How often should an office be cleaned? A 2026 guide for London businesses
How often London offices should be cleaned — by team size, footfall and hybrid working pattern. Daily, twice-weekly, weekly schedules compared.
Since hybrid working settled in, the question we get most from London office managers isn't "how do we clean" — it's "how often do we still need to". The honest answer depends on three things: how many people are in on a typical day, how the space is laid out, and what your front-of-house standard needs to be.
Start with average daily footfall, not headcount
A 60-person office where 40 people are in Monday and 12 are in on Friday does not have the same cleaning load as a 30-person office where everyone is in every day. Track average daily footfall over a typical month and use that — not your total headcount — to size the contract.
Realistic schedules by office type
Small office, fewer than 15 people on a typical day
Two or three visits per week is usually enough. Empty bins, sanitise kitchen and bathroom touchpoints, wipe desks, hoover and mop floors. A monthly deep clean covers the things that get missed weekly — inside the fridge, microwave, kettle scaling, blinds, skirting.
Mid-size office, 15–40 daily occupancy
Daily attendance is the norm. A 1.5–2 hour evening clean covers bins, kitchen, bathrooms, hoovering and surface wipes. Glass and reception areas get extra attention because that's what visitors see.
Larger office, 40+ daily, or client-facing
Daily plus a daytime presence — typically a porter for the kitchen and bathrooms during peak hours, with the deep clean done overnight. Reception, lifts and meeting rooms get a mid-morning refresh.
What this costs in 2026
Most London office cleaning contracts in 2026 sit between £25 and £32 per cleaner hour, inclusive of products, equipment, insurance and management. A typical 25-person office on a daily 1.5-hour schedule works out at roughly £900–£1,200 per month. Twice-weekly drops that to £350–£500.
How to keep the standard consistent
- Insist on the same cleaner each visit — continuity is what makes detail stick
- Ask for a written scope (room-by-room) and a periodic deep-clean schedule
- Use a simple shared log for issues — a WhatsApp group works better than email for this
- Quarterly walk-through with the supervisor to re-baseline standards
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