How to read a commercial cleaning scope document
Thorough is not a frequency. Six things to check in every proposal before you compare the monthly figures.
Three proposals arrive. Two are within a few hundred dollars of each other, one is considerably cheaper. You cannot tell why, because all three describe themselves as thorough, detail-oriented and committed to the highest standards.
None of those is a frequency, and the frequency is the entire contract.
Put the monthly figure aside
Turn to the scope of work, which is usually an appendix. Then check six things.
One: is there a frequency against every line?
A task with no frequency attached is a task that will happen when somebody complains. In practice “dusting” without a frequency means quarterly, and “high dusting” without one means never.
Two: what square footage is the price based on?
Ask whether it is leased or cleanable. Cleanable excludes empty suites, mechanical rooms, shafts and anything you carved out, and it is usually a good deal smaller. A bid priced against leased area is priced against a building nobody will clean.
Three: restrooms, in detail
Restrooms are labour-heavy and they are how a contract gets judged. Check whether the floors are machine-mopped or spot-mopped, whether dispensers are on a par level or refilled on request, and whether fixtures are disinfected or wiped.
Four: is supervision a line?
Supervision costs real money and is the mechanism that stops a contract drifting over six months. If it is not priced, it is not happening, however warmly the proposal describes its management culture.
Five: what is outside the monthly figure?
Floor burnishing, stripping, carpet extraction, interior glass, consumables and day porter hours. Each of these can legitimately sit outside the monthly number. What you need is the annual all-in cost, because that is the figure the three bids should be ranked on.
Six: employees or subcontractors?
This one is not in the scope document and you have to ask. Subcontracted labour is cheaper per hour and it is the reason some buildings meet four different crews in a year. Neither model is dishonest. They produce different outcomes and they should not be compared on price alone.
The question that settles it
Ask each bidder: how many cleaner-hours per night is this price based on?
It is a single number, it is impossible to answer vaguely, and it makes three proposals directly comparable in a way that nothing else on the page does. Divide it into the monthly figure and you have their effective hourly rate. That tells you, better than any brochure, what kind of company you are about to hire.
