A compiled reference of 26 verified statistics on event and venue cleaning costs: the booth cleaning rates published by the San Diego Convention Center, the Javits Center's show contractor, Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center, and ICC Sydney, market per-square-foot and per-event rates from commercial cleaning pricing guides, the janitorial wage data underneath those rates, and how much waste an event actually produces. Every figure is drawn from a named public source (venue rate cards, Smart Janitorial, Brye A+ Cleaning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, MeetGreen) and independently checked before publishing.
Key statistics
5 highlights from this report
Key statistics
Key takeaways
Convention centers publish exact cleaning prices, and they are rarely compiled in one place. Across three US venues, booth vacuuming runs $0.40 to $0.99 per square foot per day (ICC Sydney prices per stand, in Australian dollars), ordering after the advance deadline costs 43 to 50 percent more on per-square-foot lines, and walking away from a booth can cost $935 in disposal fees alone.
Booth vacuuming runs $0.40 to $0.99 per sq ft per day at major convention centers.
Abandoning a booth in San Diego costs $880 per 100 sq ft in disposal fees.
A conference attendee produces 1.89 kg of waste per day (MeetGreen).
Whole-venue event cleaning runs $0.12 to $0.20 per square foot.
Late per-square-foot cleaning orders cost 43-50% more than advance orders.
How we built this report
Every figure was compiled in October 2026 from named public sources and checked against the original document before publishing.
- Compiled from primary sources
Published exhibitor rate cards and cleaning order forms from four convention centers, commercial cleaning pricing guides, Bureau of Labor Statistics wage tables, and event waste research.
- Only explicitly stated figures
We include only numbers a named source states directly, and attribute each inline at the point it appears. The handful of figures we computed from those numbers are labeled as computed.
- Disagreements shown, not averaged
Venue rate cards and pricing guides quote different numbers. We show each venue's card separately rather than blending them into a false single figure.
- Independent review
Written by one co-founder, reviewed by the other before publishing.
These are published list rates and guide-level ranges, not an audited survey. Rate cards are show-specific and change yearly (the Javits figures come from one show's December 2025 order form), negotiated event contracts differ from exhibitor list prices, and the Sydney figures are in Australian dollars. The Smart Janitorial and Brye A+ ranges are the vendors' own pricing guides, not surveys, and MeetGreen's waste figure is measured at events it manages under sustainability programs, so typical events may landfill more. Confirm any figure against the venue's current card before budgeting.
Event cleaning costs, by the numbers
All 26 figures, grouped by theme. Each is from a named public source and independently verified; computed figures are labeled.
What convention centers charge for booth cleaning
Convention centers publish exact cleaning prices in their exhibitor service guides, and the spread between venues is wide. The San Diego Convention Center (visitsandiego.com) prices booth vacuuming at $0.66 per square foot per day ordered in advance and $0.99 ordered on site in its 2026-27 exhibitor guide. T3 Expo (t3expo.com), the show contractor at the Javits Center, lists vacuuming at $0.40 / $0.57 on a December 2025 order form. Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center (grbhouston.com) charges a flat $0.50, and ICC Sydney (iccsydney.com.au) prices stand cleaning per clean by stand size rather than per square foot.
Statistic 1
Booth vacuuming at the San Diego Convention Center: $0.66 per sq ft per day in advance, $0.99 ordered on site.
San Diego Convention Center exhibitor services guide (2026-27)
Statistic 2
SDCC carpet shampooing: $1.40 per sq ft per day; carpet stain spotting: $57 per occurrence.
San Diego Convention Center exhibitor services guide (2026-27)
Statistic 3
SDCC wet flat mopping: $0.42 / $0.63 per sq ft per day; wet polishing: $1.00 per sq ft per day.
San Diego Convention Center exhibitor services guide (2026-27)
Statistic 4
Javits Center booth vacuuming (via T3 Expo): $0.40 advance / $0.57 standard per sq ft per day; carpet shampooing $0.70 / $1.00.
T3 Expo cleaning order form, Javits Center (Dec 2025)
Statistic 5
Hard floor scrubbing at the Javits Center: $1.80 advance / $2.57 standard per sq ft per day, the highest per-square-foot cleaning line on any card we reviewed.
T3 Expo cleaning order form, Javits Center (Dec 2025)
Statistic 6
George R. Brown Convention Center: vacuuming $0.50, carpet shampooing $0.60, mopping $0.50 per sq ft per day, with a 100 sq ft minimum plus 8.25% tax and a 3% card fee.
GRBCC booth cleaning rate sheet (effective 2023)
Statistic 7
ICC Sydney stand cleaning: A$56.50 to A$169.50 per day on weekdays by stand size (under 20 to 140 sqm), with Saturday and Sunday rates between, rising to A$103.50 to A$310.50 on public holidays.
ICC Sydney cleaning services order form (Dec 2025, inc GST)
Statistic 8
ICC Sydney's public-holiday stand cleaning rates run 83% above its weekday rates, at every stand size.
Computed from the ICC Sydney order form (Dec 2025)
Statistic 9
Ordering after the advance deadline costs about 43% more at the Javits Center (every cleaning line) and exactly 50% more at SDCC on every line that offers an advance rate; SDCC shampooing, polishing, and stain spotting have no advance rate at all.
Computed from the T3 Expo (2025) and SDCC (2026-27) rate cards
Statistic 10
ICC Sydney's standard stand cleaning explicitly excludes stain and scuff-mark removal; venue staff clean only public areas (aisles, foyers, amenities) unless exhibitor cleaning is ordered.
ICC Sydney cleaning services order form (Dec 2025)
What this means: there is no market rate for booth cleaning, there are venue rate cards, and the same square foot of carpet costs 65% more to vacuum in San Diego than at the Javits Center at advance rates. The one constant is the structure: per square foot, per day, with a steep premium for deciding late and a scope that stops short of the damage that matters.
Porter service and cleaning labor
Trash removal during show hours is a separate line called porter service, priced by booth size. SDCC's 2026-27 guide runs $121 to $274 per day depending on booth size and order timing; the Javits form runs $69 to $147.14 per day; George R. Brown runs porter service at $50 to $150 by booth size, serviced on 2-hour intervals. Dedicated continuous labor is hourly: $66 to $99 at SDCC, $35 at GRB.
Statistic 11
SDCC porter service (wastebaskets emptied every 2 show hours): $121 to $174 per day in advance, $158 to $274 on site, by booth size tier from 0-500 to 3,001+ sq ft.
San Diego Convention Center exhibitor services guide (2026-27)
Statistic 12
Javits Center porter service: $69 / $98.57 per day for 100-999 sq ft booths and $103 / $147.14 for 1,000+ sq ft; hourly porters run $57 / $81.43 with a 2-hour daily minimum.
T3 Expo cleaning order form, Javits Center (Dec 2025)
Statistic 13
Dedicated in-booth cleaning labor at SDCC: $66 per hour in advance, $99 on site, with a 4-hour minimum per worker per day.
San Diego Convention Center exhibitor services guide (2026-27)
Statistic 14
George R. Brown continuous porter service: $35 per hour, with porter tiers of $50 (0-500 sq ft) to $150 (3,000+ sq ft) serviced on 2-hour intervals, and the same 4-hour labor minimum.
GRBCC booth cleaning rate sheet (effective 2023)
Statistic 15
The U.S. employs 2,209,760 janitors and cleaners at a median wage of $17.71 per hour (mean $18.64), with the 10th-90th percentile span running $13.77 to $24.17.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025)
Statistic 16
SDCC's billed dedicated-labor rate is 3.7x the national median janitor wage ordered in advance, and 5.6x ordered on site.
Computed from the SDCC rate card and BLS OEWS May 2025
What this means: the gap between a $17.71 median wage and a $66 to $99 billed hour is where supervision, insurance, union agreements, and exclusivity live. Both US venue-run cleaning programs we reviewed (SDCC and GRB) state they are the exclusive cleaning provider on their own floor; where that holds, the rate card is the market.
What whole-venue event cleanup costs
Outside the convention center exclusivity zone, cleaning companies publish their own event pricing. According to Smart Janitorial (smartjanitorial.com), large-venue event cleaning runs $0.13 to $0.17 per square foot, pricing a 10,000 sq ft venue at $1,300 to $1,700 per cleaning, with hourly rates of $40 to $100 per cleaner. Brye A+ Cleaning (bryeapluscleaning.com) quotes $0.12 to $0.20 per square foot for banquet halls and convention centers and $30 to $50 per hour per cleaner.
Statistic 17
Large-venue event cleaning: $0.12 to $0.20 per square foot (Brye A+), $0.13 to $0.17 per square foot (Smart Janitorial).
Brye A+ Cleaning; Smart Janitorial pricing guides (2026)
Statistic 18
A 10,000 square foot venue costs $1,300 to $1,700 per event cleaning at per-square-foot rates.
Smart Janitorial pricing guide (2026)
Statistic 19
Event cleaning crews bill $30 to $50 per hour per cleaner (Brye A+) to $40 to $100 per hour per cleaner (Smart Janitorial).
Brye A+ Cleaning; Smart Janitorial pricing guides (2026)
Statistic 20
By event size, post-event cleanup runs $200-$400 for events up to 100 guests, $400-$800 for 100-300 guests, and $800-$2,000+ above 300 guests.
Brye A+ Cleaning pricing guide (2026)
Statistic 21
Per-visit event cleaning runs $100 to $500 or more, with after-party cleanup adding $120 to $300.
Smart Janitorial pricing guide (2026)
What this means: the two guides agree within a few cents per square foot, which makes $0.12 to $0.20 a defensible budgeting range for open-market venue cleanup. The hourly spread is wider than the per-square-foot spread, so larger spaces are better priced by area.
Waste, disposal, and what gets left behind
Cleanup cost is also a waste problem. According to MeetGreen (meetgreen.com), a sustainable event consultancy that has measured events since 2007, the typical conference attendee produces more than 4 pounds (1.89 kg) of waste per day, more than 2.5 pounds (1.16 kg) of which is landfilled. And when exhibitors walk away from a booth instead of tearing it down, the venue bills the disposal.
Statistic 22
A typical conference attendee produces more than 4 pounds (1.89 kg) of event waste per day.
MeetGreen
Statistic 23
More than 2.5 pounds (1.16 kg) of each attendee's daily waste goes to landfill.
MeetGreen
Statistic 24
At MeetGreen's per-attendee rate, a 1,000-person, 3-day conference generates roughly 5.7 metric tons of waste.
Computed from MeetGreen's 1.89 kg per attendee per day
Statistic 25
The San Diego Convention Center charges $880 per 100 sq ft for abandoned booth disposal and $0.55 per sq ft for carpet disposal; leaving a 10x10 booth and its carpet behind costs $935.
SDCC exhibitor services guide (2026-27); total computed
Statistic 26
ICC Sydney rents 27 cubic meter landfill and recycling skip bins to events, priced on application and billed on actual usage in quarter-bin increments.
ICC Sydney cleaning services order form (Dec 2025)
What this means: cleanup is priced per square foot, but the liability is priced per decision: a skipped teardown, an unordered porter, or a stain found after the organizer leaves all land as line items. The venues that recover those costs are the ones that can show condition before and after the tenancy; the ones that cannot, absorb them. That documentation gap, not the vacuuming rate, is usually the expensive part. Condition documentation on pre- and post-event photos is the lever that closes it.
Cite this study
Academic or press use: copy a ready-made reference. RapidEye is the publisher.
Quick FAQ
How much does booth cleaning cost at a convention center?
Published rate cards (2023 to 2027 editions) put booth vacuuming at $0.40 to $0.99 per square foot per day, spanning the cheapest advance rate to the priciest on-site rate: $0.66 advance / $0.99 show-site at the San Diego Convention Center, $0.40 / $0.57 at the Javits Center through T3 Expo, and $0.50 flat at Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center. Carpet shampooing runs $0.60 to $1.40 per square foot per day across the same cards.
How much does event cleaning cost per square foot?
Cleaning company pricing guides put large-venue event cleaning at $0.12 to $0.20 per square foot. Smart Janitorial quotes $0.13 to $0.17 per square foot, which prices a 10,000 square foot venue at $1,300 to $1,700 per cleaning. Hourly rates run $30 to $100 per cleaner depending on the guide.
How much waste does a conference or event produce?
According to MeetGreen, a typical conference attendee produces more than 4 pounds (1.89 kg) of waste per day, of which more than 2.5 pounds (1.16 kg) is landfilled. At that rate a 1,000-person, 3-day conference generates roughly 5.7 metric tons of waste.
What does it cost when an exhibitor abandons a booth?
The San Diego Convention Center charges $880 per 100 square feet for booth disposal plus $0.55 per square foot for carpet disposal. Leaving a standard 10 by 10 booth and its carpet behind there costs $935 in disposal fees.
Data sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these named public sources, each checked against the original document before publishing.
San Diego Convention CenterExhibitor services ordering guide, 2026-27visitsandiego.com
T3 ExpoCleaning services order form, Javits Centert3expo.com
George R. Brown Convention CenterBooth cleaning services rate sheetgrbhouston.com
ICC SydneyCleaning services order formiccsydney.com.au
MeetGreenEvent waste measurement researchmeetgreen.com
Bureau of Labor StatisticsOccupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025bls.gov
Smart JanitorialEvent cleaning pricing guidesmartjanitorial.com
Brye A+ CleaningEvent cleaning cost guidebryeapluscleaning.com