What Should You Ask When Tendering a Commercial Cleaning Contract?

Ask: How did you calculate the cleaning hours? What happens if a cleaner does not turn up? Who will actually manage our contract? How frequently will management visit? How do you train cleaners? How much do you pay them? What exactly is included - and excluded - from the price?

Ask whether the contractor has checked the existing specification against the actual building. A particularly useful question is: “What do you think is wrong with our existing specification?” A contractor prepared to challenge the tender intelligently may understand the building better than one that simply agrees.

Ask what each significant machine or system actually achieves, what realistic productivity is assumed, who uses it and what happens when it fails. “We have an app” is not a quality-management system.

Ask how audits work, how recurring failures are identified, who owns corrective actions and how complaints are acknowledged, resolved and prevented from recurring.

Ask about risk assessments, method statements, COSHH, PPE, machinery training and site-specific hazards. Where TUPE may apply, ask how the contractor manages transfers, communication, employee information, payroll, training and integration.

Ask for the mobilisation plan covering TUPE, recruitment, vetting where needed, uniforms, equipment, chemicals, access, keys, alarms, training, attendance systems, documentation and customer communication.

Ask how cleaners communicate with management and how the contractor adapts when headcount, shifts, production or occupancy changes.

Ask for relevant customer references and separately review minimum term, notice period, auto-renewal, price review, termination charges and restrictive exit provisions.

If one bidder is materially cheaper or more expensive, ask why. Cleaner pay, hours, supervision, machinery, periodic work, supplies, overhead and margin should explain the difference. You're often comparing different operating models.

After the presentations, ask: Which company do we trust to take responsibility for this building? A good cleaning contract is about hundreds of small operational details being handled without each one becoming the customer's problem.

Brightr provides managed commercial cleaning for offices and professional workplaces, schools, medical facilities, warehouses, factories and food manufacturing environments. We believe customers should scrutinise cleaning contractors carefully - including us.