[john meehan]

hi guys would £50 be the right price to charge for cleaning 3piece suites all replies most appreciated thanks john

[JS2]

John

I'm not principally a suite cleaner (although I've been there, done that etc.), but as a seasoned member of the forum I think this is quite a low figure.  Of course it depends on the type of suite you're talking about and its condition, but I'm sure other members will no-doubt add comments to this effect.

Regards

Pete (JS2)

[Phil Marlor]

No, £100 - £150 is about right, they take about 3 1/2 hours (well it does me) and they are hard work.

Did 2 in one house today and was paid £300.00!

Phil

[markpowell]

I charge £85.00 sometimes £90.00 but cant seem to get any more even though i have tried, then again our area seems to be getting saturated with cleaners. It has never been as cheap to buy new suites as it is today, then again i am happy to do 2 1/2 hours work for £90.00 dont see the need to drag it out any longer, never had any complaints.
Mark

[Phil Marlor]

Mark, you have to go to the right places to get more money, you wont get £150 in a Council area (no offence like).

I agree,  £150 to clean a £600 Argos suite is not possible.

I dont drag it out either, that's how long it takes me.

Phil

[Mike Osbourne]

I'm with Phil on this one. Unless it's very lightly soiled or very easy fabric £140 is my minimum. I'd prefer to put the hard work into finding those who will pay it and then persuading them why.

I take at least 3 hrs on a 3 piece and to clean the equivelent carpet I'd expect about the same, so why should it be any different for a suite.

As always where you live and the people you serve has to be taken into consideration. If I worked for my neighbours I would never get any work at all but 2miles down the road.... 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Not bothered how long they take to do but what you do do!

I clean them and dry them, did one today albeit cushions did not remove 1h20min very bad around head area turbo dried and touch dry, but for 50 quid?? don't forget they can hire a machine themselves if they want it as cheap as that!

Ask what the customer wants, and they will often pay for it.

Shaun

[Mark Lane-Matthews]

Hi John
You have to work out your costs and what you would want to earn per hour,so if you want to earn £30 per hour and a 3 piece suite will take you 4 hours to clean then charge £120
                                                                         Mark

[carpet guy]

Gents ( and others ) when you started cleaning suites, did you all pitch in at the top end of the pricing even although you were inexperienced and therefore by anyones reckoning, incompetent ?

Or were you honest enough to appreciate the need to learn your craft first and charge at a more acceptable level for someone with little or no experience.

In other words..............were you like the " cowboys "who are constantly ( and quite rightly ) slagged for not giving value for money but in many cases charging large sums.

If I found a novice turning up to do a journeymans job at journeymans rates, he would be sent on his way.

So why would you encourage a novice to charge maximum prices for work which most of you agree is more complex and prone to disasters than carpet cleaning.

I'm not suggesting your individual charges are wrong, just suggesting that they are unrealistic for a novice and I have seen the results of many novices over the past 20 years.

rob m

Ps...............there seem to be a lot of wimps coming into c/c these days judging by the time it takes to carry out carpet and suite cleaning
I know the response to expect, but taking longer does'nt guarantee a better job, so please don't bore me about how wonderfully thorough you are.
If you are still cleaning in the same way after 20 years I might listen but I would probably feel you had learned little in the preceding years. Oh, and I average around 90 minutes per suite at £50 per hour, but I'm still young at fit at only 62.

[carpet guy]

OMG..............just read the 4 hours for a suite. Someone is in the wrong business.

[John Gregory]

Good post Shaun,  are you saying give the customer what they are prepared to pay for

[stuart_clark]

we charge £30 per seat but this is not typical for the area i live in

[Mike Halliday]

what you charge for a suite is about how good you can sell yourself, that's why  new starters charge low prices they can't 'talk the talk' so don't project a image that is worth paying £140 for.

the £600 suite from DFS is a bit of an urban myth, although you can buy one often you'll need an extra chair & Pouffe so the price goes up to over a grand. I've been looking for a new suite for a couple of months, for every cheap '£600 suite' I've seen I've also seen 10 suites for over £2000, so their is no need to worry that the retail price of suites will effect what we charge.

Mike

[stevegunn]

Charge as much as you can because what you will find charging £50 you do a good job when they ring you back in a year or 2 and your price has doubled or even trebled their perception will be your ripping them off.Confidence is the key.

[Mark Lane-Matthews]

3 to 4 hours is average time for me with setting up and packing away to clean a suite.

                                                         Mark

[carpet guy]

Just thought the forum needed a little livening up 

From past and present posts it's obvious that there will never be agreement on pricing and due to the way people work what each customer costs to service etc, etc there will never be a set price for this type of service.

I'm well aware of marketing plans and business school suggestions, etc, which tell you to charge what the market will stand. But there is always the ethical and good value side, which assumes you to have the knowledge, experience, actual ability, to deliver.

If you can't deliver, you will damage the reputation of the industry, so, charge what you like, but if your service does'nt live up to your hype , your marketing, or your level of charging, you will be paying out a lot more to get each job than some others.

It's about balancing the income with the true cost of each job.

rob m

[Kev Loomes]

IMO

Its all about time, effort, results, customer's needs and expectations. Therefore price accordingly. Im with Marke Lane-Matthews on this one. I dont care who you are, but working flat out for 3hrs to achieve the greatest possible clean, we logically cannnot achieve the same when done in an hour or so.

If the custy wants a relatively quick clean for £80-£90 then fair do's. If she wants the nearest it can get to new again requiring cleaning some areas 3 times, then thats fine too but will cost double.

We dont do the first 

Kev

p.s. When I was in a franchise, roughly the whole network would take this amount of time to clean a suite properly, although it is fair to say that some people's perception of a great clean is different to others.

[Kinver_Clean]

40 years ago in another life I worked for Courtaulds textile research laboratory and had to go to factories in and out of the group to solve problems. I was about 25 at the time and an old hand told me that the factory did not know I didn't have the answers and wasn't an expert, "just tell them you need to do some tests and come and ask me"  If you don't tell them they won't know.
Start as you mean to carry on, if you have the training (you have, haven't you?) then charge a proper rate. After 25 years in the business it still takes me 3 to 4 hours to do a suite properly. £25-£30 per seat would be the norm. When I put my prices up dramatically a while ago I lost the rubbish and gained the better jobs that are not too dirty to start with, its a long time since I scraped the grease off an arm.

Trevor

[Mark Lane-Matthews]

I would like to know where carpetguy bought his magic wand from.

[carpet guy]

No magic wand MLM

I have would not get the repeat and referred clients year after year if I wasn't doing a satisfactory job, this is another of the posts that keep coming up and get much the same response each time.

Your comments remind me of the carpet fitters and plumbers who would sit around tapping at pipes or flooring for half an hour.

Occasionally a suite will take me two hours, but around one and a half is more likely, and just for the record. After removal of surface debris and dry soiling, I either prespray with m/s or use dry foam with a brush, or sponge, or glove mini mop.

In 90% of cases this is followed by rinse / extraction.

Finally, a white towel is used to confirm that the edges are as clean as possible.

No magic, no tea, or coffee, just keeping up a momentum. Probably at a higher workrate than anyone who is taking 3-4 hours.

No wonder some of you don't like suites.

Oh ! I'd better " come clean " I don't waste time on the backs , or sides, they are cleaned according to the degree of soiling, which in most cases is slight.

So my financial return, per hour, is much the same as yours, but I still have time and energy, to clean the lounge and maybe h/s/l plus a bedroom, or two. Suites are very rarely done on their own.

If you are getting around 10 jobs per week, WITHOUT ADVERTISING and don't even give out cards and find people with a newspaper advert which was last placed in 2000 ad, but the client has kept, and even although you changed your mobile number a year ago, people go to extraordinary lengths to find you, then you can tell me who is doing it right.

Always listen and look...............you might learn something to your advantage.

have a good life