What does Optus Glean charge per hour?

We do not. Commercial and contract cleaning is delivered to a defined scope on a fixed monthly fee, paid by Direct Debit, with an annual indexed review. Per-hour pricing is for ad-hoc and domestic work, neither of which we do. The fixed monthly fee covers the named primary cleaner, the named relief, all consumables where contracted, all equipment, and the management overhead of running the contract.

What happens if Optus Glean's cleaner is sick?

The named relief is deployed and the site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence. The relief is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the site's colour-coded system and IPC standard, so the standard of clean does not change. Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the buyer's risk to absorb.

How is the fixed monthly fee set?

The fee is set against a defined scope of work — frequency, areas, tasks, consumables, equipment — agreed at contract signature and documented in the service specification. The fee is reviewed once a year against the Consumer Price Index and the Contract Cleaning ERO rate movement, with any change communicated 60 days in advance of the review date. There are no in-year variations unless the scope itself changes.

Why are cleaning services in Cork so inconsistent?

It is a workforce-design problem rather than an effort problem. Most operatives in the sector are part-time or casual, and many also hold healthcare assistant shifts in nursing homes and acute care. When a care shift is offered, the cleaning shift is dropped. Optus Glean removes that dynamic by employing operatives PAYE on guaranteed hours, so the cleaning role is not the secondary income.

How does Optus Glean stop cleaners disappearing for healthcare shifts?

We make the cleaning role the better work. Pay is set above the Contract Cleaning ERO floor (€14.80 per hour, 2026). Hours are guaranteed and rostered weeks in advance. Annual leave is paid. Pension contributions are made. The cleaner has no incentive to substitute a less predictable casual healthcare shift.

Why are some commercial cleaning quotes for Cork so much cheaper than others?

Quotes for the same scope range from around €750-1,100 per month at the lower end to €1,500-1,700 per month at the upper end. The differential is almost entirely driven by employment model. Lower quotes assume a casual workforce where the provider carries no employment risk and passes service-continuity risk to the buyer. Higher quotes assume a PAYE workforce where the provider absorbs that risk.

Is the ERO rate a minimum or a market rate in Cork?

The Contract Cleaning ERO rate of €14.80 per hour is a statutory minimum set under the Labour Court's Sectoral Employment Order. It is a floor, not a ceiling. Providers who pay at the floor are competing for staff with adjacent care-sector roles paying €15-€17 per hour, which is why retention is poor across the lower end of the market.

What evidence is there that this workforce pattern is real?

It is visible in CSO Labour Force Survey data on multi-jobbing in accommodation, administrative support, and human health and social work activities, and in the Workplace Relations Commission's enforcement record under the Contract Cleaning ERO. Practice managers confirm it experientially: the same operative who cleans the practice on Monday is on a healthcare assistant rota at a nearby nursing home on Wednesday.

What happens if my cleaner is sick or on leave?

The named relief is deployed. The site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of an unplanned absence, or at the start of the leave period for a planned absence. The relief is already vetted, inducted on the site, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard as the primary cleaner. The task list, the equipment, and the time window do not change. The clean is delivered to the same standard.

Will I get a different cleaner every week?

No. The model is a named primary cleaner with a named relief, both fixed to the site for the duration of the contract. The relief only attends when the primary is genuinely unavailable — sick day, annual leave, training day — and it is the same named relief each time, not a rotating pool. Long-term continuity of the same two people on a site is what makes the standard of clean stable.

How does Optus Glean handle long-term cover?

For absences longer than two weeks, cover is drawn from the wider Optus Glean trained bench. Every operative on the bench is PAYE-employed, Garda-vetted, and trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard, so continuity of standard is preserved. The buyer is informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration at the point the long-term absence is identified.

What happens if my primary cleaner leaves Optus Glean?

The relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable. A new relief is recruited, vetted, inducted on the site, trained on the colour-coded system and IPC standard, and introduced to the buyer before the handover takes effect. There is no scenario in which the buyer discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed. Continuity is engineered, not improvised.

Hotel Cleaning Cork | Hospitality Cleaning Cork

€6.5M Public Liability

€13M Employer's Liability

Garda Vetted Staff

24/7 Emergency Response

Safe Pass Certified

The Optus Glean promise: predictability

Three pillars. Three commitments. No exceptions.

Predictable cost. One fixed monthly fee, set against a defined scope and an annual indexed review. No variable hours. No surprise invoices. No padded callout charges. Budgeted once, paid by Direct Debit, reviewed once a year.

Predictable presence. The site is cleaned every day it is meant to be cleaned. A named primary cleaner is rostered to your contract, supported by a named relief who is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard. The schedule does not depend on whether one person is available on one day.

Predictable freedom. A single point of accountability. One contract. One named manager. One number to call. Cleaning is no longer a problem the hotel has to manage — it is a service that runs.

Why cleaning in Cork is structurally hard to get right

Most cleaning provision in Ireland — including in healthcare-adjacent settings — is delivered by a workforce that is structurally part-time and casual. A significant proportion of operatives across the sector also work as healthcare assistants in nursing homes, residential care, and acute hospitals. Cleaning shifts are typically taken when healthcare shifts are not available, and released when they are. This pattern is consistent with CSO labour data on accommodation, food, and administrative-support employment, and it is the underlying reason that buyers across Ireland encounter inconsistency from agencies they have contracted in good faith.

The pattern is reinforced by two background pressures specific to Cork. Housing affordability limits the catchment for any role paying at or near the minimum wage. The Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order rate of €14.80 per hour for 2026, set under the Labour Court's sectoral employment framework, sits close enough to flexible care-sector pay that operatives drift toward whichever shift pays slightly more on the day. Both pressures pull cleaning staff away from contracted shifts and toward casual healthcare work.

The result, from the buyer's perspective, is the experience most practice managers, facilities leads, and procurement officers in Cork describe: a clean that is half-completed when the contracted cleaner is available, missed entirely when they are not, and accompanied by recurring conversations with the agency about cover that may or may not arrive.

This is the structural problem Optus Glean is built to solve. Our operatives are fully PAYE-employed with guaranteed weekly hours, paid leave, and pension contributions under Irish auto-enrolment. They are paid above the ERO floor deliberately — because the structural reliability of the service depends on the cleaner choosing to remain in the role rather than rotating through casual healthcare shifts. A named primary cleaner is assigned to your site, supported by a named relief, both Garda-vetted and trained to Optus Glean's documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard.

Professional Hotel Housekeeping in Cork

Cork's hospitality sector is one of the strongest in Ireland outside Dublin. The city centre has a dense concentration of hotels serving business travellers, conference delegates, and tourists — from large properties like The River Lee Hotel, the Clayton Hotel, and the Kingsley to boutique properties like the Imperial Hotel on South Mall and Hayfield Manor in the western suburbs. Beyond the city, Cork's coastline and countryside drive a tourism economy built on food, culture, and natural beauty.

Kinsale, just 25 minutes south of Cork city, is Ireland's gourmet capital and attracts visitors year-round. Its hotels and guesthouses demand housekeeping standards that match their culinary reputation. Cobh, the historic port town, draws cruise ship visitors and heritage tourists. Fota Island Resort is one of Munster's premier leisure destinations. Midleton, home of Jameson Distillery, has a growing hotel and short-stay market. Further west, Clonakilty, Bantry, and the Beara Peninsula serve the Wild Atlantic Way tourist trail.

Optus Glean provides hotel housekeeping across all of these areas. We supply trained housekeeping teams that integrate with your hotel's operations, maintain your brand standards, and scale with your occupancy.

What Our Cork Hotel Cleaning Covers

Guest Room Housekeeping

Guest room quality is the single most important factor in hotel reviews. Our housekeeping teams follow a structured room cleaning checklist that ensures consistency across every room, every day:

Full bed making with hospital corners and pillow placement to your brand specification
Bathroom deep clean — shower, bath, toilet, basin, mirrors, chrome fixtures
Amenity replenishment — toiletries, towels, tea/coffee supplies
Vacuuming carpets or mopping hard floors
Dusting all surfaces, lamps, headboards, and furniture
Checking and reporting maintenance issues (dripping taps, blown bulbs, damaged fixtures)
Minibar restocking where applicable

Public Area Cleaning

Lobbies, reception areas, corridors, lifts, stairwells, and public washrooms are cleaned throughout the day to maintain presentation. High-traffic areas in Cork city centre hotels see constant footfall, and our teams maintain them with regular touch-point cleaning and floor maintenance.

Restaurant and Bar Cleaning

Cork is renowned for its food culture, and your hotel's restaurant and bar areas need to reflect that standard. We provide pre-service and post-service cleaning of dining areas, bar surfaces, and public-facing kitchen zones. Cork hotels with breakfast service receive early-morning cleaning to ensure the restaurant is spotless before the first guest sits down.

Conference and Events Spaces

Cork city hotels host a significant volume of conferences, weddings, and corporate events. We provide rapid turnaround cleaning between events, setup and breakdown support, and deep cleaning after large functions.

Cork Tourism Areas We Serve

Cork City Centre — South Mall, Patrick Street, MacCurtain Street, the Docklands. High-volume business and leisure hotels
Kinsale — Gourmet capital. Boutique hotels, guesthouses, and self-catering properties needing consistent high standards
Cobh — Cruise ship port. Hotels and B&Bs serving heritage tourists and cruise passengers
Fota Island — Resort property requiring full housekeeping coverage including spa and leisure areas
Midleton — Jameson Distillery tourism driving hotel and short-stay demand
Clonakilty & West Cork — Wild Atlantic Way hotels, guesthouses, and holiday rentals
Bantry & Beara — Scenic tourism properties in remote locations, served by our locally based teams
Mallow & North Cork — Heritage properties and country house hotels

Flexible Contracts for Cork Hotels

Cork tourism is seasonal. City centre business hotels maintain steady occupancy year-round, but coastal and resort properties see significant peaks in summer and during events like the Cork Jazz Festival (October), the Kinsale Gourmet Festival (October), and bank holiday weekends. Optus Glean offers flexible contracts that match your reality:

Variable staffing — Scale housekeeping teams up during peak occupancy and down during quieter periods
Per-room pricing — Pay based on rooms serviced, not fixed headcount. If occupancy drops, your costs drop
Emergency cover — Staff sickness, unexpected peaks, or last-minute events covered by our backup team
Integrated laundry — Bundle commercial laundry with housekeeping for a single-contract solution

How Optus Glean handles staff shortages

Every Optus Glean contract is staffed on a redundancy model rather than a single-person model. A named primary cleaner is assigned to the site at contract start. A named relief is assigned alongside them. Both are PAYE-employed by Optus Glean, both are Garda-vetted, both are inducted on the site's specific layout, access protocols, and colour-coded equipment system, and both are trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard. Substitution is built into the contract from the first day, not arranged on the day cover is needed.

Sick day cover. When the primary cleaner is unable to work, the named relief is deployed. The hotel site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence by SMS or email, with the name of the relief who is attending. The relief follows the same task list, uses the same equipment, and finishes within the same window. The standard of clean is unchanged because the relief was prepared for this scenario before the absence happened.

Annual leave cover. Annual leave is rostered weeks in advance and the relief is scheduled to cover the full leave period. The hotel is informed at the start of the leave period — not on the morning leave begins. This is the same model used in clinical rota management: known absences are pre-staffed, not improvised.

Long-term cover. If the primary cleaner is absent for more than two weeks (extended illness, parental leave, bereavement leave), cover is drawn from the wider trained bench rather than relying on the single named relief. The hotel is kept informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration. Continuity of standard is maintained because every operative on the bench is trained to the same documented standard.

Permanent reassignment. If the primary cleaner moves to a new permanent role within Optus Glean — promotion, relocation, retirement — the relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable, a new relief is trained on the site, and both are introduced to the hotel before the handover takes effect. There is no day on which the hotel discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed.

Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the hotel's risk to absorb. The buyer pays a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope to be delivered, every day it is meant to be delivered. The mechanism by which we deliver it — primary, relief, bench, retraining — is our cost to manage and our risk to carry.

Frequently asked questions

How much does hotel and hospitality cleaning cost in Ireland in 2026?

A hotel, restaurant, or function venue is priced as a fixed monthly fee tied to scope: public-area programme, back-of-house compliance cleaning, washrooms, function spaces, and out-of-hours deep cleans. The Contract Cleaning ERO 2026 sets a €14.80/hour labour floor across the sector, but reputable providers quote the contract — multi-year term, annual indexed review, single monthly Direct Debit — not the hour.

What standards apply to hospitality cleaning in Ireland?

The FSAI Hygiene of Foodstuffs Regulations and HACCP principles set the back-of-house standard; HSE Environmental Health Officers inspect against them. Failte Ireland's classification standards drive the guest-facing benchmark in hotels and serviced apartments. The cleaning programme must produce a documented audit trail — SDS, signed task logs, contact-time records — that supports the GM's FSAI compliance file.

What's the FSAI requirement for back-of-house cleaning?

FSAI inspections check that food-contact and food-adjacent surfaces are cleaned and disinfected to documented frequencies, that chemical use is controlled and justified per the SDS, that colour-coded equipment prevents cross-contamination, and that records evidence the programme. The cleaning provider's job is to deliver and document — the GM and head chef remain the duty-holders, but a credible provider makes audit-ready evidence routine.

What's the difference between guest-facing and back-of-house cleaning standards?

Guest-facing cleaning is judged on visible standard — finish, presentation, scent, consistency across rooms — driven by Failte Ireland classification and TripAdvisor reality. Back-of-house cleaning is judged on FSAI and HACCP compliance — food-safe surfaces, validated chemicals, documented frequencies. A reputable provider runs both under one contract with one named site lead, not as separate jobs subcontracted to different crews.

What's the difference between PAYE and casual cleaning contracts in hospitality?

A PAYE-employed cleaner is on payroll with the company that signs the contract, paid above the Contract Cleaning ERO €14.80/hour floor, Garda-vetted where required, with paid leave and PRSI/pension. A casual or self-employed operative is none of those things and rotates between venues. PAYE staffing is the only model that supports a named primary cleaner who actually knows your kitchen extract schedule and your function-room setup pattern.

How do I evaluate a cleaning provider for a hotel?

Three checks. One: are the cleaners PAYE-employed by the company that signs the contract, or subcontracted? Two: who is the named site lead and how is back-of-house separated from guest-facing crew? Three: can the provider produce method statements and SDS that satisfy an FSAI inspection on day one of the contract — not "we'll get there in a few months".

What should be in a cleaning contract for a hotel or restaurant?

Scope per zone (front of house, guest rooms, function spaces, kitchens, waste rooms, washrooms), back-of-house frequencies tied to FSAI and HACCP, named site lead and crew, the chemical regime with SDS and contact times, colour-coded equipment commitment, fixed monthly fee, annual indexed review, audit-ready reporting, and a clean exit clause. No per-hour pricing.

How often should function spaces and event venues be cleaned?

Function spaces are cleaned to event turnaround — pre-event reset, mid-event support where contracted, post-event deep clean — over and above the daily public-area programme. The cleaning provider should hold a known-volume retainer with named relief crews available for weekend and out-of-hours peaks. In Cork, larger function venues typically pre-book extra crews for the November-to-January season.

Related Services in Cork

Last reviewed: 2026-05-06

Hotel Cleaning Cork — Professional Housekeeping for Cork Hotels & Hospitality