to think £200 to clean windows is ridiculous

It’s because of the inside aspect, drop that and the price will go massively down, cleaning inside is a pita for most companies so it’s going to bump it

Windoe cleaners don't usually do inside. If you get outside quote it should be around £30. We have a 4 bed townhouse and it was £27 in south east london.
Insides are so quick to do yourself.get a huge roll of kitchen paper and a glass spray and go round. Takes 30 mins and shouldnt need doing very often.

It’s ridiculous how much “trades” are charging! I use the term loosely as many of these jobs are unskilled and certainly don’t warrant that amount. Window cleaning is lucrative for this reason. No expensive tools, no real training.

It would probably take one person half a day to do that properly including travel to you. So I’d think £100 max considering they can do another job after.

We should speak with actions. Don’t book expensive services, they’ll soon have to lower their costs.

I’d just get a karcher window vac for the insides - makes it a lot easier or contact a cleaner

... Forgot to add, the cost of parking!

ex window cleaner, and agree with most posters it's the inside work that takes the most time. We used to charge at least 2 x the out-side cost for inside work.

There are other considerations, especially in London, primarily travel time.
If they can add your house to existing local customers the price would come down. Other considerations are access; if they have to lug stuff through the house for the rear windows this adds to the cost as eats into the time.

My best advise would be to look out for cleaners operating in your street and ask them.

We are in a rural area, but in a Victorian 4 bed mid-terrace. No loft conversion.

Windows - 7 (4 are double windows) plus two french doors.

We get just the outside done every 3 months. £36, but the guy uses the pole and water system. Takes him around 15 minutes.

Why don’t you just get a quote for outside and find a one off cleaner to do the insides for you, will probably work out cheaper.

Jesus, ours is a tenner!

We have a two storey 4 bed house with bifolds and we are charged £40 for outsides only. Sometimes I ask them to do the insides of the bifolds and they do that for an extra £5. We have had 2 different window cleaners and both charge the same rate.

Maybe asking for all the insides is pushing the quote up as doing insides may be more time consuming (have to be careful not to get water on the floor).

Short version OP - ask the same companies for a price for just the outside of your windows - excluding the velux. I suspect they'll be more sane.

Then look for a cleaner who will do a few hours a month, to include the internal windows and the velux. I'll bet you get a decent price and you can get them to do things like hoover the stairs if that's a difficult task for you?

Loving all the responses about how cheaply people have the outsides cleaned, but that does just show that having a window cleaner do inside is unusual.

I think it's unusual for window cleaners to do inside and they don't want the job.

I do my own now, but when I had a cleaner, they did the insides and the window cleaner did the outsides on rotation as part of their regular cleaning - not as frequently as once a month though.

Oh just seen you want inside done. That will massively up the cost.

I mean a terrace doesn’t have side windows - that cost is outrageous. £30 is the going rate for a fairly large house round here. Every 6 wks.

This is because it is both. I have just arranged this for my elderly mum. It is about £200 for outside and inside, and is very labour intensive. I go over to help as everything has to be moved off windowsills and it saves him time and her money if I do it. There is no option to use a pole system inside so everything is manual.

We have agreed that she will only get the insides done once every 6 months, and then he can do the outsides every 6-8 weeks. For that he is charging about £60, but that is also for manual, not pole.

I would adjust the frequency, especially the insides, or get that bundled in with a domestic clean.

Yes it's because they don't want to do the inside.

Get a window cleaner to quote for outside only, and get a cleaner to do the inside. Even if you had to book a regularly fortnightly slot with the cleaner, it would work out a lot cheaper and you could get them to do some other bits and bobs you don't often get round to.

Just outside

If you live in Hardwick hall it’s fine and what I’d expect.
I pay a tenner.

Would you be better off with a quote from a window cleaner for the outside, and a separate quote from a cleaning company for inside?
I assume your quote is just a cleaning company/cleaners and not window cleaners specifically, which is probably bumping up the price as it's not an everyday thing they do?
And window cleaners wouldn't usually do inside, so that could bump the price up.

Ours take just over 2.5 hours to wash with one of the long machine things - and it’s £65. You are being fleeced!

They can just say ‘sorry not available’ no need to make ridiculous quotes.