One of the first things customers will see when they step inside a restaurant is the carpet on the floor, as it covers such a large surface area. Therefore, if you’re a restaurant owner, keeping your carpets clean, tidy and presentable is vital to create a positive impression of your restaurant. If you’re seeking West London carpet cleaning services or other areas covered in London and the South East, give our experts at Carpet Bright UK a call.

1. A clean carpet speaks volumes

Creating a good impression is really important for any restaurant owner. Not only will you want your customers to have an amazing dining experience, but you’ll be keen to create the right ambience and atmosphere that will make them eager to return again and again, leave you top rated reviews and recommend you to others.

Clean carpets in your restaurant is a must-have if you want to impress your clientele and stay ahead of the competition. Because if a carpet isn’t clean, and is covered in stains, food, grease and dirt, or it smells stale, it might make customers wonder just how unhygienic the rest of your premises are, particularly in the kitchen and cooking areas.

Paying attention to how your carpets look, and cleaning them daily, is essential to keeping customers on your side, and avoiding any negative reviews. A key part of maintaining the appearance and good condition of your restaurant’s carpets is also ensuring they get professionally cleaned, but how often should you go about this?

2. Cleaning your restaurant’s carpets

Good cleaning habits can protect and preserve the condition of your restaurant’s carpets, so being consistent is important. Ideally, you should vacuum your carpets daily with a good-quality commercial vacuum cleaner, and treat any spills and stains immediately before they set into the carpet.

How often you should get your restaurant’s carpets professionally cleaned will depend on a number of factors, but as a rough guideline, you should be aiming to get them deep cleaned at least once every 3-6 months, or sooner if needed. The more you look after your carpets by maintaining them on a daily basis, the less frequently you’ll need to get them professionally cleaned.

3. Footfall

How often your carpets need cleaning can depend on how much footfall your restaurant receives. Big, busy, bustling eating places catering for families are more likely to endure dirtier carpets than those eating establishments with fewer patrons. So, the more footfall you get, the more often your carpets will need a professional clean. 

If your restaurant is also dog-friendly, getting your carpets professionally cleaned every few months will keep your premises hygienic and remove any dog fur accumulation, muddy paws or pet odours.

If your restaurant experiences a lot of footfall, it’s a good idea to choose a durable carpet material that’s easy to clean, and perhaps has multiple colours or patterns so that any spots or stains are less noticeable. A light-coloured carpet will show dirt faster than a dark-coloured carpet, so expect more regular cleaning sessions if you opt for the former rather than the latter for your restaurant.

4. Time of year

Your restaurant’s carpets might need cleaning more often at different times of the year, especially during autumn or winter, when fallen leaves, mud from shoes and dirt from outdoors can be traipsed inside the restaurant and onto the carpet. Snow and ice, and salt or grit you lay down in the parking areas or pathway to your restaurant, could also end up walked into your carpet, not only making it dirty, but exposing it to abrasive, damaging grit that could ruin the carpet over time.

Therefore, after a period of bad weather or at the end of the autumn or winter season, your carpets could well benefit from a professional, deep clean.

You can help to keep your carpets cleaner, however, by placing an entrance mat in the doorway, so that customers can wipe their feet on it before they step onto the carpet inside your premises.

5. Location

It’s not just the amount of footfall your restaurant receives that can dictate how often your carpets should be cleaned, but also where your restaurant is located. If it’s on a busy high street, for example, in central or West London, carpet cleaning might be needed more often to counteract the dirt, fumes, dust and pollutants from traffic which can sneak inside every time the restaurant door opens and closes, settling into your carpets. They could turn dull, faded, dirty and smelly quickly compared to carpets in a restaurant located in a quieter location.

Similarly, if your restaurant is near a beach, your carpets could end up covered in sand from customers’ footwear or clothes, so you might need to get your restaurant’s carpets cleaned frequently during the busy summer months. Equally, a restaurant near a busy walking or hiking route, can experience muddy feet coming and going over the carpet, so frequent carpet cleaning especially after periods of heavy rain may be necessary for your restaurant. 

It’s not just where your restaurant is located that can influence how often your carpets need cleaning; even the location of a carpet inside your restaurant can dictate the frequency that it needs a deep clean. For example, the area of carpet near busy entrances is likely to get dirtier faster than other parts of the carpet, so might need deep cleaning more often.

6. Stain protection

Dealing with any spillages and stains in your carpets as soon as they occur will make it easier to get rid of them, and keep your restaurant’s carpets in good condition. In some busy restaurants, you could be dealing with accidental spillages on an almost daily basis, so it might be worth considering getting a stain protection treatment added to the carpets in your restaurant. 

Stain protection helps to repel spillages and slows down the time it takes for the spill to absorb into the carpet, so you have a window of opportunity to quickly remove it without it turning into a stubborn stain. This can help to keep your carpets in a good condition in-between professional cleaning, so you don’t need to call out the pros every time a spillage occurs.

However, even if your restaurant’s carpets have stain protection, it’s still essential that they get professionally cleaned at least every six months or more frequently, to enhance their appearance and to tackle stubborn stains, ground-in dirt, persistent odours, grease and any germs, bacteria or allergens in the carpet.

At Carpet Bright UK, our West London carpet cleaning company, we’ve got all areas covered, whether your restaurant’s carpets need deep cleaning all-over to give them a new lease of life, or they need spot cleaning to eradicate spills and stains.