For most Perth businesses, yes. After hours office cleaning costs a little more per visit in many cases, and it buys back something more valuable than the difference: nobody vacuuming around a client meeting, no wet floor signs in the reception at eleven in the morning, and an office that is already clean when the first person walks in. The exception is the small office where the disruption was never much of a problem in the first place.
Here is how the decision usually breaks down.
What counts as after hours?
In practice it means a clean that happens outside the times staff and visitors are in the building. For a standard Perth office that is usually an evening visit somewhere between about 5pm and 9pm, though early morning before opening works just as well and suits some buildings better.
It is worth separating after hours from out of hours. A team cleaning at 6pm on a weekday is working a normal shift. A team cleaning at 2am or on a Sunday is a different arrangement with different costs, and most offices do not need it.
Why do most offices go this way?
The work is simply better. An empty office can be cleaned properly. Desks can be wiped without moving around someone on a call, floors can be mopped and left to dry, and bins can be done in one pass rather than in the gaps between people. Daytime cleaning in an occupied office is always a compromise, and the areas that get skipped are usually the same ones every week.
It removes the disruption. Vacuum noise during a meeting, a cleaner waiting for someone to leave their desk, a bathroom closed at the wrong moment. None of it is a disaster and all of it is friction, and for a client facing office it is friction customers can see.
It changes what people walk into. An office cleaned the night before is at its best at nine in the morning. An office cleaned at lunchtime is at its best at two in the afternoon, when fewer people are arriving and nobody is forming a first impression.
Security and confidentiality are easier to manage. That sounds like the opposite of what people expect, and it is worth explaining.
What about access and security?
This is the concern that stops most businesses, and it is a fair one. Letting a cleaning team into an empty office means keys or access cards, an alarm code and, in a shared building, coordination with building management.
The things worth settling before anyone starts are straightforward. Who holds the keys or cards, and how is that recorded. Whether the alarm is on a separate user code so activity can be traced. Whether the building has after hours access restrictions or a sign in requirement. Who the after hours contact is on both sides if something goes wrong. And whether the cleaning team is police checked and insured, which a contractor should be able to evidence rather than assert.
Sensitive workplaces such as medical suites, legal practices and finance offices usually go further, with a fixed team rather than a rotating one, so the same people are in the building each time and a new face is obvious.
Handled properly, an after hours arrangement is often tighter than a daytime one, because the access is controlled and logged rather than being a door propped open while someone works.
When is a daytime clean the better choice?
There are real cases for it.
- Small offices. A team of six in a couple of rooms may genuinely not notice a cleaner for the forty minutes it takes.
- Buildings that will not allow after hours access. Some shared buildings in the Perth CBD and West Perth have restrictions that make an evening clean impractical.
- Where a visible presence is the point. Reception areas, showrooms and waiting rooms in busy practices sometimes benefit from a daytime presence, because bins and bathrooms need attention through the day rather than once at the end of it.
- Where a daytime top up is the real answer. Plenty of offices run a main clean after hours and a short daytime visit for bathrooms, kitchens and bins.
That last pattern is the one most growing offices end up with, and it is worth considering before committing to one or the other.
Does it cost more?
Often a little, though less than people expect, and it depends on the time and the building rather than on the after hours label by itself. An early evening weekday visit is usually close to a daytime rate. A late night or weekend visit costs more because of the hours involved. Access arrangements can add a small amount where a building requires sign in or a security escort.
The fairer way to look at it is cost per result. A daytime clean that has to work around occupied desks takes longer to do less, so the comparison is rarely like for like.
How should a business decide?
Three questions usually settle it. Do clients or customers come into the office during the day. Does the cleaning currently interrupt anything that matters. And will the building allow after hours access at all. If the answer to the first two is yes and the third is not a problem, after hours is almost always the better arrangement.
Talk to us about your office
Cleanbright cleans offices across Perth’s western suburbs and works to schedules built around each business rather than a fixed run, including evening and early morning visits. There is more on our office cleaning services page.
If you would like a quote against a written scope and a schedule that suits your hours, call 1300 059 691 or email info@cleanbright.com.au.
This article is general information and not advice.
