Commercial Cleaning — What a Contract Costs, How Specifications Are Priced, and What Goes Wrong in Month Three
Commercial cleaning is a scheduled service against a written specification — what is cleaned, how often, and at what time of day — rather than a one-off visit. Most contracts are nightly, three times a week or weekly, priced per visit.
Hello Cleaners manages the whole job end to end — your booking, coordinating the vetted local team, the clean itself and after-service care backed by our 24-hour re-clean guarantee.
Expect $150–$250 a visit for a small office, $250–$480 for a medium office and $480–$850 for a large one. Medical and dental space is priced by area at $0.18–$0.32 per square foot. Recurring schedules carry 15% off weekly and 10% off monthly.
Who this is for
Offices and professional space
The visible measures are desks, kitchens, washrooms and glass, and the contract usually fails on the kitchen and the washrooms rather than the desks. What matters is the frequency of the high-touch items and whether the specification says who empties the desk bins.
Retail, hospitality and food premises
You are cleaning around trade, to a fixed opening time, with floors that carry the whole impression of the site. Front-of-house glass, entrance matting and washrooms are the customer-visible items; back-of-house grease and drains are the compliance items.
Medical, dental and clinical space
Priced by area rather than by room count because the scope is different: separate color-coded equipment, defined touch-point protocols, clinical waste handled by your licensed contractor rather than by cleaners, and a schedule that fits between clinics.
Warehouse, industrial and multi-tenant buildings
Large floor areas, low frequency, and a real difference between a sweep and a machine scrub. Common parts in multi-tenant buildings are usually a separate specification from the demised space, which is where two contracts start overlapping or leaving a gap.
What it costs
These bands are copied from our published price page. Your exact price is confirmed in a free quote before anything is booked.
What pushes the price to the top of the band
- Frequency and time of day. Nightly service costs more per week and less per visit than weekly. Work outside normal hours, at weekends, or in a building with restricted access windows carries the cost of the schedule, not the cleaning.
- Washroom count and footfall. Washrooms are the highest-labor part of any commercial specification and the first thing occupants complain about. A site with heavy public footfall needs a mid-day service, which is a second visit.
- Kitchens and staff rooms. Dishwashers, coffee machines, microwaves and fridges are where an office contract quietly expands. Whether cleaners empty and clean the fridge, and how often, belongs in the specification.
- Floor type and area. Hard floors that need machine scrubbing, burnishing or periodic stripping and sealing are a separate line from routine cleaning. Carpet needs periodic extraction at $45–$120 per room, typically twice a year.
- Compliance requirements. Clinical protocols, food-premises schedules, color-coded equipment, sign-off sheets and audit records take time and add to the rate.
- Consumables. Paper, soap, liners and sanitary services can be managed by us or by you. Managed consumables cost more per visit and remove the running-out problem entirely.
A clear specification, a stable schedule with the same cleaner on the same site, keys or fobs held rather than someone waiting to be let in, and a defined out-of-hours window. Multi-site and multi-year agreements price better than rolling monthly ones, and bundling periodic work — carpets, hard floors, exterior — into the same contract avoids repeated mobilisation costs.
How long it takes
| Premises | Routine visit | Typical frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Small office, up to about 2,000 sq ft | 1–2 hours | 2–5 nights a week |
| Medium office, 2,000–6,000 sq ft | 2–4 hours | 3–5 nights a week |
| Large office, 6,000–15,000 sq ft | 4–8 hours or a small team | 5 nights a week |
| Retail unit | 1–3 hours | Daily before opening |
| Medical / dental suite | 1.5–3 hours | Daily or between clinic sessions |
| Warehouse / industrial | 2–6 hours | Weekly to nightly |
Periodic work sits outside these times: carpet extraction and hard-floor machine work are usually quarterly to twice-yearly, high-level dusting and interior glass twice a year, and they are scheduled as separate visits rather than squeezed into a routine slot.
What's included
- Washrooms: sanitize all fixtures, fittings and touch points, restock consumables where managed, empty and re-line waste, and clean floors, mirrors and dispensers.
- Kitchens and break areas: countertops, sinks, appliance exteriors, tables and chairs, waste, and appliance interiors at the frequency your specification sets.
- Desks and workstations: clear-surface wipe of unobstructed desks, screens where permitted, phones and shared touch points, plus waste and recycling.
- Meeting rooms and reception: tables, chairs, glass partitions, reception desk, entrance matting and door furniture.
- Floors: vacuum carpeted areas, sweep and mop hard floors, spot-treat spills, and maintain entrance matting — the mat does more for a site's floors than anything else in the specification.
- High-touch points: door handles, push plates, handrails, lift buttons, switches and shared equipment.
- Waste and recycling taken to the building's collection point, with stream separation as your building requires.
- A signed or logged record of each visit, so you can see what was done rather than assume it.
What's not included, unless you ask
- Clinical, hazardous and confidential waste. Handled by your licensed contractor. We work around it and do not remove it.
- Periodic specialist work, unless scheduled. Carpet extraction, hard-floor stripping and sealing, high-level cleaning and window cleaning at height are separate line items, priced and diarised.
- Exterior windows above ground level and building facades. Ground-level hard surfaces can be added as pressure washing from $150.
- Maintenance. Lamp changes, plumbing, HVAC filters and repairs are facilities work. We report faults; we do not fix them.
- Personal items and cluttered desks. Cleaners do not move papers, files or personal belongings, which is why a clear-desk policy visibly improves the result.
- Deep kitchen degreasing and extract canopies in food premises. Those are specialist certified work with their own record-keeping.
What happens on the day
Access and security (visit start)
Cleaners arrive to an agreed access method — held keys, fob or on-site contact — sign in where the building requires it, and work to the alarm and lock-up procedure written into the contract rather than improvised on the night.
Washrooms first
Washrooms are done first, with separate color-coded equipment, because they are the highest-risk and highest-complaint area and they should never be the task that gets shortened when a visit runs late.
Kitchens and break areas
Surfaces, sinks, appliances to specification, waste out. This is the second most complained-about area in every office contract we run.
Desks, meeting rooms and reception
Clear-surface wipe, high-touch points, glass and reception, then meeting rooms reset to a standard layout so the first booking of the morning walks into a ready room.
Floors last
Vacuum, sweep and mop working back towards the exit, entrance matting cleaned last so the final impression at the door is the freshest surface in the building.
Lock-up and log
Waste to the collection point, lights, alarm and lock-up per procedure, visit logged. Faults, damage and low stock are reported to your named contact rather than left for someone to discover.
When to book
- Start with a site walk, not a phone quote. Square footage alone does not price a specification — washroom count, floor type, frequency and access do.
- Allow two to four weeks to mobilise a new contract. Keys, access, inductions, equipment on site and a named cleaner all have to be in place before the first visit, and rushed mobilisations are what make month one look bad.
- Set the frequency around your busiest day, not your average one. Most sites need washrooms and kitchens more often than desks, and a specification that separates the two costs less than raising the frequency of everything.
- Diarise the periodic work at signature. Carpets, hard floors and high-level dusting get forgotten if they are not dated in the contract, and their absence is what makes a site look tired by month six.
- Book seasonal peaks early — retail before the holidays, offices before an audit or an open day, and the whole market before month-end move dates.
The details most people learn the hard way
- Contracts fail in month three, not month one. Month one is a new crew paying attention. Month three is when an unwritten task quietly stops being done, which is why a written specification and a visit log matter more than a good first impression.
- Washrooms and the kitchen decide your occupants' opinion of the whole contract. Nobody has ever complained about the underside of a desk.
- Cleaner turnover is the real quality variable. A site that keeps the same cleaner stays clean; a site cleaned by whoever is available drifts. That is why a named cleaner per site is worth more than a lower rate.
- Entrance matting does more than any product. Enough matting to take several footfalls keeps grit off the floors and cuts the cost of maintaining them.
- A clear-desk policy is a cleaning specification in disguise. Cleaners do not move papers, so covered surfaces do not get cleaned, and the desks look untouched no matter how good the crew is.
- Consumables run out on the day nobody is checking. Managed consumables cost slightly more and remove the single most common Monday-morning complaint.
- Hard floors need a periodic plan or they degrade. Daily mopping maintains a finish; it does not restore one. Once a finish is gone, restoration costs multiples of the maintenance that would have preserved it.
- The record is the service. Signed or logged visits, dated periodic work and a named contact are what make a dispute a five-minute conversation instead of a renegotiation.
What customers say
The staff was very nice and worked hard to get our house back in good shape! Communication with corporate office was great and response time was quick. Highly recommend!
Did an amazing job cleaning my offices…
Did an amazing job cleaning my offices in needed an in depth cleaning of the entire building and their team arrived and finished the job in a timely manner
The Deep Clean Specialist…
I booked a deep clean for my kitchen and bathrooms, and I'm honestly blown away. They didn't just wipe surfaces; they got into the grime in the sliding door tracks and behind the appliances-places most cleaners ignore. The team was punctual, professional, and very respectful of my home office while I worked. It's rare to find a service that actually delivers on the 'deep' part of a deep clean. Worth every penny.
Frequently asked questions
How much does commercial cleaning cost?
$150–$250 a visit for a small office, $250–$480 for a medium office and $480–$850 for a large office. Medical and dental premises are priced by area at $0.18–$0.32 per square foot.
How much does office cleaning cost per square foot?
Office work is normally quoted per visit against a specification rather than per square foot, because frequency, washroom count and floor type move the price more than area does. Clinical space is the exception and is quoted at $0.18–$0.32 per square foot.
Do you offer contracts or one-off cleans?
Both. Recurring schedules attract 15% off weekly and 10% off monthly. One-off commercial cleans — an office move, an event, a post-refurbishment reset — are quoted individually.
Can you clean outside business hours?
Yes. Most office contracts run in the evening or overnight, and retail before opening. The access method and lock-up procedure are agreed in the contract.
Do you clean medical and dental practices?
Yes, priced per square foot with color-coded equipment and defined touch-point protocols. Clinical waste stays with your licensed waste contractor.
What is included in a standard office contract?
Washrooms, kitchens and break areas, desks and workstations, meeting rooms and reception, floors, high-touch points and waste removal to the building's collection point, at the frequency your specification sets.
Do you supply consumables?
We can manage paper, soap and liners as part of the contract, or you can supply them and we restock. Managed consumables cost more per visit and remove the running-out problem.
How do you handle keys, alarms and security?
By written procedure agreed before the first visit — held keys or fobs, sign-in where the building requires it, and a defined alarm and lock-up sequence.
What happens if standards slip?
Every visit is logged, so a specific missed task on a specific date is checkable rather than arguable. Raise it with your named contact and it is addressed at the next visit.
Do you clean warehouses and industrial units?
Yes, from weekly to nightly. Large hard-floor areas are quoted with machine work as a separate line from routine cleaning.
Can you take over an existing contract?
Yes. Allow two to four weeks to mobilise — access, inductions, equipment and a named cleaner all have to be in place before the first visit.
Do you clean carpets and hard floors as part of the contract?
Routine vacuuming and mopping are included. Periodic extraction at $45–$120 a room and hard-floor machine work are separate, and they should be dated in the contract at signature.
Coverage
Commercial cleaning contracts are available in the states we currently serve. Coverage status is shown per area on the locations directory — we do not list an area we cannot staff.