How do we bid janitorial service for the HOA clubhouse and pool restrooms?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised September 26, 2026

How an HOA board bids janitorial service for the clubhouse and pool restrooms: a room-by-room scope, pool-season checks, keys, insurance, bids and the contract.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Write the scope before you call anyone: every room, what gets cleaned, how often, and how the schedule changes when the pool opens. Decide who buys paper goods and soap. Send the same written scope to at least three cleaning companies, walk the building with each one, and compare monthly prices and hours on site, not just the headline number. Check insurance and a crime bond before anyone gets a key. Sign a one-year agreement with a 30-day termination clause, then inspect the work every month against the scope. Your governing documents and state law may add requirements, so treat this as general education, not legal or tax advice.

Write the scope room by room

A vague scope gets a vague job. "Clean clubhouse weekly" lets one company quote two hours and another quote six, and both are right. List each space and the tasks in it. A starting point for a small clubhouse with pool restrooms: - Restrooms: clean and disinfect toilets, urinals, sinks and counters, mop floors, empty trash, restock paper and soap. Daily in pool season, weekly or after events the rest of the year. - Party room and kitchen: vacuum or mop, wipe tables and counters, clean the sink and microwave, empty trash. Weekly, plus after each rental if the rental policy puts the association on the hook. - Entry, halls and office: vacuum, dust, glass on entry doors. Weekly. - Fitness room, if you have one: wipe equipment and mats, mop. Two or three times a week. - Periodic work, priced separately: carpet extraction, strip and wax, interior windows, high dusting. Quarterly or twice a year. Pool restrooms deserve their own line. CDC's Model Aquatic Health Code, section 5.10.4.1.1, calls for hygiene facility fixtures, dressing areas and furniture to be cleaned and sanitized daily, and more often if needed, with an EPA-registered product. The code is a model, so it binds only where your state or county adopted it, but it is a fair benchmark and a health inspector may use similar language. On a hot Saturday, one morning visit may not be enough. Price a second afternoon restroom check on weekends and holidays from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and say who does it: the cleaning company, the pool service, or a volunteer.

Supplies and sales tax

Decide whether the company supplies consumables or the association does. Paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap, trash liners and disinfectant can run more than the labor in a busy pool season. Three workable options: supplies included in a flat price, supplies billed at cost plus a stated markup, or the association buys in bulk and the crew restocks. Whatever you pick, make every bidder price the same option. Ask for chemical products by name. The crew should use EPA-registered disinfectants and follow the label directions, including how long the surface stays wet, and the company should keep safety data sheets on site for anything it stores in your janitor closet. In Texas, the Comptroller treats janitorial and cleaning as taxable real property services. Its guidance says tax is due on the charge to clean a home, office or any other building, so expect state and local sales tax on the invoice. The cleaning company may buy supplies it leaves for your use, like toilet paper and hand soap, tax-free on a resale certificate. Florida taxes nonresidential cleaning, but Rule 12A-1.0091 exempts cleaning of residential facilities and the common areas of those residential facilities. The rule does not name HOA clubhouses, so ask the bidder how it will bill and check with the association's tax preparer. Compare bids on the total including tax.

Keys, alarm codes and who is in the building

The cleaning crew will have unsupervised access to the building, often at night. Settle access before the contract starts. 1. Issue a numbered key or fob to the company, record who signed for it, and get it back at the end of the contract. 2. Give the company its own alarm code so the alarm log shows when the crew arrived and left. Delete the code the day the contract ends. 3. Require the company to tell you who works at your site and to notify you before it sends a new person. 4. Ban subcontracting without the board's written consent. 5. Lock the office, the pool equipment room and any storage with association records or cash. The crew does not need them. Whether to require background checks is a board choice. If you want them, put it in the scope so every bidder prices it.

Insurance, bonding and blood cleanup

Before a key changes hands, get a certificate of insurance showing general liability, workers' compensation where your state requires it, and commercial auto if the crew drives company vehicles to the site. Ask for the association to be named as additional insured by endorsement. Our guide on how to check a vendor certificate of insurance explains how to read one. Ask for a janitorial service bond or third-party crime coverage, which pays if a worker steals from the client. Do not assume the liability policy covers theft by the company's own employees. Ask the bidder which policy would pay, and get the answer in writing. Pool restrooms see vomit, blood from scraped knees, and the occasional fecal accident. Under 29 CFR 1910.1030, OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard, an employer must protect workers with occupational exposure. OSHA's 1992 interpretation says it does not generally consider janitorial staff in non-health care facilities to have occupational exposure, and that each employer decides which tasks create it. Ask each bidder in writing how its crew handles a blood or body-fluid cleanup, what gloves and products it uses, and whether that costs extra.

Getting the bids

Send the scope, a site map, the pool season dates and a bid form to at least three companies. Ask each to walk the building before quoting. Ask for: - a monthly price for the off-season schedule and a monthly price for pool season, - hours on site per visit and crew size, - unit prices for extra cleanings after rentals or events, - separate prices for the periodic work, - three references from clients with a similar building, and - a W-9 and a certificate of insurance. Hours on site tell you whether a low bid is real. If one company quotes $600 a month and another $1,100, and the first plans one person for 90 minutes a visit, the difference is the job, not the markup. Check the bid rules. Florida section 720.3055 requires competitive bids when a contract costs more than 10 percent of the association's total annual budget including reserves, so a Florida HOA with a $120,000 budget crosses the line at $12,000 a year, which a year-round janitorial contract can reach. Texas Property Code section 209.0052(c) requires a bid process only for service contracts over $50,000, and 209.0052(b) sets conditions before a director or a director's relative can take the contract. In Colorado, follow the declaration, the bylaws and any procurement policy the board has adopted. Our guide on how to write an HOA request for proposal has a longer template if you want one.

Contract terms and a monthly inspection

Put these in the agreement: - The full scope as an exhibit, with frequencies for each season and the dates the schedule switches. - A 12-month term with either side able to end it on 30 days' written notice. - A credit or a make-up visit within 24 hours for a missed cleaning. - No price increase during the term, and a cap on the renewal increase. - Return of keys and fobs, and deletion of alarm codes, when the agreement ends. - The insurance, bond and subcontracting terms above. A motion the board can adapt: "I move that the association contract with [company] for janitorial service at the clubhouse and pool restrooms per the attached scope, at $[amount] per month from [date] to [date] and $[amount] per month from [date] to [date], for a 12-month term with 30-day termination, and authorize the president to sign." One director should walk the building once a month with the scope in hand and note what was missed. Ask the company for a sign-in sheet or a phone check-in record, and compare it to the alarm log once in a while. Send the company a short written list after each walk. Three months of written notes is what lets you end a contract without an argument.

A sample timeline for a Memorial Day pool opening

- January: pull last year's invoices and complaints, and write the scope. - Early February: send the bid packet to three or more companies. - Mid-February: walk-throughs with each bidder. - Early March: bids due; check references and insurance. - March board meeting: approve the contract in an open meeting. - April: key and alarm code handoff, first off-season cleaning, and a walk-through together. - One week before the pool opens: switch to the pool-season schedule and restock. - June and July: monthly inspections; adjust weekend checks if restrooms fall behind. - After Labor Day: switch back to the off-season schedule. Mistakes boards make: hiring the cheapest bid without asking about hours on site, forgetting to budget for pool-season supplies, giving the crew a master key, never changing the alarm code when a company leaves, and letting a director's cousin clean the clubhouse on a handshake. If the pool service contract already covers deck and restroom cleaning, read it first so you do not pay twice. Our guide on how to open an HOA pool for the season covers that contract.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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