How to Compare Three Janitorial Bids Fairly

Three janitorial bids arrive on your desk. The monthly totals are $1,840, $2,100 and $2,650. If you choose the cheapest, you may have saved $260 per month. Or you may have selected a contractor whose scope excludes restroom restocking, whose crew rotates every 60 days and who has no named supervisor you can call when something is wrong. The bids are not comparable because they are not for the same thing.

This guide is for facilities managers and property managers in the East Valley who want to evaluate janitorial bids on an equal footing before a contract is signed.

Step 1: Standardise the Scope Before You Compare Numbers

The first thing to do with any bid is check what it covers. Ask every bidder to submit a line-item written scope alongside the price. If a bidder refuses or provides only a general description, treat that as a meaningful signal about how they'll manage your account once the contract is signed.

A line-item scope should include:

• Every area of the facility (each restroom, each office, common areas, break rooms, lobby)
• Specific tasks per area (vacuum, mop, toilet scrub, mirror wipe, trash removal, paper goods restock)
• Frequency for each task (every visit, weekly, monthly)
• Who supplies paper goods, liners and cleaning products
• What is explicitly excluded

Once you have three line-item scopes, you can identify the differences. A $260 monthly gap often reflects tasks that are on one scope and absent from another — most frequently paper goods restocking, periodic high-dusting or break room deep cleans.

Step 2: Verify Insurance Before You Compare Contractors

Every contractor should provide a certificate of general liability insurance before you sign anything. This is not optional and not a courtesy — it is basic due diligence. Additionally ask about:

Coverage type	Why it matters
General liability	Covers accidental property damage or injury caused by the crew in your building
Janitorial bond	Covers theft by employees. Many facilities require this explicitly — schools, healthcare, government-adjacent properties
Workers' compensation	Without it, an injured crew member in your building may have recourse against your property

If a contractor cannot produce a liability certificate within 24 hours, remove them from consideration regardless of price.

Step 3: Ask the Crew Assignment Question

The single biggest predictor of a janitorial contract's performance over time is crew stability. Ask each bidder directly: will a specific crew be assigned to my facility, or does the crew vary based on scheduling? The distinction matters because a crew that knows your building — which floors are carpeted, where the supply closet is, which suite has the alarm code — cleans more efficiently and catches problems earlier than one encountering your building for the first time on a Tuesday.

A contractor who cannot commit to crew assignment is structured as a staffing agency filling shifts, not as a facilities management partner.

Step 4: Understand What "Low Price" Actually Reflects

In the janitorial market, price tracks coverage, crew quality and operational structure. A contractor pricing substantially below market is achieving that price by doing one or more of the following:

• Reducing scope (items present in competitors' proposals are absent in theirs)
• Using transient or lower-wage labour with higher turnover
• Operating without adequate insurance (a cost they are not passing to you)
• Winning the contract with an introductory rate that increases after 90 days

None of these is automatically disqualifying, but each warrants a direct question. Ask how their price relates to the market. A contractor with a clear, confident answer about why their price is what it is — lower overheads, regional efficiency, direct employment vs. subcontracting — is more credible than one who simply agrees to match the lowest bid.

Step 5: Check the Escalation Process

You will eventually need to report a problem. Before you sign, know exactly how you would do that and who picks up the phone. The right answer is a named supervisor who knows your account, reachable during business hours with a same-day callback commitment. The wrong answer is a general customer service number, a web portal or a voicemail that goes to regional dispatch.

Ask each bidder: "If I notice a missed task tomorrow morning, what's the specific step-by-step process for getting it corrected?" Their answer tells you more about the contract than any price on the proposal.