Most people compare cleaning quotes on price, which is exactly what a badly-priced quote depends on. Here’s what to check instead.
Before you read the contract
- Has the cleaner physically walked your site, or quoted off a floor plan?
- Is the quote based on a written specification listing every task, or just a frequency and a price?
- Does the specification say what happens in each area, or does it stop at "clean bathrooms"?
- How many labour hours does the price assume? If they won’t say, that’s your answer.
- Who exactly is attending, employees, subcontractors, or a franchisee?
- Are consumables included or billed separately, and what’s the annual allowance in dollars?
- Are periodic tasks (windows, carpets, floor sealing) included or extra?
The six clauses that quietly raise your price
None are unusual. None are illegal. All are where increases hide.
- CPI-linked annual increase. Reasonable in itself. Check whether it’s capped, whether it applies automatically or needs notice, and whether it compounds.
- Wage-movement pass-through. Fair, but check it’s limited to actual wage movement, not "wage and associated cost movement", which is open-ended.
- Scope-creep clause. "Additional areas charged at the prevailing rate." Ask what the prevailing rate is, in dollars, and get it written in.
- Auto-renewal with long notice. A 12-month term auto-renewing unless you give 90 days' notice means a nine-month decision window you almost certainly haven’t diarised. Diarise it the day you sign.
- Minimum term with a break fee. Three months is normal. A break fee equal to the remaining term is not a contract, it’s a hostage situation.
- Consumables "at cost plus handling". The handling margin is often 20–40% and rarely disclosed. Negotiate a fixed allowance, or supply your own.
Questions about the people
The contract is with a company. The work is done by a person, in your building, usually alone, often at night.
- Employees or subcontractors? This changes who is accountable when something goes wrong.
- Is everyone who holds a key police vetted? Can you see the certificates?
- What happens when your regular cleaner is sick, who covers, and are they vetted?
- What’s their staff turnover? Four different people in six months is a problem you’ll inherit.
- Who is your actual point of contact, and what’s their response commitment?
- Public liability insurance, ask for the certificate, not a statement.
Questions about proof
This is the section almost nobody asks about, and where most cleaning relationships eventually fail.
- How do you verify the clean happened, on nights I’m not there?
- Is there a record of which specific tasks were completed, or only that someone attended?
- Can I see photographic evidence?
- How far back does that record go, and can I export it?
- When something is missed, what’s the remedy, and how fast?
- If we disagree about whether something was done, what evidence settles it?
A cleaning contract is one of the few services you buy where you are almost never present when it is delivered. Every other supplier relationship has natural verification built in. This one does not, unless you require it.
Comparing quotes that look nothing alike
| Normalise on | How | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | Monthly price ÷ monthly hours | Won’t disclose hours |
| Cost per m² | Annual price ÷ floor area | 30%+ below the others |
| Task count | Count every line in the spec | Under 15 lines for a whole building |
| Consumables | Annual allowance in dollars | "At cost" with no number |
| Periodics | Included vs. quoted separately | Windows and carpets both "as required" |
| Exit cost | Break fee + notice in months | Break fee = remaining term |
The three questions almost nobody asks
"Can I speak to a client you lost?" Everyone provides happy references. How a company behaves when things go wrong is more informative, and so is a refusal.
"What would you charge to do this properly?" Ask after they’ve quoted. If the honest answer is higher than the quote, you’ve learned the quote isn’t the job.
"What do you need from us to succeed?" A provider who has thought about the relationship has a real answer. One who says "nothing" hasn’t thought about it.