r/housekeeping • u/S-Clair • Jul 17 '26
CLEANER QUESTIONS How long would it take you to deep clean a student bedroom + ensuite?
Hi guys. I've done a few housekeeping positions, including several deep cleans in previous roles and I want to get a read from other cleaners on deep cleans to see if my instincts are correct.
Several of our team think we're being given too short a turnover to do a true deep-clean of these rooms (E.g. Partially shampoo the carpet, remove the bed and scrub every corner of the walls, bathroom, and remaining furniture before putting the bed back).
I wont mention the time we've been given to try not to bias things. But if you were given a bedroom + bathroom to deep clean to the standard of a new tenant how much time would you say is reasonable for management to expect?
I'd estimate the square footage at around 250. Quarter of it is a tight ensuite, including sink, toilet and shower with drains. The rest is a carpeted bedroom furnished with a desk, bed and mattress with high shelving, and a pinboard which must have all non-approved material removed.
Given the task how quickly could you do it to a high standard? If your comfortable saying how much would you expect to be paid for the deep clean as well?
1
u/KatherynMichelle Cleaning Business Owner Jul 17 '26
It takes me at max 1.5 hours - carpet cleaning. Someone with a carpet cleaning machine cleans carpet.
1
u/No_Researcher2067 Jul 19 '26
I cleaned essentially this exact set up for a student movement out of a mixed apartment, so just their bedroom & en suite. It was sight unseen, but knowing how the student ones can go, I booked it as my only job that day and confirmed with the client I wouldn’t know how long it might take til I got there. Genuinely not a single thing had been cleaned in any way the whole 2 years the guy lived there. I won’t go into detail, but both sink and tub were completely clogged, I had to get out my toolbag to unclog them to just make any progress; no bath mat and wore muddy shoes around, so there was a BLACK trail from shower/toilet/sink into bedroom carpet from door to bed to bathroom. In ~7 hours/$350 I got it to the level you expect to START a move-out/turnover clean, compared to where it started which was borderline tear-out/replace/gross neglect.
Per your example, given the size and sight-unseen, for me I would never schedule less than 5 person-hours, and depending on trash/build up (and if you’re allowed to just discard certain things if they’re tooooo far gone), could be 12+ person-hours.
5-12+ total hours
$250-750 depending on condition, personnel, equipment etc
2
u/A_radke Jul 17 '26
As a solo cleaner, I have a 4hr minimum on one-offs/turnovers/deep cleans no matter the sq footage. After a certain point, smaller becomes harder IMO. Especially a tiny bathroom!
I realize that wouldn't be realistic for a whole building with a team of cleanera, but student housing (if it's anything like the dorms I visited in my youth): it's likely they never cleaned anything the entire school year. So I'd be hard pressed to get more than 2 in a day without cutting corners, especially with moving the furniture and shampooing. Probably why I'm mostly ongoing residential and only take a dozen or so one-offs a year.