[Chris R]

Hi,

at the moment I work out my upholstery prices by charging per seat.

So a standard suite, consisting of a 3 seater sofa and 2 chairs = 5 seats x £20 per seat = £100

A 3 seater and one chair = 4 seats x £20 = £80

A 3+2+1 = 6 seats x £20 = £120.

But this way of pricing does not work well all of the time, for example  if you have to price up a lot of armchairs !

For example to clean 5 armchairs = 5 seats x £20 = £100, but a lot more work is involved in cleaning 5 armchairs, with 2 arms each chair, than in a standard suite.

So does anyone charge per seat + a price per arm?

How do you work out your upholstery prices?

Cheers
Chris

[stevegunn]

Armchair individual £36
Armchair with other upholstery cleaning £18
3 seater £62
2 seater £48
leather £95-£120

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Chris why not try

arm chair £28
2 seater £38
3 seater £48

so 2 chairs and a 3 seater (which is about the norm) = £ 104

I've put these prices with your pricing stucture to help

Shaun

[the red carpet]

problem is though a 2 seater and a 3 seater works out £86 like this and it would work out £100 with other method, i personally see more sofas than armchairs and think you would be better of to stay as you are.

i charge the same £20 a seat and am happy with this

[Derek]

Speaking to a colleague the other week he told me he charges a higher price for the first two seating units then a lower price per seating unit for the rest.

On the whole upholstery cleaning takes for more time than cleaning carpets and prices should reflect this additional effort.
In my humble opinion £20 per seating unit is far too cheap

Derek

[Chris Bailey]

Chris

As Derek has said, a little on the cheap side.

I charge £25 a sofa seat & £30 a chair, £10 a footstool, £2 a small cushion

Hope this helps

Chris

[Dean Haywood]

Chris,

as above, i  agree with derek, uph cleaning has to reflect the effort & time in the price.
try charging by the item, i would look at doubling your price for armchairs, between £60-70 3 seat sofa,  £50-60 2 seat  £15-20 footstool

Dean

[Everbrite]

Yes but it also depends where you are based. C/C can charge much more per seat down south than a C/C up north can charge???

[cleansmartsupplies]

Just to confuse everybody -

Trouble with charging by the seat is this:

3 single chairs take much longer to clean than a 3 seat sofa, but if you charge by the seat you still get paid the same.

To get round this, I charge by the chair, and then count extra seats as halves.

e.g. One chair counts as one. A two seat sofa counts as
1.5 (one chair plus 1/2 for the extra seat). Three seat sofa counts as 2 (one chair plus 2 halves).

Takes a bit of getting used to! But it's a fair way of doing it me thinks.

I charge £30 per 'seat' - so 2 chairs plus a 3 seater (that counts as 4 using my system) charged at £120. £40 per 'seat' if client wants stain protection.

Matt
Cleansmart Supplies

[Chris R]

Or ...........

£15 per seat + £5 per arm .

Standard suite ( 3 seater + two chairs) = 5 seats and 6 arms = £105     

1 Armchair = 1 seat and 2 arms = £25 ( min charge applies)

3 seater only = 3 seats and 2 arms = £55

3+2+1 = 6 seats and 6 arms = £120.

 (put in your own target price)

    

[Derek]

You would think that charges are higher down South wouldn't you...I did too, but its not necessarily so.

I know a guy in Yorkshire who was charging £40 per seating unit a few years ago and was working six days a week. There is a cleaner in the next County to me charging in excess of the £40 per unit and he is working seven weeks ahead constantly.
Why can they charge these prices?... they are damned good cleaners and have built a reputation as such

Derek

[Mike Halliday]

all this charging per seat or arm is rubbish  

the only true way to price a suite is to price it by how long the full suite will take to clean. What happens when the suite is only slightly dirty or is a difficult fabric does your unit price go up or down.

what if they live in a flat 5 floors up and it takes an extra 1 hour to lug up all the gear or they live 20 miles away.

my price is worked out from my door to door time, whether I'm cleaning 1 chair or the full suite its how long it takes that counts.

Mike

[cleansmartsupplies]

Is that how you price carpet cleaning as well Mike - rather than by the square foot or metre?

[Mike Halliday]

I did 3 jobs today, an empty 3 bed house, a T/L & H/S/L, and a T/L & kitchen.

the T/L & Kitchen took the longest.

if I'd priced it by the sq ft they would have paid the least ( and got a bargain)

I price all work by how long it will take.

Mike

[Chris R]

mike ,
do you include the time that it takes to go out and do each quote in your pricing up ? Including time spent on quotes that you dont get?
Each quote could easily take 45 mins or more, plus travel time?
Cheers
Chris

ps whats a T/L 

[Mike Halliday]

T/L Through Lounge :

I price it on how long the job will take  but I do increase the price if its over a certain distance.

Mike

[cleansmartsupplies]

Always thought that would be a fairer way of doing it. Trouble is, when I costed this for myself some years ago - it made small jobs quite a lot more expensive, and big jobs quite a lot cheaper.

I was worried that I'd end up losing out on smaller jobs, and getting paid less for the bigger ones. e.g. A small living room might be £65 if you work it out by the area, but £80 if you charge, say at £40 an hour.

How do you get round this - because charging for time is, I think, is a much fairer way of doing it.

Cheers
Matt
Cleansmart Supplies

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Why not have a set up charge and then a sq ft price from there on. When I worked for Servicemaster they used to have pricing based on degrees of soiling and degrees of furniture so a lightly soiled carpet with no furniture made you very cheap but it does make sense.

Shaun