How to Evaluate a Commercial Cleaning Bid Without Getting Burned

Commercial cleaning is a labour business. Somewhere between sixty and seventy percent of a legitimate bid is wages, payroll taxes, insurance, and supervision. There is no efficiency that removes a large chunk of that, so a bid thirty percent below the others is not smarter — it contains fewer labour hours.

Those hours come out somewhere. Either the visit is shorter, the frequency is lower, the task list is thinner, or the crew is expected to cover more buildings per shift. The last one is the most common and the least visible until quality falls off a cliff around month four.

Occasionally a low bid means something worse: workers misclassified as contractors, no workers' compensation coverage, or no general liability. If a crew member is injured in your building and the contractor has no coverage, that exposure can land on you.

Build a single table with every task down the side and each bidder across the top, and fill in the frequency each one is offering. It takes twenty minutes and it usually reveals that you are not looking at three prices for the same work — you are looking at three different scopes.

Then ask each bidder for the labour hours per visit they have priced. A serious contractor knows the number and will tell you. A contractor who will not give you an hours figure is hiding the thing that determines whether the work is deliverable.

How many labour hours per visit are in this price? Will the same crew clean my building, and what happens when someone is out? Who is the supervisor, how often are they on site, and what do their inspections produce? What is the contact time on your disinfectant? How are cloths managed between restrooms and other areas? Are your workers employees, and can I see the workers' compensation certificate? What is your notice period and what happens if I am not satisfied?

The answers matter less than the manner of answering. A contractor who has thought about their operation answers these immediately. A contractor who deflects to references and glossy photos usually has nothing behind them.

Quoting without walking the building. A scope full of 'as needed'. No certificate of insurance offered without being asked. No named supervisor. A long contract term with a short cancellation right in the contractor's favour and none in yours. Aggressive discounting the moment you hesitate — if the price could drop that easily, the first number was not a costing.

One more: a contractor who oversells outbreak disinfection, promises a 'sterile' or 'virus-free' building, or responds to a single illness case with a five-figure emergency quote. That tells you how they will treat you the next time you are anxious.

A written scope with frequencies, a stated hours figure, a named supervisor with a stated inspection cadence, insurance certificates provided up front, a reasonable notice period that runs both ways, and pricing that changes only through a documented change process.

Pay slightly more for that and you will spend less over three years than you will on the cheap bid, its quality decline, its recovery deep cleans, and the cost of tendering the whole thing again.