Instead of worrying about what every cleaner in your area charges as I know you probably don't, focus on giving your customers the service they want and at a price they feel is fair while still making a decent profit. If a customer wants only the traffic areas cleaned, you can bet I will give them a better price. My prices are not high, but I guess that is why I don't advertise and get so many referrals. I have been using
Service Monster for about 8 months now and every month my average job is around 180 dollars. I know I could easily double that, but I don't push deodorizer/sanitizer or deep scrub etc like I did when I first got into this business. I just clean the carpet with no hassel for the customer and they reward me by telling all their friends and calling me back every 6 months. I must be doing something right because I meet cleaners everyday who envy that I own two sweet truckmounts with clean setups and tons of equipment all paid for not to mention several houses completely paid for and rented out, boats, and other stuff paid for in cash and I feel financially secure at 26 years old. I am not bragging. I am just stating you don't have to be the highest priced cleaner to make a lot of money. I don't see anything wrong cleaning 4 average size rooms using a low moisture cleaning method to maintain carpets between deep cleanings. You guys act like they are going to prevac, move furniture, clean with nice truck-mounted equipment for 99 dollars. Of course they are not. If they do, then they will always be a ten dollar an hour worker.
I personally believe there are only two different carpet cleaning packages to offer a customer.
Package 1. Customer moves furniture and vacuums before you arrive. This is self explanitory. You should be able to charge a cheaper price. Have a minimum job amount and stick to it.
Package 2. You vacuum and move furniture
Everything else such as protector, post pad, speed dry, pet treatment, rotary cleaning etc. are all add ons and should never be used to differentiate different cleaning packages. These can be added to either package.