[emmaedj]

Can someone please save my sanity!! I was asked to quote for two function rooms at a large golf club last week, i currently do lots of different cleaning work for them so i thought to keep them sweet i would give them a really good deal........or so i thought!!

The space in total was 504 sm. i normally charge between £1.50 and £2.00 per sm which i thought was a good rate. i decided my great deal would be to do the job for a measly £1 per sm. Mad yes but anything to keep them happy!!!! I just had a phone call from the GM asking if i had made a mistake with the quote, no, i said, i have just decided to give you a great one off deal. What are you talking about was the reply i think its way over the top he said!!!
He then informed me he had just got a quote for £250.00!!! Thats like £0.50p a metre!!!

Please tell me that this is not normal, it just doesnt seem right to me. how can you justify £0.50p a metre, its not worth starting up the van!!

Do any of you guys charge this little, please tell me you dont

Cheers

ED

[carpetclean]

you need to ask them who it is who is charging this amount ask if they have asked them what their procedure is. do they vac, pre-spray etc what equipment they use and if they belong to any trade body.you may not get any answrs but they may ask the person charging 50p a lot of questions !!!!

[scott.]

Sounds like a newbie...I've only been doing this for a few years now, and It sounds like something I would have quoted back then..I've learned since...I also had similar recently..a quote for 3500 sQ ft of occupied offices on 3 floors..I quoted £1250..and someone undercut me ! ..another on..500 SQ ft empty office...£150..they got Quoted £70 from another, and wouldnt tell me who it was...serves them right if it gets buggered up, I say.

[cleaning co]

hi emm ,i tell u what theres guys on here who charge £3.50-£4.50 sqm or so they say i charge about same as u and think that is good money ,o and iam put in the splash n dash league at them prices :

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

Unfortunately this will come up and there is little you can do about it.

I has a BW in a golf club , already showing signs of shrinkage.

Quoted to do a very careful clean, club got someone else much cheaper, you guessed it , big time shrinkage.

Just have to move on.

Cheers
Doug

[cleaning co]

one thing i will add  this person maybe only charging 50 pence sqm  but he do it in less than half day not bad £250 pounds, off couse u cant charge this in domestic houses for say coulpe carpets, but on big area like this u can  the people who recon they charged £4.50 sqm meter would hav wanted £2250 !!! : i be very surprised if u earn £500 day normally so u could hav really done this job for £250 and bin happy , just a thought
gary

[Neil Grainger]

Prehaps she does not want to be splash and dash, thats why she quoted the price she did. Not all customers want the cheapest job. Some customers beleive that the £3-£4.5 price range is not ripping people off and you do pay for what you get in this industry.

Want cheap pay Skoda prices want the best pay Rolls Royce prices. Its the same the world over.

[CLEANEAST CARPETS]

Hi Gary,
I was at Alltec today having wand fixed,Rotovac checked,pat testing,and restocking chemicals.I was talking to Steve and he reckons that as we have been getting 90% of our on-site quotations,and we are now using the Rotovac giving an even better service we should increase our price to £4 sq/m,what is your opinoin of that
Also he reckons we should spend less time on the boards and more time marketing and cleaning!!!
However at these prices I don't need to knock myself out

Thanks Barbara

[cleaning co]

Prehaps she does not want to be splash and dash, thats why she quoted the price she did. Not all customers want the cheapest job. Some customers beleive that the £3-£4.5 price range is not ripping people off and you do pay for what you get in this industry.

Want cheap pay Skoda prices want the best pay Rolls Royce prices. Its the same the world over.

neil if u read the post again the prices she qoutes norm are regard as splash an dash by some

[cleaning co]

sorry not being rude but some people on here talk load tosh, £4sqm yer right o  ,u do one job month if u lucky : certain on domestic work  u talking about £80-£100 for ave lounge  : do two rooms n hsl in ave house u upto £300 : yer right o   there gos flying pig !!!  :

[D woods]

When I was involved in carpet cleaning the best price for a domestic property I got was £800 plus vat for a two bed flat .

[cleaning co]

lol and i got £35000 once lmfco !!

[Neil Grainger]

Gary theirs is a guy that charges £10 per sq m in Bradford and he gets the work. Ask the fasttrack boys based up north and they will tell you about him.

Why is £4 per sq m out of reach.

I bet you could start a fight in a empty room. why are you so agro, just because you cant get these prices does not been any of us cant either.

[garyj]

Why on earth would anyone in Bradford pay £10 sq m to have there carpets cleaned when they could get new carpets cheaper than that!!

[D woods]

Hi Gary
as an experiment why dont you charge an extra 50% on the next ten jobs you price up and see what the results are you may be shocked ?

[CLEANEAST CARPETS]

You can't put a price on QUALITY and CUSTOMER SERVICE

However you can put a price on a new carpet-£10 sq/m
                                                          underlay-£7 sq/m
                                                          fitting-£2 sq/m

Barbara

[Matt Read]

its commonly accepted by most carpet cleaners that £35 to £40 per hour is what you should earn as a carpet cleaner..actual on site clean time.I would say thats under 4.50 psm for an experienced carpet cleaner.We can all charge what we like theres no rule,its what you feel comfortable with.

[therapist]

Just a thought.

WHO IS GIVING BEST VALUE.

The business who offers a service, or product at a price which gives a REASONABLE return and still works to a high standard, or,

The business who charges what most would regard as RIP-OFF prices claiming to do a superior job, but maybe not.

There are frequent postings on here about the cost of chemicals, etc and where to get the best prices for machines, spares, etc.

What makes you think you are entitled " morally ' to charge the hourly rates that you claim to charge and would you really be prepared to pay someone to clean your driveway, cut your grass. or whateve

Like hell, you would !

Garages, with their massive overheads charge around forty pounds per hour and I've always felt that if I could achieve around 75% of that I'd be doing extremely well

Nothing to do with my standards or my perceived personal value.

I believe in giving value for money........

r m

[garyj]

Mr Woods, I expect I would be shocked, I doubt if I'd have any work.

Barbara, where did you get those prices, not my local Carpetrite store thats for sure!!

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I went to my local carpet shop today to look for a carpet for my daughters bedroom, it is 12 ft x 11ft cost to supply 80/20 twist in 'barbie' pink with new gripper and underlay and fitted cost £344.00.

That works out at £2.60 a sq ft so my 40p per sq ft looks cheap.
I was suprised how much carpets have gone up in price, it's been over 3 years since I have bought one.

If you compare your services to other cleaners prices you will always think that you are losing work because you are too expensive but if you flip the coin you could say that restoring the carpet is very cheap for the customer in comparison to replacement.

Shaun