Restaurant and hospitality cleaning contracts: scope and pricing
Hospitality pays well for cleaners who understand inspections, grease and late-night access.
Why hospitality pays above office rates
Restaurants, bars and hotels are graded in public. A failed health inspection, a grease fire or a bad review about the restrooms costs the operator far more than a cleaning contract, so the buying decision is driven by risk, not by pennies per square foot. Expect $28-$45 an hour in most US metros and £20-£30 in the UK, with kitchen deep cleans priced as separate scheduled projects.
Scope the kitchen separately from front of house
Front of house is nightly: floors, restrooms, glass, tables, high-touch surfaces. The kitchen is a different service with its own frequency — nightly line wipe-down and floor degrease, weekly wall and equipment detail, monthly or quarterly deep clean of fryers, cook-line, drains and behind fixed equipment. Hood and duct cleaning is a certified specialty in most jurisdictions; subcontract it and manage the schedule rather than pretending to cover it.
Price for late access and short windows
Access usually starts after midnight and closes before the morning delivery, which means premium wages and inflexible productivity. Time a real shift on site before quoting, then price the labour at your actual late-shift loaded rate. Padding the day rate by 10% is how cleaners lose money on hospitality work.
Sell inspection readiness, not cleaning
Put a documented inspection-readiness programme in the proposal: a task checklist tied to the local health code, dated logs the operator can show an inspector, photo evidence of periodic deep cleans, and a named supervisor who walks the site weekly. Operators renew that programme without shopping the price.
Hotels: the multi-year prize
Hotel public-area and back-of-house contracts are larger, longer and reference-heavy — lobbies, meeting space, fitness rooms, staff areas and periodic carpet and floor programmes. Win two restaurant groups first, document the results, then use them to open the hotel conversation.
FAQs
How much do restaurant cleaning contracts pay?+
$28-$45 an hour in most US metros and £20-£30 in the UK, with kitchen deep cleans quoted as separate scheduled projects.
How often should a commercial kitchen be deep cleaned?+
Nightly degrease of the line and floors, weekly equipment and wall detail, and a full deep clean monthly or quarterly depending on volume.
Can I clean kitchen hoods and ducts?+
In most jurisdictions that requires certification. Subcontract it to a certified provider and manage the schedule inside your contract.
What margin is realistic in hospitality cleaning?+
35-48% gross, provided you price from a timed late-shift and bill deep cleans separately.
How do I win a restaurant cleaning contract?+
Lead with inspection readiness — code-tied checklists, dated logs, photo proof and weekly supervision — rather than a lower nightly price.