Best House Cleaning in Melbourne

How we ranked Melbourne's house cleaners

Domestic cleaning has low barriers to entry, and it shows: our search of Google Maps turned up 76 Melbourne home cleaning services. To be considered, a service needed 50 or more reviews and a functioning website it owns, which left 45. Customers in this category rate generously, with the qualifying group sitting at 4.65 stars on average, so we could not simply sort by stars to find the best 10.

The score corrects for that. It treats every service as if it began at 4.5 and lets real reviews move it from there, so a cleaner trusted by hundreds of households lands close to its true star figure while a newcomer with a short perfect run stays further down. Franchises count once, using their strongest Melbourne branch. First to last goes from 4.93 to 4.64, a clear spread. Placement is never sold.

How the score works →

How much does a house cleaner cost in Melbourne?

Most home cleaning in Melbourne is charged per cleaner, per hour, usually with a minimum of two hours. Published 2026 rates run from $37 to $84 an hour, and the typical figure sits close to $60. A team of two halves the time on site but is billed as two cleaners, so compare quotes on total cost per visit, not on the hourly number alone.

Some services quote a flat price by home size instead. For a standard clean, expect $125 to $250 for a home with two bedrooms, $170 to $335 for three bedrooms and $210 to $440 for four. Weekly and fortnightly customers generally pay less per visit than people booking a single clean, with a fortnightly clean of a house with three bedrooms running $145 to $260. A single deep or spring clean costs more, at $260 to $630.

Three things move the price: who supplies products and equipment, how many bathrooms you have, and the state of the house on the first visit. Some services require a longer first clean at a higher price before the regular rate applies. Ask whether the quote includes GST, and whether public holidays, pet hair, travel to outer suburbs or parking attract a surcharge.

Should you hire an agency, a franchise or a cleaner directly?

An agency or franchise costs more per hour, and the margin pays for things you would otherwise handle: vetting, a replacement when your cleaner is sick, insurance and someone to call when a visit goes badly. A sole operator is usually cheaper and you get the same person every time, but holidays and illness leave gaps, and every check described below falls to you.

Ask any company whether its cleaners are employees or contractors. An employer in Victoria generally has to register for WorkCover insurance once it pays more than $7,500 a year in wages, which covers a cleaner injured in your home. With a contractor model, check that the individual holds an ABN. The free ABN Lookup register shows whether an ABN is active and whether the business is registered for GST.

Engage a cleaner yourself, with no company in between, and you may be treated as their employer. The ATO says a household must pay super for a domestic worker only when that person works more than 30 hours in a week for it, so a few hours a fortnight will not trigger super. Injury cover is a separate question, and WorkSafe Victoria can tell you where a household arrangement stands before you start.

What insurance and checks should a house cleaner have?

Victoria has no trade licence for domestic cleaners, so there is no register to search, and public liability insurance is voluntary. That makes the certificate of currency worth asking for. Public liability insurance covers injury or property damage caused by the cleaner's negligence, but standard policies can limit cover for items the cleaner is handling, so ask whether the policy extends to goods in their care.

A national police check is the usual screening for people working in private homes. It can only be run with the worker's consent, and it only shows what was on record on the day it was issued. Ask how recent the check is and whether new staff are checked before their first shift, not whether the company does checks in general.

Keys and alarm codes deserve a plain conversation. Find out who holds your key between visits, how it is labelled, and whether a different cleaner can be sent without telling you first. Read your own home and contents policy as well, and ask the insurer how it treats loss or damage caused by someone you have invited in, so you know where you stand before the first visit.

What does a regular clean include, and what counts as extra?

A regular clean is maintenance: vacuuming and mopping, dusting reachable surfaces, wiping benches and the outside of appliances, cleaning bathrooms and toilets, and emptying bins. It assumes the house was brought to a good baseline first. Inside the oven, inside the fridge, windows, wall marks, blinds and balconies are normally extras or belong to a deep clean, and laundry, ironing and bed changes are by arrangement.

Cleaning companies typically bring their own products and vacuum, while sole operators may ask you to provide them or charge more to supply their own. Either is fine once agreed. If anyone in the house has asthma, allergies or a baby on the floor, name the products you want used. Mention stone benchtops and timber floors too, so nothing unsuitable is used on them.

• Will the same person come each visit, and how much notice do I get if someone else is sent?
• Is there a written task list per room, and what happens to tasks that do not fit in the booked time?
• Do I supply products and a vacuum, or do you, and does that change the rate?
• What notice do you need to skip or cancel a visit, and is there a fee or a minimum term?
• How do I report a missed task, and will you return to fix it without charging again?

What can you do if the cleaning is poor or something gets broken?

Paid cleaning comes with guarantees that apply automatically under the Australian Consumer Law, on top of anything the service promises itself. The work must be done with an acceptable level of care and skill, be fit for any purpose you stated, and be delivered within a reasonable time. Raise a problem the same day with photos, and put it in an email so there is a dated record.

For a minor problem, such as a bathroom skipped, the business must put it right for free. If it cannot or will not within a reasonable time, you can have the work done elsewhere and ask it to pay the reasonable cost. A major failure lets you cancel and seek a refund for what was not properly delivered. In Victoria, cancellation takes effect when you tell the supplier.

Breakages are handled the same way: damage caused by carelessness is the business's responsibility, and you can claim compensation for the loss. This is where an insured operator earns the higher rate. If the business refuses to deal with you, Consumer Affairs Victoria sets out the steps for taking a complaint further. Keep invoices, messages and the original task list, because a clear paper trail settles most of these arguments quickly.