Las Vegas cleaning companies stay busy during pandemic

CitiClean Services owner Chad Lee’s most recent payroll accounting summed up the impact of increased demand for his company’s services: Hiring new temporary employees had more than tripled the normal costs.

In addition to a new contract to provide janitorial services for the city, the increase reflects a surge of people demanding cleaner spaces for businesses, offices and homes because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“As (businesses) are coming back, they’re having us go in and disinfect,” Lee said, adding that most companies that remained open hired the company to disinfect the space every night.

CitiClean Services, a family-owned Las Vegas company, charges $225 for general cleaning of an office up to 2,000 square feet. That’s roughly 11 cents per square foot, and Lee said based on bids he did — and didn’t — get that he’s on the lower end of the cost spectrum for commercial cleaning companies in Las Vegas. The fees cover carpet vacuuming, sweeping and mopping hard floors, dusting flat surfaces, cleaning bathrooms and removing trash.

Lee said he can keep costs low because he works in “volume,” meaning he has about 60-70 accounts at a time, while most companies the size of CitiClean Services have 5-10 and need to charge more to make up the difference.

Supplies hard to find

It’s also been a busy time for Rhino’s Cleaning Services. Manager Denisea Ward said she’s had to hire additional staff to keep up with demand, which has come mostly in the form of residential deep cleanings.

Rhino’s Cleaning Services charges $189 for that service for any house up to 2,500 square feet, Ward said. It also does some commercial cleaning, and she said the price for that is based on the square footage of the business and which services will be rendered.

Care.com connects individuals to businesses that provide family care needs. It reports a basic home cleaning on average costs $14.25 per hour in Las Vegas, but that can vary based on factors such as which areas of the house will be cleaned and who will provide the cleaning supplies.

Finding supplies has been an issue for several companies. Lee said he hasn’t had too much trouble, thanks to long-term relationships with suppliers, but he did run into issues getting toilet paper as it was being hoarded at the beginning of the pandemic.

Ward said getting supplies for Rhino’s Cleaning Services has been one of her biggest headaches during the pandemic.

“It’s frustrating because we’ve got people going around town to look for supplies instead of working,” Ward said. “It’s hard to find disinfecting and cleaning supplies, and we can’t order our massive supply online like we normally do.”

It’s a problem many around the country can relate to, as cleaning and disinfecting products have been wiped off store shelves almost as soon as they land there.

The lack of in-store stock has individuals turning online to suppliers that normally service only businesses, which in turn leaves the cleaning companies shorthanded. It hasn’t slowed the demand for cleaning services, as most companies reported an increase in business during the pandemic.

Surviving ‘a shock’

While business has been on the rise for most cleaning and janitorial companies, that hasn’t been the case for everyone.

Pristine Cleaning Services manager Lorenzo Oliver said his company’s residential move-in and move-out services are usually their most popular and are still going strong. But Pristine Cleaning Service’s commercial business dropped to the point that it had to let go of about half its staff.

“I would characterize it as a shock because you’d think more people would want cleaning,” Oliver said. “But a lot of the office buildings that were multiplexes got closed down because there was a limited quantity of people (going into work). A lot of the restaurants we work with are trying to do everything in-house due to the financial strain.”

Oliver said he is confident Pristine Cleaning Services will survive, and once the initial shock wore off he’s been able to rotate the staff he has and stay busy.

He expects those who focus on residential cleaning to continue going strong over the next few months as some people decide to continue staying home, while he hopes commercial cleaning will at least return to its previous levels.

“I think over the next couple months, the service business is going to feel a little more of an increase in business because people will want a lot of stuff delivered to their home,” Oliver said. “Cleaning and pest control are two things people will definitely want to make sure are taken care of on a more ongoing basis. So I can see a splurge for a short time, and then things will get back to normal.”

Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2936. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.