A good office cleaning RFP defines the scope so every bid can be compared

An office cleaning RFP should describe your space, list the tasks and frequencies you expect, and require every bidder to answer in the same format. The most useful items to request are the planned labor hours for each visit, the schedule, what supplies are included, and a sample certificate of insurance. When all bids answer the same questions, you can compare them on substance instead of guessing what each price includes.

Start with an overview of the facility

Open with the basics a bidder needs to plan: the address, the floors or suites involved, the approximate area, the number of people who use the space, and the days and hours it is occupied. Note the type of building, whether a managed tower, a garden office park or a standalone storefront, because that shapes access and timing. List the room types and their counts: private offices, open workstations, conference rooms, restrooms, kitchens, reception, storage and any specialty areas.

Write the scope of work room by room

This is the heart of the document. For each room type, list the tasks and how often each is expected, such as every visit, weekly or monthly. Separate routine work from periodic projects like carpet extraction, floor refinishing or high dusting, and say whether you want those priced now or later. Name the surfaces: carpet, tile, sealed concrete, glass, stone. State what is out of scope so no one assumes it is included.

Explain building rules and access

Bidders need to know how they will get in. Describe the security desk procedure, badge or key arrangements, alarm systems, freight elevator windows, loading dock rules and where trash and recycling must be taken. Mention any rooms that are restricted. If the building management has its own requirements for vendors, attach them or summarize them.

Tell bidders exactly what to state

Ask every response to include the same items, in the same order. The core list is short. The planned labor hours for each visit and the crew size. The proposed nights and start times. Whether consumables such as paper products, soap and liners are included, and if not, how they are billed. Which cleaning products and equipment will be used. A sample certificate of insurance showing the types of coverage carried. How supervision and quality checks work. How the crew is trained. Who your day-to-day contact will be and how problems are reported. How changes to the scope are documented. Ask for pricing in a format that matches your scope sections, so you can see what each part costs relative to the others.

Requesting the same structure from everyone is what makes an RFP worth the effort. A response that skips a required item tells you something too.

Set a fair process

Schedule a walkthrough and invite all bidders to it, or offer each one the same visit. Set a deadline for questions and share every answer with every bidder, so nobody gains an advantage from a private conversation. Give a clear submission date and say how you will evaluate responses. If you plan to interview finalists, say so in the document.

Compare the responses on substance first

Lay the bids side by side in a simple table with one row per required item. Start with labor hours, because they show whether the bidder understood the size of the job. A bid with far fewer hours than the others is either unusually efficient or planning to skip work, and it is worth asking which. Next, check how closely each response follows your scope. Missing tasks, vague frequencies or added exclusions often explain a lower number.

Then look at the details that affect daily life: who supervises, how quickly issues are addressed in practice, and whether the insurance documentation matches what your building requires. Price comes last, once you know each bid is pricing the same work.

Keep the RFP as the basis for the agreement

The scope you write for the RFP should carry into the final agreement, so check your agreement to confirm it references the scope and how changes are handled. A1 Commercial Cleaning answers RFPs with a written checklist that shows the schedule and labor hours for each area, which makes side-by-side comparison straightforward.