Window cleaning has the tightest relationship between route and profit of anything in the cleaning trade. The job at one house is short, so the money is made by density: eight houses in a street rather than four across a county. Any pricing guide that gives you a rate per window without saying anything about the round is answering half the question, and it is the less important half.
What sets the price at a single property
Pane count and size. Storeys, and whether a pole reaches or a ladder is needed. Whether frames and sills are included, which should be stated rather than assumed. Access: conservatory roofs, planting, gravel, locked side gates. And the interval, because a house done every six weeks is quicker each time than one done annually. A first clean on a neglected property can take twice the recurring time and should be priced separately.
The round is the other half of the price
Two window cleaners charging identical rates can have very different businesses. Every minute between properties is paid time nobody bills, so a customer twenty minutes off your route needs to be worth the detour or declined. When you build a price list, decide the areas and days you serve first; the rate then only has to be right for work you would actually accept.
Frequency pricing and the first clean
Publish a recurring price and a higher first-visit price, and size the gap on measured time rather than on a round number. Then let frequency move the recurring price: six-weekly cheaper per visit than annual, because it is genuinely faster. Customers understand this immediately when it is explained as time, and it steers them towards the interval that makes your round work.
Questions people ask about window cleaning pricing guide
How do I price interior windows?
Separately and by the hour or by the room, because access and furniture make pane counts unreliable indoors.
Should I charge for frames and sills?
Include them and say so, or exclude them and say so. The complaint arises from silence rather than from either choice.
What about a customer off my round?
Price the drive time into the job or decline it politely. Accepting it at the standard rate is how a profitable round quietly becomes a busy one.