How to compare janitorial bids: 10 questions to ask

Why bids for the same building come back so far apart

When a property or office manager collects three janitorial bids, it is common for the highest to be about double the lowest. It looks like somebody is overcharging. Usually the bids are just describing different jobs:

• Different hours. One company plans enough labor to clean every room on every visit. Another plans half that and expects the crew to rush or skip.
• Different scope. One bid includes restocked restrooms, monthly high dusting and scheduled floor care. Another covers trash, vacuuming and restrooms, and everything else is an extra charge later.
• Different labor costs. Wages, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and liability insurance are real costs. A price that cannot cover them is being made up somewhere.
• Different guesses. A bid given over the phone, without seeing the building, is a guess. Some guesses come in low to win the work and get corrected later.

Step one: put every bid on the same scope

Before you compare prices, write down what you want cleaned and how often, or take the most detailed written scope you receive and send that same scope to every bidder. When every bid covers the same rooms, tasks and nights, the prices finally mean something. Our walkthrough and written scope page shows what a complete scope includes.

The 10 questions to ask every bidder

1. How many labor hours a week does this price include? This one number tells you more than the price. Divide the monthly price by the monthly hours and you have a rough rate to compare across bids.
2. What exactly is included, room by room, and how often? Trash, restrooms, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, glass, break rooms, high dusting and floor care each need a frequency in writing.
3. Are supplies included? Paper, soap, liners and chemicals are either in the price or billed monthly. Make every bid answer the same way.
4. Is floor care in the price or extra? Stripping and waxing, buffing and carpet cleaning are often quoted separately. Know when they happen and what they cost.
5. Who cleans my building, and are they your employees? Ask whether the crew is on the company’s payroll, and how they are trained and supervised.
6. Who checks the work, and how often? Someone besides the cleaner should inspect your building on a regular schedule and tell you what they found.
7. What insurance do you carry? Ask for a certificate of insurance showing general liability and workers’ compensation, with your company listed as the certificate holder.
8. How do you handle keys, alarm codes and security? Ask who holds keys, how codes are protected and what happens when an employee leaves. Reno Clean is trusted with keys, alarm codes and access systems every night, including buildings with complex key setups.
9. What happens when something is missed? Ask how you report it, who answers and how fast it gets fixed. A 24/7 number matters when a restroom floods at 10pm.
10. What are the contract terms? Look at length, notice to cancel and how price changes are handled. A fair contract lets either side leave with reasonable notice.

Why the lowest bid is often the riskiest

A bid far below the others is rarely a better deal. In janitorial work, labor is most of the cost, and there is a floor under what a legally employed, insured and trained cleaner costs. When a price lands under that floor, the difference comes from somewhere:

• fewer hours than the building needs, so tasks quietly drop off within a few weeks;
• workers paid off the books or treated as contractors, which can leave the liability with the property;
• missing workers’ compensation or thin liability coverage;
• high turnover from underpaid crews, so a new person is learning your building every few weeks;
• add-on charges for supplies, floor care or “extra” tasks the low bid left out.

The real cost of a cheap contract shows up as complaints from tenants and staff, your own time spent checking the work, and the cost of switching vendors again six months later. When one bid is far below the rest, ask it the 10 questions above. Sometimes there is a good answer. Often there is not.

If something goes wrong, are you protected?

Plenty of buyers hire the cheapest option and never think about it again, until there is an incident. A cleaner slips on a wet floor. A key goes missing. Something in an office gets damaged or disappears. At that point the only questions that matter are whether the cleaning company is insured, whether the person in your building works for that company, and who pays. When the answer is nobody, the cost can land on you and your building’s own insurance.

You are trusting a cleaning company with your keys, your alarm codes and your building after everyone has gone home. That trust should come with proof: a current certificate of insurance before the first visit, and a clear process for keys and access. Ask every bidder for both before you sign. Reno Clean is fully insured, and we send a certificate of insurance with your quote on request.

What a good janitorial bid looks like

A good bid is boring in the best way: a room by room scope, a frequency for every task, the nights the crew comes, what is included and what costs extra, proof of insurance and one monthly price. It comes from a company that walked your building and asked how it runs. That is how Reno Clean builds every free quote, and it is the standard to hold every bidder to, us included.