How should shared kitchens and bathrooms be cleaned in a multi-tenant suite?

Commercial floorplates in Double Bay 2028 are small, and subdivision is the norm. A single 250 square metre first-floor suite above the Cross Street or Bay Street retail commonly holds an advisory or professional practice, an allied health provider with a couple of consulting rooms, and a serviced-office operator subletting a handful of private offices. One front door, one kitchen, one set of bathrooms, three separate businesses.

Each tenant does the sensible thing individually and engages a cleaner for their own area. Collectively it produces a floor where the shared spaces belong to no scope at all.

The failure pattern is consistent enough that we can usually describe a suite before walking it.

The structure is straightforward. One agreement is signed, normally with the head lessee or the building manager. The written scope is divided into zones — clinical, general office, and shared amenity — each with its own frequency and, where relevant, its own protocol and equipment. One crew works the whole floor in one round, holds one key under a signed register, and leaves one signed log.

Cost is split between tenants by occupied area on a single monthly invoice. Because one round replaces three, duplicated setup, travel and minimum-charge overhead disappears, which is why the combined figure usually lands 10 to 15 percent below the three separate contracts added together.

Tenants raise two reasonable concerns. The first is confidentiality — an advisory practice does not want the same crew moving between its offices and a neighbour’s. That is handled by a clean-desk protocol, signed confidentiality undertakings, and police-checked cleaners who never move papers, touch screens or photograph anything beyond agreed audit shots.

The second is standards drift: the tenant with the highest requirement worries about being levelled down to the lowest. Zoning the scope solves it. Clinical rooms keep dedicated colour-coded equipment, TGA-listed disinfectant at full dwell time and their own signed log, entirely separate from the general office lines — one contract, different standards where different standards are warranted.