ALTURA The honest answer: it depends on headcount, traffic, and what kind of work happens in the space. But "it depends" isn't useful when you're budgeting, so here's the framework we use when scoping commercial cleaning for Atlanta offices.
Start With Headcount and Traffic
A 10-person office with no client visits and a 60-person office with a busy lobby are different animals. Restrooms and kitchens are the forcing function — they degrade fastest and drive complaints first. As a rule of thumb: under 20 employees, two visits per week usually holds; 20–50 employees, three to five visits; over 50 employees or any meaningful visitor traffic, daily service earns its cost quickly.
Not Everything Needs the Same Frequency
The mistake we see most is buying one frequency for the whole building. Smart scopes split tasks into tiers: restrooms, kitchens, and trash on every visit; vacuuming and touchpoint disinfection several times a week; dusting, glass, and floor detail weekly; carpet extraction, high dusting, and vent cleaning quarterly. Tiering keeps the daily cost down while nothing gets neglected long enough to become a project.
Signals You're Under-Cleaning
Restroom complaints, dust visible on dark surfaces, carpet traffic lanes going gray, and a lobby that smells like anything at all — these show up before clients say something, and clients notice before you do. If your current schedule produces any of these, frequency is too low or the scope is wrong.
What This Costs
Frequency is the biggest price lever in janitorial service, but scope is a close second. A tight scope at the right frequency almost always beats a bloated scope at a lower one. The only accurate number comes from a walkthrough — which is why our estimates are free and done on site.