A light limescale film comes away during the normal routine. A crust needs more product, waiting and scraping. Fresh marks on a hob are maintenance; old grease behind it is another job.
If the photos lied - or simply missed a corner - do not save the discovery for the invoice. Show the customer, name the extra time and offer a choice. Approve more work or leave the oven for next time. Simple. The client keeps control, and you keep your margin.
How to explain two different prices to the client
There is nothing to apologise for. Skip the business-school language and say what changes:
> The first visit costs more because we are removing older build-up and setting the standard for future cleaning. From your photos, I expect four to five hours and 2,400 to 2,850 CZK. Fortnightly visits in the same scope should then be 1,550 CZK. I will agree anything outside that scope before doing it.
Put the task list, time range, number of cleaners, travel, products and change rule in writing. One ordinary message beats an argument about windows when your vacuum is already by the front door.
The interval belongs there too. Two cancelled fortnightly visits create a six-week gap, and that can justify a fresh estimate. “This price applies at intervals of no more than 14 days” is enough.
Check and adjust the price after the first visit
Before leaving, write down the real labour time, products, parking and surprises. Not tonight. Now. By evening, the half-hour lost to pet hair will have blurred into the rest of the day.
Then compare. Did five estimated hours become four and a quarter? Tighten the next similar quote. Did they become six and a half? Find out whether the form failed, the photos hid something or your expected pace was fantasy.
Agree what the recurring service will maintain. Perhaps kitchen and bathroom happen every time, dust and floors throughout, while doors and skirting boards rotate. The client needs a dependable result, not every possible task squeezed into every visit.
Keep those records. Your own table of layouts, bathrooms, condition and frequency will beat a generic rate card surprisingly quickly. A clear profile helps as well. If you are still building yours, read our guide on how to start a cleaning business. Reviews praising an accurate estimate are worth more than a lonely “from 350 CZK”.
That is really the discipline: inspect, price the reset, record what happened and adjust. The two prices then have an honest reason behind them. More importantly, the first afternoon no longer comes out of your pocket.
Looking for a cleaner rather than pricing your own work? Send a no-obligation enquiry through Čistýkout's contact form. Čistýkout is a Prague-based option for matching the actual household scope with a suitable cleaning service.
