The number is three things multiplied together
A commercial cleaning price is square footage, times how often we come, times how much we do while we are there. Change any one of them and the price moves. That is why the same building can be quoted at wildly different numbers by two honest companies — they are not quoting the same job.
Square footage sets the labour hours. Frequency sets how many times you pay for those hours. Scope decides whether an hour is a vacuum-and-trash hour or a restroom-and-floor-machine hour. A quote that does not name all three is not a quote, it is a number.
Why a phone price is a warning sign
Our callers are not allowed to quote on the phone. Not a range, not a ballpark, not "usually around". That is a rule, and it exists because a phone number is always wrong in one of two directions.
Quote low and one of two things happens: the price goes up after the first month, or the scope quietly shrinks until it matches the price. Quote high and you have overpaid for something we never measured. Neither is a good start to a contract you intend to keep for years.
The company that gives you a firm number without seeing the space is telling you something about how the rest of the relationship will go.
What actually moves the price
In rough order of how much they matter:
- Frequency. Five nights a week is not five times the cost of one night, but it is the single biggest lever you control.
- Restroom count. Restrooms are the most labour-intensive square footage in any building and the first thing anyone complains about.
- Floor type. Carpet is vacuumed. VCT needs a maintenance programme — burnishing, and periodic strip and wax — and that is a separate line.
- Access. Badge-in, a security escort, a freight elevator that has to be booked: each one adds time that somebody pays for.
- Trash volume. A building whose compactor is a floor down and across a loading dock costs more than one with a chute.
- Specialist requirements. Medical, food service and childcare all carry protocols that change what products are used and how long the work takes.
What a real quote looks like
One flat monthly rate that includes labour, supplies, insurance and management. A written scope naming what happens nightly, what happens weekly and what happens quarterly. Periodic work — floors, windows, high dusting — priced separately and scheduled, not vaguely promised.
If supplies are excluded, that should be stated rather than discovered. Consumables — soap, paper, liners — are a real monthly cost and moving them off the quote is the oldest way to make a number look competitive.
How to compare two quotes properly
Put the two scopes side by side before you put the two prices side by side. Nine times out of ten the cheaper quote is cheaper because it is doing less, and the difference is restrooms, floor care or frequency.
Then ask both companies the same question: what is not included? The answer tells you more than the price does.