How to choose a cleaning company on the Gold Coast.

When people ring around for cleaning quotes, they usually compare two numbers and pick the lower one, which is understandable and is also how most bad cleaning experiences start. The trouble is that price tells you almost nothing about whether a company will still be turning up reliably in six months, or whether the person in your home has been trained, or what happens if something gets broken.

I started this business after working as a cleaner and discovering I was being severely underpaid against the award. That experience shaped what I look for in a cleaning company, and most of it is not visible in a quote. So here is what to actually check.

1. Check both insurances, not just one

Almost every cleaning company will tell you they are insured. Fewer will tell you what that covers. There are two policies that matter and they do completely different jobs.

Public liability insurance covers damage to your property. If a cleaner knocks a television off a wall or floods a bathroom, this is the policy that pays for it. Workers compensation insurance covers the cleaner if they are injured while working. That second one is the one people forget, and it is the one that can land on you. If someone is hurt in your home and they are not covered, you can end up in the middle of it.

Ask for both by name. A company that carries them will not mind being asked. We hold public liability and workers compensation, and we are happy to send the certificates before you book.

2. Ask whether the cleaners are employees or subcontractors

You would be forgiven for treating this as an internal matter between a company and its staff. It reaches further than that, and it reaches you.

A company that engages its cleaners as subcontractors when they are really working as employees is doing something called sham contracting, and it is illegal under the Fair Work Act. It is also common in cleaning. For you as a client, the practical effect is that the cleaner in your home may have no workers compensation cover, no guaranteed rate, and no reason to stay in the job long. Turnover follows, and a company that is constantly replacing people cannot keep them all trained to the same standard, which is where the drop in quality actually comes from.

We employ our staff directly, pay above-award rates plus superannuation, supply all their equipment, and compensate them for travel time. There is more on how to spot the alternative in our guide to sham contracting in the cleaning industry, including the questions to ask and how to report it.

3. Confirm every team member is police checked

Not just the owner, and not just whoever quoted the job. Anyone who might be sent to your home unsupervised should hold a current police check. Ask whether checks cover the whole team and whether they are renewed rather than done once at hire.

Every member of our team holds a police check. For clients in medical and clinical settings we also carry infection control training, which is covered on the medical clinic cleaning page.

4. Ask how much training a new cleaner gets

This is the question that separates companies fastest, because most cannot answer it with a number. Cleaning is treated as unskilled work, so plenty of operators hand someone a cloth and a run sheet on day one.

Every one of our staff completes 60 to 80 hours of training, with regular check-ins afterwards to make sure they are still working to standard. When we hire we screen for attitude to learning, motivation, and what someone wants long term, because the practical skills are the part we can teach in a fortnight. Someone who plans to be doing this in three years approaches a bathroom differently from someone filling in for a few weeks, and you can see it in the work.

5. Understand what cleaning actually costs

Our residential cleaning starts from $140 and office cleaning starts from $180. Where a job lands above that depends on two things: the size of the space, and how long it takes to bring it to standard and keep it there.

The part that surprises people is the first visit. An initial deep clean takes longer than the regular services that follow, so it costs more. That reflects the work involved in getting a space to a standard that can then be held. Once that baseline is set, the recurring cleans are quicker because they are holding a line rather than clawing one back.

Starting prices current as at July 2026. Every job is quoted individually after we understand the space.

Be wary of a quote that is dramatically below everything else you have been given. In cleaning, an unusually low price generally means one of three things: the hours quoted are not enough to do the work, the cleaner is not being paid properly, or the company is not carrying the insurances, and all three tend to surface within a couple of months of starting.

6. Ask what happens when you are not happy

Things get missed occasionally, even on a good job, so ask what happens then. Is there a guarantee, what triggers it, and who do you contact? A company that has dealt with this before will have a straightforward answer ready, and one that has not will improvise something on the phone.

7. Ask about taking over from another cleaner

If you are replacing an existing cleaner, mention it when you get a quote, and pay attention to the answer. In our experience, taking over an existing job almost always requires a deep clean first, because the previous service has been missing things for months. The build-up is usually in the same places: shower grout, behind and under appliances, skirting boards, exhaust fans, door frames.

Bond cleans are the clearest example. They are frequently done poorly, and we get called in to redo them after an agency inspection has already failed. If a quote for a takeover assumes the space is already at standard, the company either has not looked properly or is planning to leave the same things undone.

The questions, in one list

Take these to any cleaning company you are considering, including us.

• Do you hold public liability and workers compensation insurance, and can I see the certificates?
• Are your cleaners employees or subcontractors?
• Is every team member police checked, and are checks renewed?
• How many hours of training does a new cleaner complete before working unsupervised?
• How do you keep the standard consistent when a different team member covers my job?
• Do you work to a written checklist, and can I see it?
• What does the first clean cost compared with the regular ones?
• What happens if I am not happy with a clean?
• Who do I contact if something goes wrong, and how quickly do you respond?

Frequently asked questions

Where to go from here

If you are comparing quotes right now, take the list above to each company and see where the answers diverge, because that usually tells you more than the prices do. When you want a quote from us, we come back within 48 hours and we will send the insurance certificates and the checklist with it.