A house-cleaning quote is calculated from what you tell the company, not from a visit: property type and ZIP, which kind of clean, how many bedrooms and bathrooms, which add-ons, and how often. At JAS you answer those in the booking flow and we call you about your quote. Walkthroughs are standard for offices — not for a home.
The question behind the question is fair. For decades the answer was yes. A walkthrough is how a company protects itself against a property described smaller, or cleaner, than it actually is. What changed is not that risk — it is where the risk gets handled.
That’s how the number gets built. If you’d rather just see yours, tell us about the place — bedrooms, bathrooms, and the ZIP — and we’ll write back with a price.
What the number is actually built from
The booking flow asks the same things a good dispatcher would ask on the phone, in this order:
- What you are having cleaned, and your ZIP. House, apartment or condo, commercial space — plus five digits, on the first screen.
- Which kind of clean. Standard, deep, move-in / out, turnover, office — filtered by the property you picked.
- The details. Bedrooms and bathrooms for a home; square feet for a commercial space.
- Add-ons. Appliance interiors, interior windows and the rest of the separately-priced list — chosen by you, not found on arrival.
- When, and how often. Date and arrival window, plus frequency — the one input that moves the price down.
- Where to send it. Name, email, phone, address. Nothing is booked yet and nothing is charged.
None of that needs anyone standing in your living room. The ZIP comes first on purpose: the area adjustment is part of the price, so a quote that does not know where you live is a number already bound to change. The bands are laid out one by one — base through 20%, on approved operational ZIPs only, never inferred from income or neighborhood — in our Miami house cleaning cost guide.
Two of those inputs weigh more than people expect. Frequency: HomeCare takes 15% off weekly and 10% off every two weeks for customers planning at least 3 cleanings; every four weeks uses the Standard rate. And service type: a Standard clean, at our Miami-Dade rates, starts at $189 on a 28-item list across a 2–3 hour visit; a deep clean starts at $349 because it adds the buildup work. Choosing wrong there moves your number more than miscounting a bathroom does.
“A walkthrough isn’t accuracy. It’s a way of checking your description — and if the description is good, the number is the same either way.”
What replaces the walkthrough: a rule in writing
If nobody comes to look, something has to close that gap. The Terms close it, in two sentences you can read before typing a single detail: “you request a quote, see it, and then request a time”, and “Quotes reflect what you told us about the property. If the scope on arrival is materially different (for example, additional rooms or heavy build-up), we will re-quote with you before doing extra work — never silently.”
The rest sits in the same document: no payment at booking, and after each completed visit you are invoiced the quoted amount plus applicable taxes or re-quoted additions you approved. Cancelling is free up to 24 hours before; inside 24 hours it is $25. In short: the risk of a wrong description is handled by a rule you can read, not by a second appointment.
When a company really does need to see the space
Offices and janitorial contracts. Here the walkthrough is not a formality: the space is walked to confirm square footage, layout, restrooms, floor types, access rules, and the hours that work for your team, and a scope of work and a price come back in writing, usually within one business day. Nothing starts until you approve it. In our Miami-Dade service area, size ranges run from $185 per weekly visit up to 1,000 sq ft — more on the office cleaning page, with the full breakdown in how much office cleaning costs in Miami.
Post-construction. It starts at $650 for the first 1,000 sq ft on a reviewed quote, because fine dust in tracks, vents and fixtures is not a room count: it depends on which trade just left. Seeing the site, or at least photographs of it, is part of the job — which is how the post-construction cleaning page publishes it.
And on the residential side, the edge cases. Range-priced work, extreme scope, or confirmation-only add-ons route to review before scheduling — so they never become a surprise at the door.
What Miami adds to this question
In a tower, an in-person estimate costs a lobby appointment
In most Miami buildings nobody just shows up. They want vendors registered at the front desk, many associations require a certificate of insurance on file before a crew gets past the lobby, and several towers assign the service elevator by reservation and time slot. An estimator is a vendor too: quoting remotely spends that access once, on the clean. The paperwork is explained in our apartment and condo guide.
Condition is the line people get wrong in a climate like Miami’s
In a humid coastal market like Miami, humidity, salt air and year-round pollen build up faster than in drier climates. An apartment that looks clean can still carry film on slider tracks, railings and metal fixtures; grout and sills get worked rather than wiped; and the A/C runs twelve months a year. That is why “how long since the last professional clean” moves an estimate in this kind of climate more than one extra bedroom.
Hurricane season changes the condition, not the size
From June through November, the same bedrooms are not the same hours: beforehand there are balconies to clear and window tracks to clean, afterward the fine grit that worked in through those tracks while the house stayed shut. None of that shows up in a room count — it shows up when you mention it as you request the quote, and then it lands inside the number rather than at the door.
If you host short-term, quote the right service
An Airbnb turnover is its own service: from our Miami-Dade rate of $179 per checkout on a 20-item list, built to fit between a checkout and a check-in. Asking for it as a deep clean over-buys; asking for a deep clean as a turnover under-buys. On a Miami seasonal calendar, that mix-up gets paid for many times a year.
Seven things to say so the number holds
- Count the half baths. A powder room counts as a bathroom, shower or no shower.
- Square footage from the deed or listing, not from memory.
- Say how long since the last professional clean. In a humid climate like Miami’s it moves the hours most.
- Name the add-ons. They are priced separately, at our Miami-Dade rates, unless your confirmed scope includes them: empty refrigerator $49, refrigerator with food $69, inside oven $49, interior windows from $10 per pane.
- Give the actual ZIP, not the neighborhood name — the adjustment attaches to the ZIP.
- Mention pets and the building’s rules. They change the day of the visit, even when they do not change the table.
- If there is standing water, visible mold, infestation or biohazard, say so before scheduling. A cleaning visit is not remediation, and the Terms reserve the right to refuse or stop service where conditions are unsafe for our team.
Quick answers
Do cleaning companies need to see my house before they can quote it?
For a home, not at JAS: the quote is built from the details you enter. For an office or a janitorial contract, yes — that flow starts with a walkthrough and ends with a scope of work and a price in writing.
What happens if I described my home wrong?
The Terms cover it in one sentence: quotes reflect what you told us about the property, and if the scope on arrival is materially different — additional rooms, heavy build-up — we re-quote with you before doing extra work, never silently.
Is an in-person estimate more accurate than an online one?
A walkthrough checks your description; it does not change what the price is made of. Both flows price size, condition, frequency, service type and the ZIP adjustment. What differs is who supplies the answers.
The short version
A cleaning quote is calculated from size, condition, frequency, service type and the approved-ZIP adjustment. For a home you supply those and we call you about your quote; for an office a walkthrough supplies them and it comes back in writing within one business day. Seeing the house was never the source of the accuracy: the source is a good description, plus a published rule for what happens if it was wrong.
Part of the JAS operating playbook — what much of the industry prefers to explain only once the crew is at the door.