How your cleaning price is set, and what can change it

Most cleaning in Sydney is priced by quote: you describe the job, wait, and compare numbers you can't really compare. ProperLink prices it before you publish instead. That trade — a number now rather than a negotiation later — only works if you know how the number is arrived at.

Where the number comes from

The price is calculated from the property, not from a conversation. Bedrooms, bathrooms, the cleaning type you pick, and any add-ons. Same inputs, same price, every time.

It isn't an estimate that firms up later, and there's no haggling to be done. The cleaner sees the published price and decides whether to take the job at it. You aren't choosing between people who've bid, so there's nobody to negotiate with.

Why it is a floor, not a fixed number

The calculated price is a minimum. You can raise it before publishing; you can't go below it. The server enforces that, so it isn't a UI suggestion you can talk your way around.

Two reasons this matters to you rather than just to us:

• It stops a race to the bottom. A marketplace where the price can be pushed down is one where the work gets worse to match.
• Raising it is a real lever. Nobody is obliged to accept a job. If yours is large, awkward, at an unpopular hour, or a long way from where cleaners actually are, more money is the thing that moves it. And it's visible before you commit rather than discovered afterwards.

GST is in the number you see

The total shown before you publish includes GST. There's no "plus GST" and no subtotal that grows at checkout. The checkout also breaks out the GST component if you need it for a claim.

What actually changes the price

• Bedrooms and bathrooms — the main inputs.
• The cleaning type — a standard clean, an Airbnb turnover and an end of lease clean are different scopes, so each is priced from its own rates.
• Add-ons — oven, rangehood, glass by the pane, carpet. Each has a set price and the total updates as you tick them.

What doesn't change it: how long the job actually takes, what the cleaner thinks when they arrive, or anything discussed on the day.

The two times you pay something different

Cancellation. Cancelling after a cleaner has accepted may incur a fee, and it's larger once they're at your door. The app shows the exact amount before you confirm the cancellation.

Nothing at all. If no cleaner accepts, you aren't charged. Publishing an instant job places a hold on your card, not a charge; the money moves when you approve the completed clean, or automatically 48 hours after the cleaner marks it done if you haven't reviewed it by then.

Where your money goes

The cleaner is an independent professional, and the price you pay is for their work. ProperLink's fee comes out of the cleaner's side of the transaction rather than being added on top of your total. Payments run through Stripe, and we never see or store your card number.

What we do not do

• No quotes to chase, and no quote that changes after an inspection.
• No hourly billing, so a slow day doesn't cost you more.
• No invoices, no chasing, no cash.
• No surge pricing. Distance and timing affect whether someone accepts, not what you're charged.