Commercial Cleaning RFP Checklist for Property Managers

When a property manager asks several cleaning companies to quote the same building, the prices can come back surprisingly far apart. Sometimes that reflects a real difference in staffing or service quality. Often it means the companies were not pricing the same job at all.

A strong commercial cleaning RFP fixes that problem before the bids arrive. It gives every provider the same building information, the same task expectations, the same service frequencies, and the same rules for access, quality control, and pricing. That makes proposals easier to compare and gives the selected cleaning company a much clearer standard to follow after the contract starts.

This commercial cleaning RFP checklist is designed for Metro Detroit property managers, office managers, building owners, and facility decision-makers who want useful proposals instead of vague numbers. You can copy the structure below into your own request for proposal and adjust it for a single office, a multi-tenant building, an apartment community, or a portfolio of properties.

1. Start with the facts about the property

Before listing cleaning tasks, give bidders enough information to understand the building. A cleaning company cannot price accurately if it has to guess how much space is actually cleaned, when crews can enter, or how heavily the property is used.

Include the property address, building type, total square footage, approximate cleanable square footage, number of floors, normal occupied hours, and preferred cleaning window. If the site has several tenants, separate entrances, elevators, common corridors, shared restrooms, or restricted areas, describe those too.

Flooring matters. Carpet, tile, vinyl, concrete, hardwood, and specialty surfaces can require different equipment and different amounts of labor. If you know the approximate mix, include it. If you do not, make the pre-bid walkthrough mandatory so the cleaning provider can document it.

Traffic level is another useful detail. A 10,000-square-foot office with twenty employees is different from a similarly sized building with hundreds of visitors moving through the lobby every day. The more accurately the RFP describes how the property is used, the more meaningful the bids become.

2. Define the cleaning scope by area

A phrase such as "general cleaning three nights per week" is not a useful scope. One company may assume it includes detailed restroom care, break rooms, entrance glass, floor edges, and periodic dusting. Another may price little more than trash, vacuuming, and a quick mop.

Break the building into areas and state what should happen in each one. Typical categories include:

• Entrances and vestibules
• Reception areas and lobbies
• Private offices and open workspaces
• Conference and meeting rooms
• Restrooms
• Break rooms and kitchens
• Hallways, stairs, and elevators
• Common areas in multi-tenant properties
• Accessible interior glass
• Trash and recycling areas
• Vacant units or turnover spaces when applicable

For each area, use specific tasks. Instead of saying "clean restroom," list the expectations that matter: service fixtures, clean mirrors, wipe appropriate touchpoints, remove trash, replace liners, clean floors, and restock consumables if stocking is included in the agreement.

If you are building a full recurring program, our commercial cleaning service and property management cleaning pages show the kinds of spaces and service patterns that can be incorporated into a site-specific scope.

3. Separate every-visit, weekly, monthly, and periodic work

Frequency is one of the biggest reasons commercial bids become difficult to compare. If every provider decides independently which tasks happen daily and which happen occasionally, you are not comparing equivalent proposals.

Create frequency groups. Every-visit tasks may include trash removal, restroom service, high-traffic floor care, break-room surfaces, and obvious touchpoints. Weekly work may include more detailed dusting, interior glass, baseboards, furniture edges, or lower-traffic areas. Monthly or periodic work may cover deeper floor scrubbing, high dusting, carpet extraction, or other items that are not required during every visit.

Do not make the schedule more complicated than the property needs. A smaller professional office may only require one or two service days each week. A busy multi-tenant office property may need five. The goal is to make the required frequency clear enough that every bidder prices the same expectation.

For office-specific planning, see our office cleaning service and the existing guide on building an office cleaning checklist.

4. Be precise about floor care

Floors often create the biggest difference between a property that looks consistently maintained and one that slowly starts to feel neglected. They are also an area where the words in an RFP can be too vague.

Identify the floor types and describe what routine care means. Vacuuming carpet, sweeping hard surfaces, mopping, spot cleaning, edge work, and periodic deeper scrubbing are not interchangeable tasks. If the building has entry mats, stairs, elevators, or high-traffic corridors, list them separately when they need different attention.

Metro Detroit properties should also account for seasonal conditions. Winter salt and slush can increase floor-cleaning needs quickly. Rainy periods increase soil and moisture at entrances. A building that looks fine with three weekly visits in dry weather may need additional entrance attention during winter.

Ask bidders how seasonal floor conditions are handled. You want to know whether extra attention is part of the regular service, handled through an agreed seasonal adjustment, or treated as separate work.

5. Spell out access, security, and building rules

A cleaning crew may be working after employees and tenants leave, which means access details belong in the RFP before the contract is awarded.

Document the preferred service window, alarm procedures, key or access-card requirements, loading or parking restrictions, elevator rules, and any areas that require special authorization. If the property has confidential offices, medical spaces, server rooms, resident units, or other restricted areas, make the boundaries explicit.

Also state any requirements you have for crew identification, background screening, supervision, or sign-in procedures. Requirements vary by property, so the cleaning company should know exactly what standards it will be expected to meet before it submits a final price.

6. Ask for proof of insurance and basic business information

Your RFP should request the business information needed to evaluate risk and professionalism. That may include proof of general liability insurance, workers' compensation coverage where applicable, and any certificates or additional-insured documentation required by the property or management company.

Do not assume every cleaning provider carries the same coverage. State your minimum requirements clearly and ask bidders to identify any exceptions before award.

You can also request how long the company has been operating, whether it serves similar commercial properties, who supervises the account, and who your day-to-day contact will be. A company can look polished during the sales process and still leave you wondering who to call once service begins. That should be solved before the contract is signed.

7. Require a pre-bid walkthrough

For most commercial properties, a walkthrough is one of the best ways to improve the accuracy of every proposal. Square footage alone does not show how many restrooms are in the building, how long hallways run, where elevators are located, how congested workspaces are, or how much soil enters through the main doors.

During the walkthrough, show every bidder the same areas and answer the same questions. Point out problem zones, special finishes, current complaints, tenant expectations, supply-storage locations, and any work that should be excluded.

If one vendor tours every space while another prices from an email and a square-foot number, the resulting bids are not truly comparable.

8. Make inclusions and exclusions impossible to miss

Commercial cleaning disputes often start with an assumption. The property manager thought interior refrigerator cleaning was included. The contractor thought it was an extra. One side expected periodic carpet extraction. The other priced routine vacuuming only.

Your RFP should ask each bidder to identify what is included and what is excluded. Common items that may need separate clarification include:

• Interior and exterior window cleaning
• Carpet extraction
• Floor stripping, finishing, or specialty treatment
• High-access dusting
• Interior appliance cleaning
• Consumable restroom supplies
• Day porter coverage
• Event cleanup
• Emergency or after-hours callouts
• Post-construction or renovation cleanup
• Apartment or suite turnovers outside the recurring schedule

Clear exclusions do not make a proposal weaker. They make it more usable because everyone knows where the recurring agreement ends and additional work begins.

9. Ask bidders to explain supervision and quality control

A commercial cleaning proposal should explain more than who performs the work. It should explain how the company knows the work is being done correctly.

Ask who supervises the account, how service problems are reported, how quickly the company responds, and whether the property receives periodic inspections or check-ins. Ask what happens when the building's needs change or when a tenant reports a recurring concern.

Quality control does not need to be complicated. What matters is having a clear path from "something was missed" to "the problem was corrected and the standard was reinforced."

Broom Hilda's Cleaning Service has served Metro Detroit since 1987, and our service model includes a 48-hour satisfaction guarantee. You can read more about our accountability standards on the Why Choose Us page.

10. Make pricing easy to compare

Ask every bidder to present pricing in the same structure. For example, request the recurring monthly price, the number of scheduled visits, and separately listed prices for periodic or optional work.

If the RFP includes several buildings, require pricing by location as well as a portfolio total. If there are alternate frequencies under consideration, ask for each option separately. This makes it easier to understand what changes when service moves from three days per week to five, or when a periodic task is added.

Do not evaluate price without scope. A lower monthly number can simply mean fewer labor hours, fewer detailed tasks, or more exclusions. The goal is not to make every proposal cost the same. It is to make sure every proposal is answering the same request.

11. Use a simple bid scorecard

A scorecard helps keep the decision from turning into a debate about price alone. You can adjust the weights for your property, but a useful evaluation might consider:

• How completely the proposal matches the requested scope
• Commercial cleaning experience
• Insurance and required documentation
• Supervision and quality-control process
• Communication and response plan
• References or experience with similar properties
• Clarity of exclusions and additional-service pricing
• Overall price and value

Score each proposal using the same categories. If a bidder leaves something unclear, ask for clarification in writing before awarding the contract.

12. Watch for red flags before you sign

A proposal that is unusually vague deserves a closer look. So does a price that is dramatically lower than every other qualified bid without a clear operational reason.

Other warning signs include refusing a walkthrough, failing to explain who supervises the crew, leaving insurance questions unanswered, or promising that "everything is included" without defining what everything means.

Also pay attention to communication during the bidding process. Commercial cleaning is an ongoing service relationship. If it is difficult to get a clear answer before the company has your business, that can tell you something about what communication may look like after the contract starts.

Copyable commercial cleaning RFP checklist

Use this condensed list when preparing your next request for proposal:

• Property address and building type
• Total and cleanable square footage
• Number of floors and key space types
• Occupied hours and preferred cleaning window
• Traffic level and seasonal considerations
• Flooring types and approximate areas
• Cleaning tasks organized by room or zone
• Every-visit, weekly, monthly, and periodic frequencies
• Trash, recycling, and consumable-supply responsibilities
• Access, alarms, keys, parking, elevators, and restricted areas
• Insurance and property-specific documentation requirements
• Pre-bid walkthrough date or scheduling process
• Required exclusions and optional-service pricing
• Supervision and quality-control expectations
• Problem-reporting and correction process
• Recurring monthly price format
• Separate pricing for additional or periodic work
• References or comparable commercial experience
• Proposal due date and decision timeline

Build an RFP that leads to a better cleaning contract

A good commercial cleaning RFP does not need to be fifty pages long. It needs to remove the important assumptions. When the building information, tasks, frequencies, access requirements, and pricing format are clear, property managers get proposals they can actually compare and cleaning companies have a better chance to deliver exactly what was promised.

That matters whether you manage an office in Troy, a multi-tenant property in Southfield, an apartment community in Farmington Hills, or a commercial building elsewhere in Metro Detroit. The clearer the scope is before award, the easier it is to maintain accountability after service begins.

If you are preparing an RFP or considering a new cleaning provider, Broom Hilda's can walk the property with you, review the cleaning priorities, and build a site-specific proposal around the actual space. Request a commercial cleaning quote or call (248) 547-4525 to start the conversation.