Most cleaning companies won’t publish a price. There’s a reason for that, and it isn’t entirely cynical: the same 300 m² can be a two-hour job or a four-hour job depending on bathroom count, floor type and access. But the refusal to give any number at all leaves buyers with no way to tell whether the quote in front of them is sensible.
So here are real numbers. Use them to sanity-check any quote you receive, including one from us.
The short answer
Commercial cleaning in New Zealand generally runs $35 to $50 per hour for standard office work. For a typical 150–300 m² office cleaned three times a week. That works out around $950 to $1,500 per month excluding GST.
Specialist work costs more, because it takes more skill and more time:
| Service type | Per hour (excl GST) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Standard office | $35 – $50 | Regular scheduled work, predictable |
| Medical / dental | $45 – $65 | Colour-coded systems, documentation, higher skill |
| School / childcare | $40 – $55 | Police vetting, sanitising protocols |
| Retail / hospitality | $38 – $52 | Often unsociable hours |
| Warehouse / industrial | $40 – $60 | Machinery, larger areas |
| Builders clean | $45 – $70 | Heavy and detailed; usually priced per site |
| Casual / one-off | $50 – $75 | No contract efficiency, mobilisation per visit |
Monthly contract prices by floor area
| Floor area | 3 visits/week | 5 visits/week |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 150 m² (~8 staff) | $650 – $950 | $1,000 – $1,450 |
| 150 – 300 m² (~20 staff) | $950 – $1,500 | $1,450 – $2,300 |
| 300 – 600 m² (~40 staff) | $1,500 – $2,600 | $2,300 – $3,900 |
| 600 – 1,000 m² (~70 staff) | $2,600 – $4,000 | $3,900 – $6,000 |
| 1,000 m² + | Priced per site | Priced per site |
A useful rule of thumb: a competent cleaner covers roughly 200–300 m² of standard office per hour on a regular schedule. If a quote implies 500 m² per hour, the specification is thinner than you think, or the hours are fewer than stated.
What actually drives the price
It is not floor area alone. In rough order of impact:
- Bathroom count. Bathrooms take disproportionately long. Two extra bathrooms can add more cost than another 100 m² of open-plan office.
- Frequency. Five visits a week isn’t 66% more than three, usually closer to 50%, because mobilisation cost spreads further and each visit has less build-up to deal with.
- Kitchen and breakout size. The second slowest area per square metre after bathrooms.
- Floor type. Mixed carpet and hard floor is slower than either alone, because of equipment changes.
- Access and hours. After-hours access, alarm handling, multi-tenant sign-in, all consume time before any cleaning starts.
Periodic work, quoted separately
These are almost never included in a monthly contract price, and you should check:
| Task | Typical range | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet steam cleaning | $4 – $8 per m² | 6–12 monthly |
| Strip and seal vinyl | $12 – $22 per m² | 12–24 monthly |
| Internal window cleaning | $4 – $8 per m² | Quarterly |
| External window cleaning | $6 – $15 per m² | Height access adds cost |
| High-level dusting | $45 – $70 per hour | 6–12 monthly |
How to spot a quote that’s too cheap to deliver
Below roughly $32 per hour, the numbers stop working. Once you account for wages, ACC, holiday pay, insurance, equipment, consumables, supervision and travel, there is very little left. If a quote implies less than that, either the hours are fewer than stated, or someone is being underpaid.
An underpriced contract doesn’t fail immediately. It fails at about week six, when the cleaner quietly reduces hours to make the job viable. Bathrooms stay done, because complaints about bathrooms are immediate. Dusting, edges and behind-furniture stop. By the time you notice, you’ve lost three months.
Warning signs:
- More than 25–30% below every other quote you have
- The provider won’t tell you how many labour hours the price buys
- The specification is under a page, or lists areas rather than tasks
- They quoted without visiting the site
- Consumables are "included" with no allowance figure
- Periodic work is "as required" with no frequency or price
The single most useful question to ask
"How many hours a week does this price buy?"
A provider who has priced the job properly will answer immediately. One who has guessed will change the subject. Divide the monthly price by the monthly hours to get a real hourly rate, then compare that number between quotes, not the headline price.
What we do
We quote after walking the building, and we tell you the hours. If your current arrangement is already good value, we’ll say so, there’s no sense winning work we’d have to under-deliver on.