Choosing a commercial cleaner is a procurement exercise, not a shopping decision. The single most common mistake is comparing headline numbers from proposals that describe different amounts of work, then being surprised when the cheap one underperforms.
Start with the scope, not the price
A commercial proposal without a written scope is not a proposal. The scope is the product. It should state, in plain terms:
- Which areas are serviced on every visit, and the specific tasks in each
- Which tasks rotate, and on what cycle
- Days of service and the time window
- Access arrangements, alarm handling and key control
- Who supplies consumables and who restocks them
- What is explicitly excluded
- Who to contact, and what happens when something is missed
Normalize the proposals before comparing
- 1Line up frequency first. A five-day proposal and a two-day proposal are not comparable at any price. Ask each provider to quote the same frequency.
- 2Compare restroom scope line by line. This is where proposals diverge most and where under-scoping shows fastest.
- 3Look for the rotation schedule. If full-floor vacuuming, interior glass and detail work are not scheduled, they will not happen.
- 4Identify assumed exclusions. Carpet extraction, floor stripping and sealing, exterior windows, day porter service and waste hauling are commonly assumed to be included and rarely are.
- 5Ask what happens in month six. Service degradation is the industry's most common failure, and the answer should involve scheduled reviews rather than goodwill.
The pass-or-fail checks
| Check | What you need |
|---|---|
| Insurance certificate | Made out to your business and, if required, your landlord, before the first visit |
| Background checks | Completed before a cleaner's first visit, not after |
| Building compliance | Willingness to complete vendor registration, badge access and freight elevator bookings |
| After-hours access | A documented process for keys, codes and alarms |
| Cover | What happens when the usual team is unavailable |
| A named contact | One person to call, not a general inbox |
Questions that reveal how a provider actually operates
- How do you decide what rotates and what happens every visit?
- Look for reasoning about what fails first in your facility type, not a generic template.
- What would you change about the scope we asked for?
- A provider who agrees with everything has not thought about the building.
- How will we know the work was done?
- Confirmation, logs or a check-in process. Something more than trust.
- What do you not do?
- Specialist trades they will refer out. A confident list here is a strong signal.
- How does the price change if our headcount grows by 30%?
- Scopes should be reviewable rather than fixed for years.
Frequency is where the savings actually are
Cleaning gets cheaper per visit as frequency rises, because a standing route is efficient. Qualifying businesses on frequent multi-day recurring schedules may receive up to 35% off — a ceiling, dependent on frequency, scope, facility size, facility type and visit count. If a provider cannot explain how their pricing moves with frequency, they are not pricing the work.
Before you sign
Walk the building with the provider. Ten minutes on site produces a better scope than any amount of email, and it tells you how the provider thinks — whether they notice the restroom floor junction, the entrance mat well and the break room refrigerator, or whether they just count square footage.