upholstery cleaning prices

[prestige cleaner]

Focusing more on upholstery cleaning launched new seo campaign, but realizing competition is offering lower price.Now,I understand you don't set your prices on what everyone else is charging but if they're judging based on price alone I might not have chance. Currently, charging 18.00-20.00 per linear ft. Should I lower my price to be competitive, or stay where I'm at.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I'd stay where you're at and maybe offer seasonal specials on protector if you feel the need for a special. Protector on upholstey is a valuable service to offer.

 

[ACE]

$20.00 per liner foot your at half of replacement cost for the low end upholstery.
Personally I don’t advertise upholstery cleaning. It takes time to do right.
If you want to be competitive you need to work on your production rate.
Mist and Vac 8) .

 

[ruff]

Josh, it really depends on what clients you try to attract and where you want your company to be positioned.
As well as what your specific market will bear.

Also how much $ per hour you feel you need to make to be profitable.

Pricing just to match the competition may not be a good strategy long term. There is always going to be someone that is cheaper than you.

More successful?
Now that is a whole new question.

Personally I've always concentrated on the quality seeking clients. That's just me.
High volume/ low price etc; are all valid business strategies if executed properly and smartly.

 

[Ken Snow]

We are about $10 a foot and some piece(s) of upholstery at about 20% of our carpet cleaning jobs (a little over a half mill last year in uphostery).

Whether or not you want o lower your price, offer specials or discount if also cleaning carpet is an individual decision based on your goals. What do you want to do?

 

[Dolly Llama]

Should I lower my price to be competitive, or stay where I'm at.

can't answer that for you, Josh.
Only you know what you need to be profitable .
but here's something I do know, "one size don't fit all"
What that means...... some sofas are very easy (fast) to clean ie..straight backed, no loose folds or skirts, indestructible synthetic fabric, etc

One 7ft sofa might take take 20 minutes to clean right , while another 7 ft'r might take over an hour .
Our pricing reflects that reality


..L.T.A.

 

[prestige cleaner]

Should I lower my price to be competitive, or stay where I'm at.

can't answer that for you, Josh.
Only you know what you need to be profitable .
but here's something I do know, "one size don't fit all"
What that means...... some sofas are very easy (fast) to clean ie..straight backed, no loose folds or skirts, indestructible synthetic fabric, etc

One 7ft sofa might take take 20 minutes to clean right , while another 7 ft'r might take over an hour .
Our pricing reflects that reality


..L.T.A.

Good point Larry, I see where your coming from just need some insight from outside source. Alot good advise and good cleaners on this board.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I s'pose the trouble could come when trying to list published prices in marketing material and/or websites

carpet isn't so tough to do I reckon, cause there's less variables .
nearly all the wall to wall carpet in America is synthetic and a sq ft of carpet is a sq ft of carpet.
and it can all be cleaned the same way.
if room or area pricing, there's the "up to X amount of SF " as a room/area

i don't know how you could do that with upl without listing so many exclusions in the "fine print" it starts to look like a bait 'n switch ad

maybe one of the smarter bid'niss peeps here will share how they do it



..l.T.A.

 

[sam miller]

Thats were a starting rate of 10 bucks a foot comes in with a free estimate!

 

[Ron Lippold]

With all the other services that we can offer WHY would you focus on furniture,,, for me theres not enough profit for me. I focus on tile and stone, brick and saltillio.. way more money in these areas$$$$$

 

[Mike Draper]

With all the other services that we can offer WHY would you focus on furniture,,, for me theres not enough profit for me. I focus on tile and stone, brick and saltillio.. way more money in these areas$$$$$

While I dont offer as many specialty services as Ron, I feel the same way. I would rather make 3x more per hour with my other services. WE dont do furniture

 

[Art Kelley]

I clean a lot of furniture. I can price over the phone as follows: sofe $45 loveseat $35, chair $25, sectionals are multiples of those prices. I make about $100/hr or more at those prices. The key is to work quickly and efficiently:
!) put a hose cuff on vac line and quickly vac down piece as you are
2) filling a bucket with hot water and a little uph cleaner from your continous flow internal jet PMF tool, making a foamy solution which you
3) spread onto the fabric with a hand bonnet after you
4) have misted lo-pH uph prespray onto fabric
5) and then steam clean with your boiling hot solution in the heated up continous flow PMF tool.
Simple and quick.

 

[Ken Snow]

Yep, what Art said.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Charlie Lyman]

With all the other services that we can offer WHY would you focus on furniture,,, for me theres not enough profit for me. I focus on tile and stone, brick and saltillio.. way more money in these areas$$$$$

That is because of where you live. When I lived in So Cal, there were companies that did nothing but tile. In colder places, there is not much tile. In Idaho, I do not see enough to make it a priority. I see more couches than tile.

Still, I do hate cleaning it and I don't make as much per hour as carpet.

 

[ruff]

I clean a lot of furniture. I can price over the phone as follows: sofe $45 loveseat $35, chair $25, sectionals are multiples of those prices. I make about $100/hr or more at those prices. The key is to work quickly and efficiently:

Not that I doubt Art, I know he is a good cleaner and we actually have plenty in common.
But WOW! You can clean a sofa, a love seat and a sofa chair in an hour?
I'm impressed.
I clean a lot of upholstery but I can't even touch that production rate.

[quote="Ron Lippold":mfhc9yfi]With all the other services that we can offer WHY would you focus on furniture,,, for me theres not enough profit for me. I focus on tile and stone, brick and saltillio.. way more money in these areas$$$$$

While I dont offer as many specialty services as Ron, I feel the same way. I would rather make 3x more per hour with my other services. WE dont do furniture[/quote:mfhc9yfi]

There is plenty of money to be made in upholstery and it sure lands itself to compliment carpet cleaning. You just have to price it in a way that you can make the profit you are comfortable with. I charge substantially more than Art and Ken but spend a lot more time. They charge less but work a lot faster. We both make a good $ amount per hour.

 

[Royal Man]

At Least most fabric in client's homes seem to be micro-fiber now days.

The stuff is crap. But, you can clean several pieces of it in an hour with ease. (About the only exception is if, they are loaded with pet hair)

Prespray, HWE (mist sides and back)and finish with a towel.

Art, I do wonder if you prices are a bit low. Although every service area is different. Mine were almost double that 15 years ago.

 

[Willy P]

LOL- 20 minutes to do a sofa Larry? $45 to clean it?

Geebus - I charge MINIMUM $105 (35 an ass),15 extra for accent cushions, 45 a chair.

I also vac and proper upholstry shampoo - scrub it with a horsehair and then rinse/extract.

 

[Doug Cox]

[quote="Art Kelley":f5mkfhox]I clean a lot of furniture. I can price over the phone as follows: sofe $45 loveseat $35, chair $25, sectionals are multiples of those prices. I make about $100/hr or more at those prices. The key is to work quickly and efficiently:

Not that I doubt Art, I know he is a good cleaner and we actually have plenty in common.
But WOW! You can clean a sofa, a love seat and a sofa chair in an hour?
I'm impressed.
I clean a lot of upholstery but I can't even touch that production rate.

[quote="Ron Lippold":f5mkfhox]With all the other services that we can offer WHY would you focus on furniture,,, for me theres not enough profit for me. I focus on tile and stone, brick and saltillio.. way more money in these areas$$$$$

While I dont offer as many specialty services as Ron, I feel the same way. I would rather make 3x more per hour with my other services. WE dont do furniture[/quote:f5mkfhox]

There is plenty of money to be made in upholstery and it sure lands itself to compliment carpet cleaning. You just have to price it in a way that you can make the profit you are comfortable with. I charge substantially more than Art and Ken but spend a lot more time. They charge less but work a lot faster. We both make a good $ amount per hour.[/quote:f5mkfhox]
I totally agree with Ofer, but even at the prices I charge, it still is not a big money maker. I guess you have to let the easy jobs offset the hard ones.

 

[Art Kelley]

LOL- 20 minutes to do a sofa Larry? $45 to clean it?Geebus - I charge MINIMUM $105 (35 an ass),15 extra for accent cushions, 45 a chair.I also vac and proper upholstry shampoo - scrub it with a horsehair and then rinse/extract

I also vac and proper upholstry shampoo - scrub it with a horsehair and then rinse/extract.

This is why we like the TM, Willy. While you are still setting up your portable, I am wrapped up and getting paid. Where you work the portable is necessary so you have to charge for the extra time unrelated to actual cleaning. We both give the customer the same good job, I just give them a better deal. I would jump out of the high rise window if I had to do what you do just to clean.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

....resulting in another job for the trauma-cleaning guys.

 

[dgargan]

"Should I lower my price to be competitive, or stay where I'm at."

The day you start pricing your services based on your competitions prices Is the day you need to start looking for a job, because you won't have a business very long

 

[Lee Stockwell]

For sure.

 

[Jimmy L]

$45 to do a sofa?

Man I'm way overpriced and will soon be lowering my price down to $35 to compete.

 

[ruff]

[quote="Willy P":212nlvrr]LOL- 20 minutes to do a sofa Larry? $45 to clean it?Geebus - I charge MINIMUM $105 (35 an ass),15 extra for accent cushions, 45 a chair.I also vac and proper upholstry shampoo - scrub it with a horsehair and then rinse/extract

I also vac and proper upholstry shampoo - scrub it with a horsehair and then rinse/extract.

This is why we like the TM, Willy. While you are still setting up your portable, I am wrapped up and getting paid. Where you work the portable is necessary so you have to charge for the extra time unrelated to actual cleaning. We both give the customer the same good job, I just give them a better deal. I would jump out of the high rise window if I had to do what you do just to clean.[/quote:212nlvrr]

I seriously doubt that Art.
It may seriously hamper that ninja like production rate

 

[Mikey P]

Vacuum if needed, lay tarp if needed, hopefully place over wall to wall that we are also cleaning
Use a wandless hydro force or 2 Qt pump up to pre spray, horse hair it in where needed.
Rinse with Prochem or Sapphire tools (hopefully both)

Average 3 ass sofa-$170, Wuv seat-$ 110 or $20 to $30 a ft
Lazy Boy or stuffed chair-$75-$90


At those prices I'll clean uph all day.

 

[Doug Cox]

Mike- Even at those prices I'd rather clean carpet any day at my prices. But admittedly, I would complain a whole lot less cleaning upholstery.

 

[Mikey P]

Sure,me too but I see more and more homes with just carpet in the bedrooms in all wood floors in the living room so you might as well clean the sofas

 

[Able 1]

I charge $75 for a sofa and $65 for a love seat, and $35 for a recliner.. I make way better money cleaning upholstery then cleaning carpet, but I still don't really like to clean it..

If you have a helper you can do a sofa super fast even if it has alot of hair..

 

[machinejjh]

Sofa @ 68, Loveseat @ 58, Chair @ 36.

With an assistant, running 2 lines, we can rack up good $ per hour.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Focusing more on upholstery cleaning launched new seo campaign, but realizing competition is offering lower price.Now,I understand you don't set your prices on what everyone else is charging but if they're judging based on price alone I might not have chance. Currently, charging 18.00-20.00 per linear ft. Should I lower my price to be competitive, or stay where I'm at.

I would stay where you at and dont let the competition dictate your prices. In a case like this I would tout the value your customers get when using your services.. the prevac.. prespray.. and so on. You should also include the protector in with your price too..