When three grounds-maintenance quotations land on your desk — say at £18,000, £26,000, and £28,500 — the £18,000 figure is immediately tempting, especially when budgets are under pressure.
However, grounds maintenance is a labour-and-time service. There is no secret discount on fuel, machinery, or skilled operatives' wages. A quotation that sits 30% below the market almost always means one of three things:
- The bidder has underestimated the site footprint or time required and will struggle to resource the contract once reality hits in May.
- Key operations have been excluded or assumed away in the small print, leading to a stream of variation invoices throughout the year.
- Visit durations will be cut short to make the commercial hours stack up.
How to compare bids fairly
A well-run procurement asks every bidder to price against a structured pricing schedule broken down by activity and frequency, alongside a statement of allocated seasonal hours. When you can see how many operative hours each contractor has allowed for your site, an unsustainable low bid stands out immediately — protecting you from a failed mobilisation.