How to Create an RFP to Attract the Best Commercial Cleaning Companies

March 12th, 2025 | 10 min. read

I want to talk to you today about RFPs for commercial cleaning. Now look, before we get into it, I need to be honest with you. I’m probably going to upset a few people here. Procurement teams, facilities managers, or whoever’s usually responsible for pulling these things together within your organisation... this might ruffle a few feathers. But what I'm about to share with you all needs to be said.

Not because I want to tell you how to do your jobs, but because you deserve more from your commercial cleaners. And the request for proposal process is often where problems are introduced. I’ve seen too many businesses put real effort into their tender process for a new commercial cleaning partner, only to get stuck with the same problems they had before.

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The cleaning doesn’t improve. The issues don’t go away. And it’s not because they picked the wrong company. It's because the RFP didn’t give anyone a fair shot at doing it properly. And to be fair, you’re probably doing what most people do in your position—focusing on price, a few basic requirements, and hoping the rest falls into place. That's a very normal and standard approach. On top of that, if you’ve never worked in cleaning, how would you know what’s missing?

If you want to do away with your current commercial cleaning problems, it starts with the document you send out. That means being crystal clear on three things: what you want cleaned, how often, and how you want it done. Not just broad tasks. Not vague descriptions. Real detail. Because if you leave that up to the cleaning company, they’ll do the bare minimum they can get away with for the lowest possible price. And then three months in, you’re right back where you started.

So if you’re about to run a commercial cleaning tender, or you’re even thinking about it, this article is going to walk you through what your RFP should include, if you want to attract a commercial cleaning partner who can actually deliver.

What Should Your Commercial Cleaning RFP Include?

If you want to get better cleaning, if you want accurate quotes you can actually compare, then you need to be clear about what you want cleaned, how often, and how you want it cleaned. That means writing a real scope of works, not simply soliciting “general office cleaning.”

But what does that look like?

Let’s say you want the floors done. Do you want them mopped with a traditional mop and bucket, or scrubbed with an iMop? Put that in.
Do you want disinfectant used in the amenities every night? That’s part of your outcome—write it in.
Are there surfaces where certain chemicals can’t be used? Add that too.

Because if you leave it open to interpretation, the cleaning companies are going to come back to you with the cheapest, bare minimum version they can get away with. And you’ll be sitting there three months later thinking, “We didn’t fix anything.”

I’ve seen it happen. Recently, someone in the industry told me they did a walkthrough of a group of high-end car dealerships. No square metreage provided. No note on what kind of surfaces were in place. No frequency. No direction on whether to mop or scrub. These were buildings with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of vehicles on display—and the scope was basically blank.

You can imagine what happened. That facilities manager was about to receive a pile of quotes that made no sense. Some cheap, some expensive, all different. He wouldn’t be able to compare them. He’d either make a bad choice or waste weeks trying to decode what each company was actually offering.

So here’s what you need to do:

Be specific. Down to the detail.

Define what you want cleaned.
Define how often—e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly.
Define how it should be cleaned—i.e., tools, chemicals, technique.
Define the outcome—what do you expect to see every morning when you walk in?

Right now, we’re shifting our own approach with clients—moving away from just task lists and more into outcomes. Because that’s what people actually care about. Not whether the toilet’s been wiped—but whether the amenities are clean, disinfected, and safe to use. If that’s what you expect? Put it in writing.

The more detail you provide, the better your result will be. The cleaner will know exactly what they’re quoting. You’ll know exactly what you’re getting. And when something goes wrong—which happens in any business—you’ll have a real document to go back to.

If you want traceability, consistency, and a cleaning partner who can deliver what you need? Start with a proper scope. No grey. No assumptions. No room for “We thought you meant…” Just clear expectations written down, agreed on, and deliverable.

Don't Let a Commercial Cleaner Define Your Scope

This is the one mistake I see all the time, and it’s where so many RFPs fall over.

You send out the tender, but you don’t give every commercial cleaning company the same scope of works. You leave it vague. You let the cleaning companies come back to you with their own recommendations, their own interpretation of what should be done. And when that happens. You don’t end up with three quotes for the same job. You end up with three completely different jobs. There’s no way to compare them properly, because they’re not quoting on the same thing.

I’ll give you a real example. During COVID, we were doing some work for a branch of the Queensland Department of Transport. They had to go to tender, and they asked me what process to follow. I said:

"Interview three companies, come up with a clear scope of works and outcomes, ask for feedback, revise the scope based on that, and then go to market so that everyone’s quoting on the same thing."

But they didn’t do that. They left it vague, let each cleaning company propose what they thought was best—and the result was a mess. We gave them one approach. Another company came back recommending a different supplier for sanitary bins, even though the client had told us they wanted to keep their existing provider. The company that quoted cheaper got the job. But it wasn’t the same service. They weren’t comparing apples with apples.

Now, on the flip side, let me tell you about someone who got it right.

A branch manager from the Department of Corrections contacted me directly. She said:

“I know I’ve got a problem, and I want to fix it properly.”

I went out to the site. She had a mess. Too many chemicals, no clear idea what the cleaners were actually doing. I helped her write the scope. We defined the outcomes she wanted. I gave her a list of exactly what to ask in the RFP—insurance questions, public liability, sham contracting proof, the lot.

She followed the process start to finish. Every company that tendered got the same scope, the same expectations, the same opportunity to quote. She interviewed them properly. She asked the right questions. And four years later, we’re still cleaning that site.

How to Structure Your RFP, So You're Comparing More Than Price

I truly understand. Every business has a budget, including ours. And when you’re comparing quotes, it’s easy to just line up the numbers and go with the cheapest.

But if you haven’t built your RFP properly—if you haven’t set clear expectations or defined the outcomes you want—then what exactly are you comparing? Because I can tell you right now, the cheapest quote might not be quoting for the same thing as the most expensive one. They might not even be close.

And to be fair, price isn’t always a bad thing. I’ve been the cheapest before, and we still got the job. There’s one large Brisbane-based client we clean for, where we were actually the lowest bid. But we won because we brought the right systems, the right equipment, and the right team. We still deliver to that client every single day. So sometimes the cheapest is the right fit—but only if you’ve got the process in place to assess what you’re really getting.

How do you do that? You’ve got to compare capability.

You’ve got to look at the systems they’re running. You’ve got to ask, “Can this cleaning company actually do the kind of work we’re asking for?” If you need your warehouse floors scrubbed every night, does the cleaning company have the right machines? Do they know how to use them? If you want an A-grade office cleaned to a high hygiene standard, have they worked on sites like that before?

That’s why we don’t do domestic cleaning at In-Tec. We do commercial, and we do food manufacturing. Because those are the environments we’re trained for—and we know exactly what they need.

So when you’re reviewing RFPs, don’t just compare quotes. Compare what sits behind the number:

What equipment will they use?
How do they manage staff and performance?
What are their procedures for quality control?
Have they worked on sites like yours before?

Sometimes the cheapest quote will be the best value. But sometimes it’s only cheaper because they’re cutting corners—or quoting for half the job. So yes, price matters. But process and capability matter more. And if you build your RFP to ask for both, you’ll be in a much better position to choose the right partner—not just the cheapest one.

If You Do the Work, the Red Flags Become Easy to Spot

By the time the RFP responses come in, it’s too late to go back and fix a vague brief. If you haven’t been detailed—if your scope is loose, your expectations are unclear, and your questions are soft—you’re going to miss the red flags.

But if you’ve done the work properly? You’ll spot them straight away.

You’ll see it in the language—phrases like “as required” or “if needed.” That’s a red flag. That’s a company avoiding responsibility.
You’ll see it when you ask for their public liability insurance and they don’t give you the actual policy. Or when they push back on giving you their WorkCover payment summary.
You’ll see it when they can't (or won't) show documentation that proves they’re not engaging in sham contracting.
And the biggest one? If the person you’re talking to doesn’t know how to clean. If they’re just a salesperson who can’t talk through the job in detail, that’s your answer. Right there.

That’s why detail matters so much in your RFP. Because when you’ve been clear about what you want, how you want it done, and how often—you’ll know exactly what to look for in the responses. And when someone avoids the question, hides behind vague language, or refuses to back up what they’re claiming, you’ll see it for what it is.

You don’t need a hundred checklists. You just need the right scope, the right questions, and the conviction to hold potential commercial cleaning partners accountable. Do that, and you’ll weed out the wrong providers before they ever set foot on your site. More importantly, you’ll find one who can actually deliver.

If you're interested in learning more on how to choose the correct commercial cleaning partner for your organisation, you can download our guide, 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Commercial Cleaning Company. Or you can contact us at any time with your questions, or to start a conversation about how we may be of service to you.