Seven questions facilities managers should ask before signing with a commercial cleaning company in Las Vegas — covering insurance, Nevada workers' compensation, licensing jurisdiction, scope-of-work documentation, crew scheduling, supply pass-through pricing, and cancellation terms.
Choosing a commercial cleaning company in Las Vegas is a procurement decision, not a housekeeping one. The wrong vendor costs more in re-cleans, coverage gaps, and surprise invoices than the low bid ever saved. These seven questions surface the problems before you sign, not six months in.
Ask them in this order. Each one narrows the field.
Three local realities break the standard vendor checklist.
The licensing map is not obvious. Clark County notes that the primary location of a business determines which jurisdiction licenses it, and the Las Vegas Valley contains six separate licensing jurisdictions. Plenty of addresses that read “Las Vegas” in a mailing address actually sit in unincorporated Clark County.
The dust never stops. Desert grit reloads exterior glass and rooftop equipment continuously. A scope written for a humid climate underestimates how fast surfaces degrade here.
The clock never resets. Hospitality and gaming floors run 24/7. Retail on the Strip peaks on a different curve than an office park in Enterprise or Spring Valley. A vendor who only staffs one shift cannot serve both.
Ask for the certificate to come directly from the broker. A PDF forwarded by a salesperson tells you nothing about whether the policy is still in force.
Check three things: the policy effective and expiration dates, the general liability limits, and whether your entity can be added as an additional insured. Then put the expiration date on your own calendar. Coverage that lapses in month four is a common and entirely preventable failure.
Nevada law makes industrial insurance provisions compulsory and obligatory for an employer who has an employee under a contract of hire, subject to exceptions written elsewhere in NRS chapters 616A through 616D (NRS 616B.633). So ask directly: is the crew classified as employees or as subcontractors?
The W-9 does quiet work here. It gives you the vendor’s legal entity name and taxpayer identification number. Match that name against the insurance certificate, the workers’ compensation certificate, and the business license.
When those four documents name different entities, you are dealing with more than one company. You need to know which one is actually sending people into your building.
Nevada requires a state business license from the Secretary of State before a person conducts business in the state, with statutory exemptions for certain entity types (NRS 76.100, NRS 76.020). The license renews annually for a fee (NRS 76.130).
A legitimate operator answers the jurisdiction question instantly, without looking it up. Hesitation here is diagnostic.
Third-party vetting is worth more than a self-reported claim. Excel Floor Cleaning & Janitorial Service was accepted as an approved supplier for the Super Bowl LVIII Business Connect program. That program required applicants to be in good standing and eligible to do business with the State of Nevada, and to have maintained an established Las Vegas office since June 2020. Someone else did the checking.
Demand a task-and-frequency matrix. Not a paragraph.
Every line names the task, the area, and the frequency. “Restrooms cleaned and restocked” is not a scope of work. “Restrooms: fixtures disinfected, floors mopped, dispensers restocked, nightly Monday through Saturday” is a scope of work.
Then ask what is explicitly excluded. Exclusions are where disputes live. Get written answers on interior glass above reach height, exterior windows, carpet extraction, hard floor refinishing, post-event cleanup, and pressure washing. If those live outside the base scope, find out now what they cost.
Our janitorial services are scoped this way for exactly this reason.
Get a name, not a department.
Ask which crew covers your building, what hours they work, and who the on-site supervisor is. Then ask the follow-ups that matter operationally: how are keys and badges controlled, what is the after-hours alarm protocol, and what happens when a crew member calls out?
Coverage models differ by property type. A high-traffic retail floor often needs day porters plus a night deep-clean, which is how we handle a Strip retail environment with constant foot traffic. An office park may need nights only. A property with round-the-clock occupancy needs a schedule built around occupancy, not around the vendor’s convenience.
There are two honest models: supplies bundled into the monthly rate, or supplies billed as a pass-through. Either is fine. Undisclosed is not.
If the answer is pass-through, ask four questions. What is the markup percentage? Is there a monthly cap? Will invoices be itemized? Can we supply our own consumables?
A bid that undercuts every competitor by twenty percent and then bills paper and liners at an unstated markup is not cheaper. It is back-loaded. Run the twelve-month number, not the monthly number.
Read four things: the initial term, the auto-renewal provision, the notice window, and whether there is a cure period for performance failures.
The terms you want are a reasonable notice period for termination without cause, plus a shorter cure-and-terminate path if quality standards are missed. The terms to push back on are a long auto-renewing term paired with a narrow notice window that opens and closes before a facilities team would think to look at it.
Ask for the cancellation clause in writing before the walkthrough, not after. A vendor confident in their work will not flinch.
Two line items get omitted from valley bids and then reappear as change orders.
Exterior glass. Desert dust and hard water spotting mean storefront and curtain-wall glass here degrades on a faster cycle than a national scope template assumes. Decide the frequency during negotiation. Professional window cleaning belongs in the contract or explicitly outside it, never in the gray zone.
Rooftop solar. If your property has panels, dust accumulation reduces the surface area actually collecting light. Ask whether your cleaning vendor handles it or whether you are managing a second contract. Solar panel cleaning is a service worth consolidating under one accountable vendor.
Send all seven questions to every bidder in the same email. Compare the answers side by side.
The differences will be obvious. One vendor answers in specifics with documents attached. Another answers in adjectives. That gap tells you more than the price line ever will.
Excel Floor Cleaning & Janitorial Service serves Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, Paradise, Spring Valley, and Enterprise. See how we approach commercial cleaning across the Las Vegas Valley.
Bring us your seven questions. We will answer every one in writing, walk your property, and give you a scope of work you can actually hold us to.
Request a quote from Excel Floor Cleaning & Janitorial Service
Ask for a broker-issued insurance certificate, proof of Nevada workers’ compensation, a W-9, a task-and-frequency scope of work, the name of your on-site supervisor, the supply pricing model, and the cancellation terms. Compare written answers from every bidder side by side before deciding.
Nevada law makes industrial insurance provisions compulsory and obligatory for employers who have employees under a contract of hire, with exceptions written into NRS chapters 616A through 616D (NRS 616B.633). Ask whether crews are employees or subcontractors, and confirm the certificate names the same entity as your contract.
Nevada requires a state business license from the Secretary of State (NRS 76.100), and local licensing depends on jurisdiction. Clark County notes that a business’s primary location determines which of the valley’s six jurisdictions licenses it, so confirm which body issued the vendor’s local license.
It depends on occupancy. Round-the-clock hospitality and gaming properties typically need overnight crews plus day porters. High-traffic retail benefits from day coverage with a nightly deep clean. Standard office space is usually served well by a night-only crew after tenants leave.
Sometimes. Vendors either bundle consumables into the monthly rate or bill them as a pass-through. Both models are legitimate, but ask for the markup percentage, a monthly cap, and itemized invoices. Compare the twelve-month total cost rather than the headline monthly rate.