TL;DR: The number in a carpet cleaning ad and the number on your invoice are not always the same, and the gap almost never appears by accident — it is built into how the price was calculated. Five questions asked before you book will close it: is that the total including GST, how is it measured, what gets added on the day, who is actually turning up, and what happens if I’m not happy.

I get a version of the same phone call most months. Someone booked a clean off a very low advertised price, the technician arrived, measured, and the number went up — sometimes a long way up. By then the machine is in the hallway, the kids’ room is empty, and saying no has become genuinely awkward.

I am not going to pretend that is everyone in this industry, because it isn’t. But it happens often enough in Melbourne’s west that it is worth explaining how it works, so you can spot it in about thirty seconds. None of this requires you to know anything about carpet.

Why a carpet cleaning quote can change on the day

A quote can move for an honest reason: you said three rooms and there are five, or there is pet urine nobody mentioned. That is a different job, and any cleaner will reprice it.

What I am describing here is different. These are prices that were designed to move, and there are four common mechanisms.

The price is per square metre, but nobody measures until arrival. Per-square-metre pricing is not dishonest on its own — plenty of good commercial cleaners work that way. The problem is the sequence. If the area is measured when the technician arrives, then no one, including the person who quoted you, actually knew the price when you booked. You did not agree to a price; you agreed to a rate.

“Mandatory” extras that were not in the headline. Sanitising and deodorising are the usual ones — quoted as a per-room add-on that you cannot decline. If an extra is genuinely unavoidable, it is part of the price, not an extra. That distinction matters legally, which I will come back to.

Stain treatment priced on the day. “We’ll assess the stains when we get there” sounds reasonable and often isn’t, because there is no ceiling on it and no way to check the assessment. If a cleaner can see photos of your carpet, they can give you a range over the phone.

GST quoted separately. A number “plus GST” is about 10% higher than the number you heard. For consumers, that is not a matter of style. The ACCC’s rules on price displays require businesses to show the total price as a single figure — the minimum total cost, including taxes and any unavoidable or pre-selected fees. A consumer quote that excludes GST is not giving you the price.

Put those four together and you get an advertised figure that is technically true and practically meaningless. The fix is not to become an expert. It is to ask five questions.

The five questions

1. “Is that the total, including GST?”

Ask it exactly like that, and listen for hesitation. You want one number, and you want to hear the words “including GST”. If the answer is a rate — “it’s $X per square metre” — you have not been given a price yet, and question 2 matters more.

2. “How is the price calculated — per room, or per square metre?”

Per room is easier to hold anyone to, for one simple reason: you can count rooms yourself, over the phone, before anyone comes. Four bedrooms, a lounge, a hallway and stairs — you already know that. There is nothing left to discover on arrival.

If the answer is per square metre, follow up with: when do you measure? If the answer is “on the day”, you are booking a rate, not a price.

3. “Is there anything that gets added on the day?”

The useful version of this question names the specific things: sanitising, deodorising, stain treatment, stairs, upstairs access, apartment access, travel. Ask about them by name and the answer gets much more precise than it does if you ask an open question.

For what it’s worth, here is where we land: common organic stains — coffee, wine, food — are treated as part of a standard clean at no extra charge. Pet urine is the honest exception, at any company, because it needs enzyme treatment and dwell time rather than a spray and a pass. So we ask you about it on the phone, not in your hallway. If you have it, it goes in the quote. If you don’t, it never comes up again.

4. “Who is actually turning up?”

This one gets asked least and explains the most.

If the person quoting you is not the person doing the job, the quote is a lead, and the technician standing in your loungeroom is the one deciding what you pay — often on commission. That is the structural reason on-the-day increases happen at all. It is not always a bad company; it is a bad incentive.

I quote the jobs and I do the jobs. That is not a marketing line, it is just how a one-van business works — and it means there is nobody downstream of me with a reason to find something extra.

5. “What happens if I’m not happy?”

You want a specific window, not a mood. “100% satisfaction guaranteed” is a sentence, not a promise. Ask how long you have and what actually happens.

Ours: if something isn’t right on the day, I redo it before I leave. After that you have 7 days to call me back for a free re-clean. That is the whole policy, and it is short enough to hold me to.

How we quote

Nothing here is complicated, which is sort of the point.

  • Priced per room, not per square metre, with larger rooms like masters and living areas charged more than a standard bedroom, and hallways and stairs as their own smaller items. There is a minimum charge per visit — below a certain size, every job costs the same to turn up to.
  • GST included, always. The number you are told is the number you pay.
  • Pet urine asked about at quoting time, so it is priced in rather than discovered.
  • No measuring on arrival, because there is nothing left to measure — we counted the rooms on the phone.
  • The total confirmed with you before I start. It only moves if the job is genuinely different from what was described, and if that happens you hear it before the machine comes off the van, not after.

Two honest caveats, because this post would be worth less without them. First, we are not the cheapest quote you will get, and we don’t try to be — there is more on that in our guide to what carpet cleaning actually costs. Second, I don’t move furniture. Anything you want cleaned underneath needs to be moved before I arrive, and I clean around the rest. Better you read that here than find it out on the day — which is rather the theme.

If you want to know exactly what a standard job includes, we wrote that out too: what’s included in a carpet clean.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my carpet cleaning quote go up on the day?

Usually because the quote was never a fixed price to begin with. Common reasons are pricing by the square metre and measuring on arrival, treating sanitising or deodorising as a mandatory add-on rather than part of the clean, or leaving stain treatment to be priced once the technician is already in your home. None of those are visible when you are looking at the headline number.

Should a carpet cleaning quote include GST?

Yes. The ACCC requires businesses to display the total price as a single figure that includes taxes and any unavoidable fees. If a quote is described as “plus GST”, the real number is about 10% higher than the one you were told. Every quote we give is GST inclusive.

Is per-room or per-square-metre carpet cleaning pricing better?

Per room is far easier to hold anyone to, because you can count rooms yourself over the phone. Per square metre is not dishonest by itself, but the area is usually measured on arrival, which means nobody can tell you the final price before the technician is standing in your house.

What questions should I ask before booking a carpet cleaner?

Ask whether the figure is the total including GST, how the price is calculated, what could be added on the day, who is actually doing the work, and what happens if you are not happy with the result. Five short questions will separate a real quote from a starting price.

Can a carpet cleaner charge more than the quote?

The price should only move if the job turns out to be different from what you described — more rooms than mentioned, or pet urine you did not know about. It should never move because of something the cleaner could have told you at quoting time. We confirm the total with you before starting, and we ask about pet urine on the phone so it is priced in from the start.

Ask another cleaner these five questions before you ask us — genuinely. If their answers are as plain as ours, book them; you have found a good one. If they aren’t, you have saved yourself a difficult conversation in your own hallway.

When you want a number you can rely on, the chat assistant on this page will work out your carpet cleaning quote in about a minute, or you can get in touch and I’ll do it with you over the phone. Either way it will be the total, GST included, and it will be the number I turn up with.