Hiring a commercial cleaning vendor sounds like a simple decision. It almost never is.
The wrong vendor can quietly drain a year of board meeting time on the HOA side, or create months of low-grade tenant complaints on the property management side. Switching mid-contract is expensive, awkward, and usually means restarting the same vetting process you skipped the first time.
This guide is meant to be neutral and useful. It's written for property managers, condo and HOA boards, and community association managers who want to make this decision once and make it well. It covers what to define before you start, what to verify on each vendor, how pricing actually works, the red flags to walk away from, and a checklist you can use on a walkthrough.
If you'd rather skip ahead, the checklist is here.
Before you start: define scope, frequency, and budget
Most bad cleaning contracts start with a vague request. The vendor guesses, the price comes in low to win the work, and a few months later both sides are unhappy.
Before talking to any vendor, get clear on three things.
Scope. What rooms, areas, and surfaces actually need cleaning? "Common areas" isn't a scope. A scope reads more like "lobby floors, two elevators, third-floor restrooms, fitness center, pool deck restrooms, trash room." Specificity here saves arguments later.
Frequency. Daily? Three times a week? Weekly? Different areas need different cadences. A high-traffic lobby may need daily attention. Stairwells may only need weekly. Pool deck restrooms in season often need twice a day.
Budget range. You don't have to share it with vendors, but you should know it internally. If the current contract is $2,500/month and the goal is to upgrade quality, expect proposals between $2,500 and $3,500. Bargain pricing in commercial cleaning almost always means corner-cutting somewhere — usually labor hours, supplies, or insurance.
These numbers are examples only. Actual pricing depends on square footage, cleaning frequency, traffic level, supplies, and scope.
Once those three are written down, every vendor conversation gets shorter and more useful.
What to verify before signing
These are the items worth confirming on every vendor. Treat them as the floor, not the ceiling.
1. General liability insurance. Most commercial property and association contracts require minimum $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate. Some require more. Ask for the actual policy limits and an updated certificate.
2. Workers' compensation. Required in Florida for vendors with employees. If a worker is hurt on the job and the vendor doesn't carry comp, the building's insurance is the next stop.
3. Certificate of Insurance (COI). Listing your management company, the association, or the building owner as additional insureds where required. A serious vendor handles this during onboarding without drama.
4. W-9. Standard for vendor onboarding and 1099 reporting.
5. Bonded staff (if relevant). Worth asking about for buildings where the cleaning team has keys, access cards, or after-hours access to mailrooms, clubhouses, or unit common areas.
6. References from similar properties. Three to five named contacts at comparable properties in the area. Then call them. The five-minute conversation is worth more than any sales pitch.
7. Employee documentation practices. Ask how the vendor handles employee onboarding, hiring documentation, and supervision. The exact procedures vary by company, but the answer should be specific.
If a vendor gets vague on more than one of these, that's information.
Pricing models: what each one really means
Three pricing structures dominate commercial cleaning. Knowing how each one works is how you compare quotes that look different on paper.
Flat monthly. A fixed price for a defined scope and frequency. Easiest to budget and the most common model for property management and HOA contracts. The risk is scope drift — make sure the contract spells out exactly what's included and what's billed separately.
Per square foot. Pricing based on cleanable square footage. Useful for very large buildings or apples-to-apples comparison between vendors. The catch is that "cleanable square footage" can be measured different ways. Confirm both vendors are using the same method.
Hourly. Vendor charges per labor hour. Reasonable for one-time cleanups or unscheduled work. Almost always a poor model for ongoing janitorial because there's no built-in incentive for the vendor to be efficient.
Recommendation: Use flat monthly for ongoing scope. Use hourly only for unscheduled or one-time work.
Red flags to walk away from
Some warning signs are obvious. Others take experience to spot.
- The bid is far below the others. If three vendors quote $4,200, $4,500, and $2,800, the cheapest one isn't a deal. They're either understaffing the contract, paying workers under the table, or planning to add charges later. All three lead to the same place.
- They can't produce insurance documentation cleanly. Either the coverage is insufficient or the paperwork isn't organized. Either way, that's a future problem.
- They won't share references. A vendor with happy clients does not refuse this.
- The contract is vague on scope. "General cleaning of common areas" is not a contract. The scope should list specific tasks, frequencies, and exclusions.
- No single point of contact. "Just call our main number" is a bad sign for any service relationship.
- Long contract term with no early termination. A confident vendor offers month-to-month or annual with a 30-day out. A three-year lock-in is a sign the vendor expects friction.
- Crews change every week. Different faces every visit means the cleaners don't know the building and aren't held to a consistent standard.
- They skip or rush the walkthrough. This is the best behavior you'll see from this vendor. It only gets worse from here.
Questions to ask on the walkthrough
A serious commercial cleaning vendor will walk the property before quoting. Use that walkthrough to ask:
- Who will be my day-to-day point of contact?
- Will the same crew come every visit, or does it rotate?
- How are missed work or complaints handled?
- What's the process when a crew member leaves or is replaced?
- How is the work documented from visit to visit?
- What's not included in the price, and how is extra work billed?
- What's the response time for unscheduled or special requests?
- Can you provide insurance documentation listing my company as additional insured during onboarding?
- Can you share references from buildings similar to mine?
- What's the contract term and cancellation policy?
The answers tell you more than any proposal.
The vendor checklist
A scannable version you can take into a walkthrough or use to compare RFP responses.
If most boxes are checked, you have a real vendor. If half are blank, keep looking.
Use this checklist on your next walkthrough — or request a walkthrough from White Square USA and we'll help you define the scope.
South Florida considerations to factor in
Cleaning a building in Miami, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura, Hallandale Beach, or anywhere else in the area comes with conditions other markets don't have. Worth factoring in when comparing vendors.
Humidity and mildew. Bathrooms, gyms, and pool restrooms in this climate need more attention than they would inland. Ask vendors how they handle high-humidity areas.
Salt air. Buildings within a few miles of the coast deal with salt residue on glass, metal, and railings. Vendors near the coast should know the difference.
Hurricane season. From June through November, your vendor may need to help with storm prep or post-storm cleanup. Ask whether that's part of the standard contract or quoted separately. Most vendors handle this on a case-by-case basis depending on location and crew capacity at the time.
Seasonal occupancy. Snowbird-heavy communities have very different needs in season vs. summer. The contract should be able to scale frequency up or down without renegotiating from scratch.
Bilingual operations. Many properties in the area have Spanish-speaking residents and bilingual management staff. A vendor whose team can communicate in both languages is a meaningful advantage.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a commercial cleaning contract be?
Month-to-month or annual with a 30-day cancellation clause. Anything longer than a year with no exit is worth questioning.
How many bids should we get?
Three is plenty. More than five wastes everyone's time and the quality of the vetting drops.
What's a fair price for a commercial cleaning contract?
There's no universal answer. It depends on square footage, scope, frequency, and the building. The right way to evaluate price is to get three quotes against the same defined scope and compare.
How often should we re-evaluate our cleaning vendor?
Annually. Even when the vendor is performing well, a yearly check-in keeps both sides accountable.
What happens if a cleaning vendor's employee gets hurt on our property?
If the vendor carries workers' compensation, their insurance handles it. If not, the building's insurance gets pulled in. This is why the comp verification matters.
A word from White Square USA
This guide is meant to be useful regardless of which vendor you end up with. If you're collecting bids in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Aventura, or surrounding cities, we're happy to be one of the three quotes. We'll do the walkthrough, help define the scope, and put together a written proposal you can compare against everyone else.
If your buildings need ongoing service, we have separate pages with more detail on janitorial services for property management companies and HOA cleaning services.