When someone asks me how to raise cleaning prices for January 2027, I do not start with a percentage. I ask for the last three visits: how long the work really took, what was added along the way, and how much of the day disappeared into travel. Only then is it time to write the client a new figure. On recurring jobs, twenty unrecorded minutes can do more damage than one expensive bottle of cleaner.
Measure the job as it exists, calculate the lowest sustainable price and give the client time to respond. For a 1 January change, leave room to rebuild the diary if the answer is no.
When a price rise is necessary, not optional
A full calendar can hide weak margins. After transport, supplies and business costs, a week of cleaning may leave less than expected. That is simply a busy week.
The warning signs are ordinary. A three-hour visit now takes three and a half. The client added a second bathroom or ironing, but the price stayed put. A distant booking blocks nearby work. A cleaning price increase is not arbitrary when those losses repeat every week.
Consider a regular two-bedroom flat and a cleaner travelling between Vinohrady and Stodůlky. The invoice shows three hours at CZK 1,350. In practice, the work takes three hours and twenty minutes, the return journey and waiting take seventy minutes, and rescheduling messages take another ten. The cleaner is not earning CZK 450 an hour. Before supplies or overhead, the whole block produces just under CZK 284 for each hour of working time.
Audit in October or November, using several normal visits rather than a heavy pre-Christmas clean. Send the notice four to six weeks before the change. With a long-standing client, I would use the longer end.
Calculate the true cost of one visit
Review the last three to five visits. Time the block from leaving for the address until your equipment is packed. You are not billing every tram delay; you are measuring how much capacity the job consumes.
Your cleaning service pricing should account for:
- time inside the home, including setting up and packing away;
- travel to the property and onward or return travel;
- messages, date changes, invoicing and buying supplies;
- products, transport, insurance and wear on equipment;
- taxes and contributions relevant to your circumstances, plus time off and a reserve for quiet weeks.
Decide what the business must pay you and how many hours you can sell. A 160-hour month never contains 160 billable hours. Travel, admin and gaps take their share.
Use this formula as a starting point:
Minimum visit price = total working time for the job × minimum hourly return + direct job costs.
Suppose the clean takes three and a half hours, travel takes fifty minutes, and admin takes ten. The job occupies four and a half hours. If your minimum return across all working time is CZK 330 an hour and the visit uses CZK 120 in products and transport, the floor is CZK 1,605. A current price of CZK 1,450 leaves a CZK 155 shortfall before any reserve for a problem or complaint.
That floor is not automatically your selling price. It is the point below which you subsidise the job. Above it, allow for replacing the vacuum, paid time away, estimation errors and profit. In this example, a target rate might be CZK 1,750. The numbers are illustrative. Use your own times and costs rather than copying somebody else's rate card. For a wider comparison of hourly rates, flat prices and minimum jobs, see our guide to setting cleaning service prices.
Group clients by job difficulty
An across-the-board ten percent increase sounds tidy, but it can preserve the unfairness in the old rates. An easy flat two streets away may already be viable. Ten percent will not rescue a booking that requires a trip across Prague and an extra room cleaned every time because “you are already here”.
Group jobs by what they demand. Some stay within scope and time. Others run over, use costly materials or involve long travel and frequent date changes. Keep those labels for your own decisions.
You can change price, scope or frequency. One job only needs a higher rate; another can lose ironing or linen changes. Fortnightly cleaning may suit a tight budget, but a less frequently cleaned home takes longer. The old task list may no longer fit.
Write down what disappears from a smaller package. Otherwise habit pushes you through the old list at double speed, and the free work soon returns.
How to announce the new price without apologising
For a January change, I would write by the second half of November. Four to six weeks leaves time for questions or a smaller scope. A message on 29 December offers no genuine chance to respond.
A cleaning rate increase letter needs a date, amount, scope and next step:
> Hello Anna, from 1 January 2027 the price of your regular cleaning visit will be CZK 1,750. The scope will remain the same. The new price reflects the actual time required for the job and current operating costs. Please let me know by 30 November whether you would like to continue on these terms. If you prefer to keep the present budget, we can discuss a smaller scope.
That is enough. The client buys an agreed result, not a review of every bottle, petrol receipt or household bill. You do not need to apologise for having costs. Be courteous and direct.
With a relationship-sensitive client, follow up briefly. Do not offer a discount in the first sentence. Listen: the issue may be the total budget, or simply a need to understand the change.
What to offer when a client rejects the new rate
Rejection is not a verdict on your work. A client may have a fixed budget. You have a minimum sustainable price. Sometimes those figures no longer meet.
Offer defined options, not endless negotiation: CZK 1,750 for the current scope, or CZK 1,500 without bed changes and ironing. A longer interval may work too. Price every version properly; a cheaper package cannot hide the same labour.
A transition can help a reliable client absorb a large jump: an intermediate January rate, then the full rate in February. Put the end date in writing. An open-ended “temporary” discount postpones the problem.
If there is no agreement, confirm the final visit, key return and payment. Do not send five more messages defending the calculation. An unprofitable booking occupies a slot a sustainable client could take.
Start with three regular jobs: measure the whole time block and calculate each floor. If you want regular cleaning in Prague, open the ČistýKout request form on the homepage and send a no-obligation brief. Scope and price can follow the home's actual needs.
