Facilities managers in Surprise, Goodyear, and Peoria who issue RFPs for janitorial services often receive three bids that are impossible to compare on a common basis. One contractor quotes per square foot. One quotes a monthly flat rate. One quotes by crew hours. Each scope excludes different things. This article describes a framework for reducing those bids to a comparable number.
Step 1: Establish a Scope Baseline
Before you send a single RFP, document what clean means for your building. Write down: every area to be cleaned, every floor type, restroom count and fixture count, frequency you want for each area (not every area needs nightly attention), and who supplies consumables. This document becomes your scope baseline — every contractor bids against the same thing.
Without this, a lower bid may simply reflect a smaller scope. It is not uncommon for the "cheapest" contractor to have excluded restroom restocking, breakroom cleaning, or stairwells from their number — items the prior contractor included by default.
Step 2: Convert to Annual Cost Per Square Foot
Take each contractor's quoted price and convert to annual cost divided by your total cleanable square footage. This produces a number you can compare across bid formats:
| Contractor | Monthly quote | Annual cost | Per sq ft / yr (10k SF) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contractor A | $1,200/mo | $14,400 | $1.44 |
| Contractor B | $980/mo | $11,760 | $1.18 |
| Contractor C | $1,450/mo | $17,400 | $1.74 |
Now you have a single number per contractor. What you do not yet know is whether those bids cover the same scope. That is the next step.
Step 3: Ask the Same Four Questions of Each Contractor
These questions surface the variables that make low bids look different from the final invoice:
What is your crew size for my building? A contractor quoting your 15,000 sq ft office with a one-person crew cannot complete the scope in a single shift at any quality level. Industry standard is roughly 3,000 to 4,000 sq ft per crew member per hour for office environments, less for restroom-heavy buildings.
What is excluded from this quote? Ask for a written exclusion list. "General cleaning" is not a scope. Every item not on the task list is excluded, whether or not the contractor says so.
Are your workers employees or subcontractors? Workers' compensation coverage, background check policy, and turnover rate all differ. Subcontracted labor creates liability exposure for your facility if a worker is injured on-site and the subcontractor's coverage lapses.
What does the onboarding process look like? A contractor who cannot describe a structured first-clean and follow-up process has no mechanism to catch problems before they become a pattern. Ask specifically: when will I meet my assigned supervisor, and how do I reach them during service windows?
Step 4: Check References Against Your Building Type
Ask for references from buildings that resemble yours: similar size, similar floor type, similar use. A contractor who does excellent work in medical offices may not have the right scope template for a distribution center break room and warehouse office area.
In the West Valley, distribution and light manufacturing facilities along the Loop 303 and I-10 corridors have specific cleaning challenges — concrete and epoxy floors, dock areas, safety compliance requirements — that differ meaningfully from standard office cleaning.
The Bottom Line
A comparable bid process takes more time upfront but eliminates the most common failure mode in commercial janitorial procurement: signing a contract, then discovering the scope does not match expectations on week three.
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