The Importance of a Clean Salon or Spa

By Jared Sarbit

When you think of the main differences between a good or bad salon experience, one of the first things that come to mind is cleanliness. While you probably understand the importance of cleanliness, it can be difficult to maintain between seeing clients, managing employees, and the other day-to-day tasks of running your salon or spa. However, the importance of a clean salon or spa is essential to your clients’ experience and your business overall.

Improve Client Experience

A clean salon or spa is the standard, not the exception, in the industry. Clients are becoming more aware of the importance of hygiene practices and it’s even becoming common practice in some salons and spas to clean or open new implements in front of clients to show that everything is hygienic.

Ultimately, when your clients visit you, they are coming for an experience. It’s nearly impossible to create a good experience, however, if workspaces are dirty and your client is wondering when the last time someone mopped was.

Cleanliness is one of the first things clients will notice (and something they won’t forget). If it’s done right, a clean salon or spa creates an environment that allows your clients to have the best experience possible.

Maintain Safety & Hygiene

Depending on the regulations in your area, a hygienic salon or spa may actually be required by law. Regulations are becoming stricter in this area, fuelled by client demand for hygienic salon and spa services.

Regardless of the regulations in your area, maintaining hygiene in your salon or spa is essential for both client and employee safety. Even something as simple as sweeping the floors can make a safety difference. Not only are hair trimmings on the floor unsightly, but they can also pose a slipping hazard to your clients and your staff.

Prevent Cross-Contamination

Preventing cross-contamination is something that your stylists or technicians should be doing every day. They should be sanitizing their tools between each client to prevent the spread of germs, bacteria, and disease from one client to the next.

Regular cleaning helps prevent the spread of illnesses like athlete’s foot, pinworms, lice, and more serious diseases like hepatitis. Regardless of how diligent your employees are, however, a sanitized tool will become contaminated instantly if it comes into contact with an unclean surface.

This is where a professional cleaning company can help. Working with the cleaning procedures in place at your salon or spa, professional cleaners can ensure that no surfaces are missed and that your clients get the best experience possible.

Especially now, with the fear of viruses, like COVID-19, getting a proper disinfection done in your salon or spa is extremely important. We highly recommend using an electrostatic sprayer to completely disinfect your business. Here is a quick one and a half minute video on how it works.

Disinfect your business

Simple Steps for a Clean Salon or Spa

There are cleaning tasks that need to be done between each client and jobs that are best left to the professionals. Basic cleaning tasks that should be done every day between clients include:

Cleaning surfaces (chairs, workstations, etc.)
Sanitizing tools
Sweeping hair trimmings, nail trimmings, etc.
Switching out towels, pillow covers, etc.
Removing clutter from counters and workstations
Mopping wet spots from rain or snow

In addition to these daily cleaning tasks, your salon or spa should have a regularly scheduled deep clean. How often this needs to be done will depend on how many clients you see and much cleaning you and your staff are prepared to do.

If you have washrooms onsite, for example, and cleaning them isn’t a task that your staff is prepared to do, you should have a cleaning company come once per day. If you and your staff are prepared to do more cleaning, you might have professional cleaners come once a week for a deeper clean. At the very least, you should have professionals come do a thorough clean once per month.

More reasons to hire a professional cleaning company

There are quite a few advantages to hiring a professional cleaning service for a deep clean. Professional cleaners are trained in how to best clean salon and spa equipment and they can be scheduled to clean after-hours. That means you don’t have to ask employees to stay late or close your business to clean when you could be seeing clients. A professional cleaning will include cleaning things like:

Walls
Retail shelves/displays
Floors (vacuuming and mopping)
Washrooms
Tubs, bathing areas
Saunas

At Picture Perfect Commercial Cleaning, we use the latest cleaning equipment to make sure that every space we enter gets the most thorough cleaning possible. Our experienced team will devise a plan – and stick to it – to ensure your business is looking its best and is safe for both employees and customers. We’ve been working with salons and spas for over 10 years and we know how to keep your space clean.

We offer cleaning services completely customized for your salon or spa. Contact us for a quote and cleaning schedule tailored to your business’ needs.

Cost Calculator

What Is In-House Cleaning Really Costing You?

Adjust the four numbers below to see your true annual in-house cleaning cost, an estimated cost range with Picture Perfect Cleaning, and what you'd save by making the switch.

Current in-house staff cost

Annual wages plus benefits for your cleaning staff

Supply and equipment costs

Annual spend on products, tools, and machine upkeep

Management oversight time

Hours per week spent scheduling and supervising cleaning

hrs/wk

Sick days or missed shifts

Average per cleaning staff member, per year

days/yr

Your Cost Comparison

True In-House Cost

Est. PPC Cost Range

$0 – $0

Estimated Annual Savings by Outsourcing

Based on the average of your PPC estimated range

Get a Custom Quote and See Your Savings →

Estimates are based on average commercial cleaning rates across Alberta and typical management and coverage costs. Your actual quote depends on square footage, service frequency, facility type, and scope of work. Request a custom quote above for an exact number.

The Hidden Cost of In-House Cleaning

A wage comparison only tells part of the story. Here’s what usually gets left out:

Wages and Benefits

Payroll is usually the first number people look at when they think about cleaning costs, but it rarely tells the whole story. Supplies, equipment, manager oversight, scheduling headaches, and the inevitable sick days all add up over time. By the time you account for everything, the true cost of keeping cleaning in-house can look very different from what’s on the payroll report. That’s exactly what our cost comparison tool is designed to help you see, along with what outsourcing might save.

Supplies and Equipment

Cleaning products, paper goods, vacuums, floor machines, and the replacement parts that keep them running all add up over the course of a year. Businesses that clean in-house often buy retail-grade supplies at retail prices because they don’t have access to the commercial pricing that a cleaning company gets from its suppliers. Equipment also breaks down, and replacing a vacuum or floor buffer every few years is a cost that rarely gets planned for in advance.

Management Time

Somebody has to schedule shifts, check the quality of the work, order more supplies when they run low, and step in when something gets missed. That’s real time pulled from a manager’s actual job, and it rarely gets assigned a dollar value, even though it should. If a facilities manager or office lead spends even a few hours a week on cleaning oversight, that’s time not spent on the parts of their role that actually move the business forward.

Absenteeism and Coverage Gaps

Sick days and missed shifts are part of running any team. When they happen, the work still has to get done, which usually means paying someone else to cover the shift or accepting that some tasks will have to wait. Over the course of a year, those extra costs can become surprisingly significant. There’s another effect that’s harder to measure, too. When cleaning is inconsistent, people notice. Employees notice it, clients notice it, and visitors notice it, even if they couldn’t tell you exactly why the space feels different.

Cost Category	What It Covers
Wages & Benefits	Annual pay for in-house cleaning staff
Supplies & Equipment	Products, tools, and machine upkeep
Management Time	Hours spent scheduling and supervising
Absenteeism	Missed shifts and last-minute coverage

Why Outsourcing Often Comes Out Ahead

Once you’ve seen your own numbers, the reasons behind the gap start to make sense.

Predictable Pricing

A cleaning company quote covers labor, supplies, and equipment on a single line. You know what you’re paying before the work starts, and that number doesn’t shift because someone called in sick or a vacuum broke down. Budgeting gets easier when the cost of cleaning is a single line item rather than four separate ones scattered across payroll, supplies, and management time.

No Coverage Gaps

When a member of an in-house cleaning team calls in sick, someone on your staff has to figure out what happens next. With a professional cleaning service, that responsibility shifts to the provider. If a cleaner is unavailable, arranging a replacement is part of the service, so your team isn’t left scrambling to fill the gap.

Accountability Built In

Picture Perfect Cleaning holds COR certification and provides regular service reporting, so you can see what’s being done and when, without spending your own hours checking on it. That’s the management time most in-house teams never get back. Our team also uses EcoLogo- and Green Seal-certified products, so you’re not trading cost savings for a lower cleaning standard.

Get Your Custom Quote

Wages are only one line in what in-house cleaning actually costs. Once you add in supplies, the hours a manager spends overseeing the crew, and the gaps left by sick days, the real number is usually higher than what shows up on a payroll report and often higher than what a professional service would charge for the same work. That’s the gap the tool above is built to show you, along with what outsourcing could put back in your budget.

Our cost comparison tool gives you a reasonable estimate of what you could save by switching to a professional cleaning service, not a final number. Every building is different, and factors like your cleaning schedule, the size of your facility, and the services you need will affect the actual cost. If you’d like a more accurate quote based on your space, contact Picture Perfect Cleaning, and we’ll walk you through the options.