Best Commercial & Office Cleaning in Melbourne

How we ranked Melbourne's commercial cleaners

A Google Maps sweep for commercial and office cleaning across Melbourne returned 87 contractors. Only 27 of them had a site of their own that loads and at least 20 reviews, a real filter in a trade where plenty of operators are a mobile number and a subcontract. Those 27 average 4.76 stars between them, so a high rating alone says very little about who will still be cleaning properly in month six.

Each score weighs the public Google rating against how many reviews stand behind it. A contractor with a few perfect reviews is marked down further than one with hundreds of good ones, so scores usually sit slightly under the stars you see on Maps. Franchise networks appear once, through the Melbourne branch that reviewers rate highest. The 10 listed go from 4.89 to 4.67. Position cannot be bought.

How the score works →

How much does office cleaning cost in Melbourne?

Contract cleaning is sold as a monthly fee, but the fee is built from hours on site multiplied by visits. Melbourne hourly rates for routine office work mostly sit between $40 and $70 including GST, with medical and other specialised cleans from $55 to $85. As a guide, a small office under 100 square metres cleaned weekly costs $260 to $600 a month, and an office of medium size cleaned daily $850 to $2,600.

Frequency moves the price most, followed by the number of bathrooms and kitchens, the floor types and how late the cleaners must arrive. Periodic work is normally priced apart from the routine clean: carpet steam cleaning, stripping and sealing vinyl, internal glass and sanitary bin exchanges each carry their own rate. Ask every bidder to state hours per visit and to show GST clearly, otherwise the quotes cannot be compared.

Very short visits rarely come cheap. Under the Cleaning Services Award a part time or casual cleaner must be rostered and paid for at least two consecutive hours at a site of up to 2,000 square metres, with a minimum of one hour allowed only for small standalone locations of up to 300 square metres in limited cases. A contractor pricing a tidy of 30 minutes still has to cover that minimum shift somewhere.

Why is a very cheap cleaning quote a warning sign?

Cleaning is almost all labour, and the labour has a legal floor. From 1 July 2026 the Cleaning Services Award sets $27.08 an hour for a Level 1 cleaner, plus a 25 per cent loading for casuals. A weekday shift that finishes after 6pm attracts a penalty for the whole shift, which lifts a casual Level 1 cleaner to 140 per cent of the base rate, or $37.91 an hour.

On top of wages the contractor pays superannuation, WorkCover premiums and, in Victoria, a portable long service levy of 1.8 per cent of ordinary wages for contract cleaning. Add supervision, chemicals, equipment and travel, and the gap between an honest hourly charge and the award shrinks fast. A quote that works out below the evening wage itself can only be delivered by cutting minutes on site or by underpaying someone.

That second outcome can land on the client. The Fair Work Ombudsman says a business can be held legally responsible, as an accessory, when it is knowingly involved in a contractor or subcontractor underpaying staff, and a head contractor has been penalised in court over cleaning rates it knew were too low to cover entitlements. Ask each bidder how many labour hours the price assumes, what classification the cleaners are paid at, and who actually employs them.

Do commercial cleaners need a licence in Victoria?

Usually, yes. Under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018, a company that supplies workers to clean commercial premises is treated as a labour hire provider and must hold a labour hire licence. Commercial premises include offices, shops, restaurants, factories and schools. The main exception is the business of one person where the director personally does the cleaning. Any subcontractor your cleaning company passes the work to must be licensed as well.

Responsibility runs in both directions. Operating unlicensed exposes a company to penalties that can exceed $660,000, and the Labour Hire Authority warns that substantial penalties may also apply to a business that engages an unlicensed provider. Before signing, look the contractor up on the Labour Hire Licence Register. The definition of labour hire was amended from 1 October 2026, and licences are cancelled regularly, so repeat the search at each renewal.

Two insurance documents are worth requesting alongside the licence number. A Victorian employer with annual remuneration above $7,500 must register for WorkCover insurance, and WorkSafe issues a Certificate of Currency that proves the policy is active. Public liability cover is the other one: ask for the insurer's certificate showing the limit and expiry date, because a flooded server room or a scratched stone floor is a claim against that policy.

What should a commercial cleaning contract include?

What makes a cleaning contract enforceable is its schedule. That document should list every task by area and frequency, the hours allowed per visit, who supplies bin liners, hand towel and soap, which periodic jobs are included, and how keys and alarm codes are held. Without that schedule, a dispute about a missed kitchen or dusty skirting boards becomes one person's opinion against another's.

Many cleaning agreements are standard form contracts, offered with no real chance to negotiate. Since 9 November 2023 the unfair contract terms law has protected any business with fewer than 100 employees or under $10 million in annual turnover that signs one. A term letting only the contractor end or change the deal may be unfair, courts have struck out automatic rollover clauses in service contracts, and an unfair term can be declared void.

• How many cleaners will attend, and how many hours are allowed for each visit?
• Who inspects the work, how often, and will we see the inspection reports?
• Are consumables included in the monthly fee or invoiced separately at cost?
• What notice does each side give to end the agreement, and does it renew automatically?
• Are the cleaners your own employees, and is any subcontractor on the Labour Hire Licence Register?

What can you do if the office cleaning is not up to standard?

Start with evidence and the contract. Keep a communication book or shared log on site, photograph what was missed, and put complaints in writing to the account manager, not to the cleaner on shift. A sound agreement gives the contractor a set period to rectify and lets you terminate after repeated failures. Regular joint inspections against the task schedule catch slippage before it turns into a dispute.

Smaller clients also have the Australian Consumer Law behind them. A business buying services that cost up to $100,000 is treated as a consumer, so the cleaning must be carried out with due care and skill. For a minor failure the contractor gets a reasonable time to fix it; refuse or stall, and you can have someone else do the work and recover the cost. Consumer Affairs Victoria may assist with such disputes.

Remember that the premises stay yours to manage after hours. WorkSafe Victoria says whoever has management or control of a workplace must keep it, and the ways in and out, safe so far as is reasonably practicable, and employers owe contractors the same duty for matters they control. Lighting on the loading dock, a locked chemical cupboard and a clear procedure for entry after hours are your side of the arrangement.