What should I ask a commercial cleaning company before hiring them?

Ask who inspects the work and what record they file, whether the same crew cleans every week, who your named contact is, whether the checklist is attached to the contract as scope, and what the cancellation provision is. Those five predict most outcomes.

How many bids should I get for commercial cleaning?

Three is common practice and gives you enough comparison to spot a scope that is too thin. Florida community associations must seek competitive bids above statutory thresholds, but the statutes do not set a required number and do not require accepting the lowest bid.

What are the warning signs of a bad commercial cleaning company?

No written scope of work, no named contact, no inspection process you can see, a price well under other bids, a contract with no clear cancellation terms, and an inability to say who will actually be in your building each week.

Does a Florida HOA have to get competitive bids for cleaning?

Under Florida Statute 720.3055(1), homeowners association contracts exceeding 10 percent of the total annual budget including reserves require competitive bids. For condominium associations, Statute 718.3026 sets the threshold at 5 percent. The association is not required to accept the lowest bid.

Why do commercial cleaning contracts get worse over time?

Turnover is the main mechanism. Janitorial separation rates regularly exceed 50 percent and contract cleaners run around 200 percent industry-wide, so crews change and nobody retains knowledge of the building. Without an inspection process, the decline goes unnoticed until a complaint.

Buyer questions

Insights

These are the questions facility managers, club GMs and community association managers ask before they sign a cleaning contract. What the work costs, what belongs in a scope, and what to ask the company sitting across the table.

Each one is here because it came up on a walkthrough. If yours isn’t answered, ask us when we walk your building.