It's one of the most common questions I hear, and the honest answer is that there is no single number that works for every home. As the owner of Ellen Cleaning, with more than ten years of professional cleaning experience here in the Algarve, I've learned that the right cleaning frequency depends far more on how a home is lived in than on any fixed rule. A quiet couple's apartment and a busy family villa can sit five minutes apart and need completely different schedules.
Over the years I've helped clients across the region keep their homes clean, comfortable, and well cared for, and the same few factors come up again and again when we work out how often a property really needs professional attention. In this article I want to share what I've learned, walk you through some real examples, and clear up a couple of misunderstandings that cost people time and money.
The factors that really matter
When a client asks me how often they should book, I start by looking at how the home is actually used rather than reaching for a standard package. In my experience, the biggest factors are how many people live in the home, whether there are children or pets, how the property is used, and how much day-to-day cleaning the client does themselves.
A busy family home with children and pets is at one end of the scale. These homes usually benefit from professional cleaning once a week, especially in the high-use areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, and floors, which show wear and mess the fastest. Homes with allergy sufferers often fall into the same category, because weekly cleaning helps keep dust, pet hair, and other allergens under control rather than letting them build up.
At the other end are smaller households, couples, or people who stay on top of the basics themselves. For them, a biweekly service is often enough to keep the property to a good standard without paying for more than they need. Monthly cleaning can work well for low-occupancy homes, second homes, or clients who mainly want help with the deeper, more demanding tasks rather than everyday upkeep.
Holiday rentals are a different story
Holiday rentals in the Algarve don't follow a weekly rhythm at all, because their cleaning needs are driven by guest turnover rather than the calendar. A rental that sits empty for a week needs nothing, while one with back-to-back bookings might need several full cleans in the same period.
For these properties, the priority is a complete clean after every checkout: bathrooms, kitchens, floors, fresh linen, and a careful inspection to make sure everything is ready before the next guests arrive. That final check matters just as much as the cleaning itself, because in the holiday-rental world, cleanliness is directly tied to reviews and repeat bookings.
Don't forget the occasional deep clean
Alongside regular maintenance, I often recommend an occasional deep clean. This is worth considering before or after the busy summer season, after building work, when moving into or out of a property, or simply when a home hasn't had professional attention for a while. A deep clean resets the property and reaches the areas that don't get covered on every routine visit.
What this looks like in real life
A good example is a holiday-rental owner with a villa in Lagos. During the busier months, the property needed a full professional clean after every guest checkout rather than a fixed weekly schedule. Each time, we focused on the kitchen, bathrooms, floors, and linen changes, and finished with a check that the villa was fully prepared for the next arrival. That consistent turnover cleaning helped the owner maintain a reliable standard for every guest and reduced the risk of cleanliness complaints affecting future reviews.
Another example is a busy family in the Faro area with children and a pet. They originally booked a monthly clean, but the home was becoming difficult to keep on top of between visits, particularly the floors, bathrooms, and high-use living areas. After switching to a weekly service, the property stayed far more manageable, and the family no longer had to spend so much of their free time catching up on cleaning.
I've also worked with clients who book a deep clean after the Algarve summer. Homes see heavier use in that period thanks to visitors, open windows, dust, sand, and plenty of outdoor living. A detailed seasonal clean helps reset the home and covers the areas that regular maintenance doesn't always reach.
Clearing up a common misconception
One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is that professional cleaning is a luxury, or something you only book once a home has become seriously dirty. In reality, regular cleaning is usually the more practical and cost-effective choice.
When clients leave too long between visits, dirt, grease, limescale, dust, and pet hair build up. At that point a standard maintenance clean is no longer enough, and the property needs a much more intensive deep clean that takes longer, costs more, and is harder to fit around everyday life. It also helps to understand the difference between the two services: a regular clean keeps the home consistently maintained, covering floors, bathrooms, kitchens, surfaces, and dusting, while a deep clean goes further into built-up dirt, neglected corners, detailed fixtures, skirting boards, and inside cupboards.
My honest view is that cleaning frequency should be based on how the home is actually used, not on whatever sounds cheapest at first. A busy family home, a property with pets, or a holiday rental will almost always benefit from more frequent cleaning. Waiting too long rarely saves money; it simply delays the work until it becomes harder and more expensive.
Finding the right schedule for your home
So how often should you get your house professionally cleaned? The right answer comes down to how quickly your home becomes dirty and the standard you want to maintain. As a rough guide, busy family homes and allergy-sensitive households tend to do best with weekly cleaning, smaller or well-kept homes with a biweekly service, and low-occupancy or second homes with monthly visits or occasional deep cleans, while holiday rentals are cleaned around guest turnover.
At Ellen Cleaning, we serve clients across the Algarve with regular home cleaning, holiday-rental turnover cleaning, and one-off deep cleans, and we're always happy to help you work out the schedule that fits your property and lifestyle.
If you'd like a schedule tailored to your home, visit EllenCleaning.com to get in touch and request a personalised quote based on your property, lifestyle, and cleaning needs.