Buyer's guide + instant quote
Office Cleaning Quote: What to Ask For (and a Price in 60 Seconds)
Most cleaning quotes are impossible to compare because they hide the one number that matters. Here's what a proper quote contains — and an instant indicative price for your building.
Last reviewed August 2026
The eight things every office cleaning quote must contain
Print this list. If a quote is missing more than two of these, send it back rather than trying to compare it.
- 1Cleaner-hours per weekThe single most important line. Without it you cannot compare two quotes at all. Ask for it in writing, on the face of the document.
- 2A task-and-frequency scheduleRoom by room, task by task, with a frequency against each. "Daily office clean" is not a specification.
- 3What's periodic and what it costsCarpets, hard floors, internal and external windows, kitchen deep cleans — priced separately so you can see them.
- 4Consumables: included or rechargedSoap, paper, bin liners. If recharged, ask for the rate card. This is where surprise invoices come from.
- 5Supervision arrangementsWho checks the work, how often, and what the audit looks like. Unsupervised contracts decay in about eight weeks.
- 6TUPE positionIf you have an incumbent, their staff transfer. The quote must state whether it assumes transfer and at what cost.
- 7Term, notice and price reviewLook for a rolling term with 30–90 days' notice and a stated review mechanism, not an automatic annual uplift.
- 8Insurance and compliancePublic liability (£5m is standard), employer's liability, COSHH data sheets, DBS checks where relevant.
How to compare three quotes in five minutes
Put the three monthly figures in a row. Under each, write the weekly cleaner-hours. Divide the monthly fee by 4.33 to get a weekly fee, then divide by the hours. You now have an implied hourly rate for each supplier, and the comparison becomes trivial.
If two suppliers imply £16 an hour and one implies £11, that third supplier has not found a clever efficiency — they have scoped fewer hours than the building needs, or they are not paying their staff legally. Either way the standard drops around month three, which is exactly when you have lost the leverage of a competitive process.
Full rate bands are in the UK commercial cleaning price guide. To fix the scope before you approach anyone, use the free specification template, and check the contract template before signing.
Red flags in a cleaning quote
- No site visit before the price was issued.
- No hours stated anywhere in the document.
- A 12-month minimum term with automatic renewal and 90+ days' notice.
- Consumables "at cost plus" with no rate card attached.
- An implied hourly rate below about £13.
- A price that undercuts the field by more than 20% on an identical spec.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get an office cleaning quote?+
Send the same written specification to three suppliers, ask each for cleaner-hours per week alongside the price, and insist on a site visit before any figure is confirmed. A quote produced without walking the building is a guess, and it will be revised upwards after mobilisation.
Should I get three quotes for office cleaning?+
Three is the right number. One gives you no reference point; five wastes everybody's time and tempts you towards the cheapest, which is almost always the one that has under-scoped the hours. With three, the outlier is obvious in either direction.
How long does an office cleaning quote take?+
A site survey takes 20–40 minutes for a typical office floor, and a written quote should follow within two working days. Anything quoted instantly over the phone without seeing the building is a rate, not a quote.
What information do I need to provide?+
Floor area, number of staff, number of washrooms, access hours, current frequency, whether there's an incumbent contractor (for TUPE), and any specialist areas such as kitchens, labs or server rooms. Our free specification template captures all of it in one document.
Is the cheapest office cleaning quote ever the right one?+
Occasionally, when a supplier has an existing round nearby and genuine route density. Usually it means fewer hours than the job needs. Divide the monthly fee by 4.33 and then by the quoted weekly hours: if the implied hourly rate is under about £13, the numbers do not add up and the standard will fall within three months.