[waynebarry]

Ive been carpet cleaning for just over a year now, no problem pricing standard rooms but I cant get to grips with pricing stairs and landing is there a fomula or a easy way to work this areea out?
I know stupid newbie questions?

[derek west]

my prices on stairs are up and down really.

[Mike Halliday]

how long does it take you to clean a  standard  living room? how long does it take you to clean a H/S/l ? do the maths and you've got your right price.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Wayne

I charge £40 per flight, then price the landing by the m2.

Steve

PS: Sorted your brother's red wine stain, thanks for the referral
 

[chrisjohn]

Im very similar to Steve.I charge £45 for stairs,then measure hall & landing using m2.

Chris

[waynebarry]

Thanks Steve & Chris I wasnt far out!
By the way Steve what is the make of your agitator in your video on your website?

[wayne zabel]

Wayne

I charge £40 per flight, then price the landing by the m2.

Steve

PS: Sorted your brother's red wine stain, thanks for the referral
 

You got the wrong Wayne there Steve

I,m the Wayne who's brother you did the wine stain for

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Sorry mate - I didn't read the surname, thanks again though 

The other Wayne - it's a Sebo Duo, good machine. I've sold mine though and now use an Envirodri.

[Pristine Clean]

If you guys price a flight of stairs for around the £45.00. Which I think is a fair price, How on earth do you guys compete with the companies that price at £1.50 per tread.

On average there are 13 treads in residential house. thats £19.50.

I must be missing some magical ingredient somewhere as if I dont price to compete I would lose alot of work.

Dave

[waynebarry]

Thanks Steve, ive just been reading another thread and a lot of people rate the envirodri!
Quick research I think I was looking at the right machine they are about £1000?

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Dave

I don't compete on price with anyone, the prices are charge are based on what I need to earn to run my business and earn a living.

I have to drive past a car parked on a main road nearly everyday, sign written with "Any 3 rooms £ 49.99" - good luck to him, I'm not interested in working at those rates.

Steve

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Thanks Steve, ive just been reading another thread and a lot of people rate the envirodri!
Quick research I think I was looking at the right machine they are about £1000?

Thats right, I wouldn't pay that myself, I managed to pick up a second hand one with 2 sets of new brushes for £ 180 !! Result 

[JandS]

£45 for a flight of stairs.
45 minutes work maximum and that's setting up and
taking down the porty.

John

[stu_thomson]

£2 per tread for me

stu

[Pristine Clean]

£45 for a flight of stairs.
45 minutes work maximum and that's setting up and
taking down the porty.

John

Yes I agree with the prices.

But would you charge £45.00 for a flight of stairs if you were doing the other rooms.

I have a minimum call out of £70.00 + VAT. However If I was doing a living room, dining room and stairs that would then nearly work out as £200 if the stairs were priced at £45.00.

Depending on the area, type of house, also the type of owner either a bum or an executive with a fararri then you price accordingly. I would lose the work to the cheaper boys. If it someone new who does not know me. If it was recomendation then thats easy.

Good luck to anyone who gets clients at higher prices.

dave

[Pristine Clean]

£2 per tread for me

stu

I charge around £2.00 - 2.50 but it depends on how much work there is and if I have other work in the house

Also its ok saying that i need to earn this much, but sometimes some money is better than no money. We all have bills of some sort. Id rather have a steady stream than no work

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Dave

Yes I would charge £ 40 per flight, irrespective of how many other areas I am doing at the same time.

[JandS]

Dave

"Yes I would charge £ 40 per flight, irrespective of how many other areas I am doing at the same time"

And people call the splash and dash merchants.
Why do you think people employ them when your charging that for
15 minutes work when your already doing other areas.
Must be a very affluent area where you work.
£15 for stairs if I'm doing other rooms.

John

[Steve. Taylor]

Pricing had a call from a lady with a through lounge dinner 26ftx12ft she had been quoted £16

My question to her was are you concerned about the very low price or would you prefer to pay £15

to cut to the chase i visited the lady & quoted £70 and she was happy for me to do the clean this monday its not always about the price and the moment you worry what others are charging you are not 100% focusing on your buiseness.

Steve barnett hit the nail on the head for me.  £49.99 3 rooms good luck to him

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

John

I don't appreciate the comparison to splash and dash merchants

Plus it takes me a lot longer than 15 minutes to spray, scrub and rinse a flight of stairs.

I charge £ 40 for a flight of stairs, that's my rate, I don't ask that you or anyone else agree with that.

And yes I do work in affluent areas.

[JandS]

And £70 for a small lounge/diner??
And people wonder why the phone 'aint ringing.
Be realistic with your pricing and you might start getting
work.
I know I will probably get shot down but I think people
should stop telling the newer ones on here not to drop
there prices.
Compete or fail.

John

[Steve. Taylor]

John ive competed for 16 years very nicley  this job is a 18 mile round trip i take time and pride in my work at £1.20 a litre of diesal not including other costs the day i had to rush around to compete with other peoples prices is the day i get my mcdonalds badges and come home without a care in the world

[Shaun_Ashmore]

If you charge £40 for a flight of stairs and get no takers then that would then mean you charges aren't right for your area or clientelle, if you charge £40 and get it then you are!!

I charge £3 a stair and the last thru lounge I cleaned (yesterday) I charged £96 and walkways scotchgarded for £36 and it was IMO quite a smallish one.

The lesson to learn is don't anticipate what you think your customer wants to pay, quick story I was buying a new house a few years ago and a scruffy man walked in and the sales assistant didn't pay him lip service but when she eventually did he bought the biggest house cash!

Shaun

[derek west]

sorry about the stairs joke, right, pricing of stairs.

well my prices seem to escalate.

"OH COME ON"

[wayne zabel]

Derek,can you stop these puns - you are completely out of STEP with this debate

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think you are taking a step in the right direction and you certainly have a nose for it, I can just imagine you with your spindly legs, and the customers faces with you landing there, halls well that ends well I can see a riser star.

Shaun

[Steve. Taylor]

Derek put your christmas crackers away for next year

[derek west]

i'm all better now, cheers for the puns guys. i was feeling pun down for a bit there.

ps... shaun, you could of saved some for someone else, go on, bugger off and get on the next flight.

[Steve. Taylor]

Next flight what times it landing

[derek west]

been diverted so it won't be landing at hall.

[Steve. Taylor]

diverted where to H/S/L HEATHROW STANDSTEAD LUTON?

[Mark_Jubb]

Reading this thread is becoming pun-itive  :
So to try and bring it back on topic, or maybe send it off on another tangent, I think the replies just highlight how much you can't operate as a CC
by simply trying to follow what evrybody else does. You need to properly understand your own situation & marketplace and charge accordingly.
Personally, I don't charge as much as some here do, but also not as little as others, but I know what I need to charge to make the job worth doing.
As for bringing your charges in line with the competition, forget it. Just received this week free weekly paper, on the front page, advert for Carpet Cleaning: "Whole House Offers, 2 Bed £50, 3 Bed £65, 4 Bed £80. and for 2 weeks only, a further 20% of these prices!!"   
Mind you I'm in Swindon and we know from another recent thread that you can do a 4 bed in an hour.  :

[Shaun_Ashmore]

If you advertise with all of these other cleaners you need to change your ad to look different or change the way you quote the customer, customers think cleaning is all the same.

Shaun

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

And £70 for a small lounge/diner??
And people wonder why the phone 'aint ringing.
Be realistic with your pricing and you might start getting
work.
I know I will probably get shot down but I think people
should stop telling the newer ones on here not to drop
there prices.
Compete or fail.

John

What have my prices got to do with the phone not ringing ?
My prices aren't listed anywhere, the first a potential clients knows of my prices are when they phone or when I go out to quote.
If the phone doesn't ring then it's my marketing and advertising that needs looking at, not my prices.
I don't recall telling anyone not to drop their prices, I simply said how I quote for stairs.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I have just had a local cleaner advertise £15 a carpet dropping leaflets yesterday with prices on my phone went very busy today and I have had 9 calls and I have booked in 8 of them and I charge at least 4 times that and the point being is that people aren't hung up on price alone.

Shaun

[Andrew Briscoe]

I get carpet cleaning firms occasionally coming into my area offering to do rooms
at 15 quid, if i have an advert running in my local paper i drop it. I find the phone rings twice as much, to me , he does my advertising.

Why, well there are 2 types of cleaning companies, and there are 2 types of customers.

Most of my customers understand that it cant be done properly for 15 quid,
but it also reminds them they need their carpets cleaned so they ring me.

My prices are not the highest, and are a long way of the lowest, but when these guys
advertise low prices , i can save on advertising 

Andrew

[M.Acorn]

I tend too price H/S/L for £50,unless it`s a really big one.Until last year i was doing stairs for £25,then adding extra for hall and landing,2 flights i do for £75,as landings tend to be smaller

[gwrightson]

The big franchises charge around £2.00 - £2.25 per step plus vat,  average 13 steps, so £45.00 is expensive. If I was doing a lounge and dining room I would do the stairs for around £20, its around an extra 20 mins on the job.

But yes because of setting up time etc, if it was just a job for the stairs then £40.00 ish,  plus size of landing carpet plus the vat. In my own opinion and if they were being totally honest, I dont think many carpet cleaners would be very busy charging £45.00 for 13 stairs on top of other rooms at the same sort of rates.      

I cant believe that they would charge as little as this  ,  I am a minimum of £45  h/s/l   if just the stairs   still £45   , £20  is far too cheap for a flight of stairs imo   , 

geoff

[M.Acorn]

Did hear from one custy,who had paid half price,bloke only did the treads,and not the risers ! when custy mentioned he said well your paying half price !!

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Another way of looking at it is in the time it takes you to clean a standard staircase (not including setting up and setting down) how many square metres of carpet in say a lounge could you cleean (excluding having to move furniture). iF it takes 20 minutes to clean a staircase and you could clean 20 square metres in the lounge in the same time and you charge £2 per metre then the answer is you would charge £40 to cleean the stairs.

Roger

[Mike Halliday]

Roger read the third reply to this topic

great minds think alike.

 but people don't want the simple answer they want complicated algorithms & Biometrics formulas to work out how much they should charge

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Hi Paul

Why should we be offering a discount?

Many clients think that stairs are far more complicated than we know they are to be. They are usually far dirtier than a lounge as they take more of a hit. Far be it for me to tell the customers thaty are easier than they think. the cost of buying and fitting a new stair carpet would suggest to a client that cleaning will be proportionally more expensive.

Roger

(that said I might be persuaded to give a (nominal) discount if the customer is angling for it as a condition of a far bigger job ticket. I wouldn't offer it though.)

[Reno's Carpet Care]

let me step up by saying I have done it three ways
Per step, landings free
priced as a room
included with the whole house price

right now, I include it with the whole house price.  35% of the homes I clean are 2 story.  It all evens out in the end.