[mystery]

Right I have just been to look at a student house today & been asked to submit an initial quote. We primarily just stick to regular domestic cleaning, but in the past I have done some eot's, so I'm getting a bit stuck with this one, a) in terms of price & structure & b) regarding the customers requests.

So briefly, it's a 6 bed large terrace property, with one reception room/diner/kitchen rolled into one. There are 6 single bed frames to wipe over, 6 single matresses to vac both sides, 6 single wardrobes to wipe inside & out, 6 chests, wipe inside & out, 6 bedside cabinets inside & out, & probably another 6 misc pieces of furniture to do the same. Then there are 2 bathrooms, incl 1 shower cubicle & 1 bath tub. Then two large/long hallways, a large kitchen/diner/lounge type room, two sofa's to vac over, inside an oven to clean greasy extractor, inside & out of kitchen cupbaords, approx. 10, inside approx 12 windows & outside about 6 large windows.

Except for white goods in kitchen, all the other bedroom furniture etc needs pulling out & cleaning behind etc, which will take a little time. To my estimations I'm thinking somewhere around 8 hours, but she is very fussy & wants a good job, so I'm thinking maybe 9 or 10 hours to be on the safe side. If it was just this job, I wouldn't be so concerned but she has 8 properties all becoming vacant on 30th June, which she says they have mostly been well kept due to her inspections etc, but some will need cleaning, possibly 2/3 only a light clean, but we are very quiet in July (regular custies on hols) so this would be ideal for us & she says they would ideally like someone to do them each year, again great. So I'm thinking a bare minimum of £12 p/h which for 10 hours would be £120 for this property, which seems to me to be competetive, ideally I would like £15 p/h approx so that would make it £150. What do you guys think?? I want to be competetive, but make a healthy profit, as this may also end up making me work some weekends if we have 8 properties to clean in the space of a month.

Also, the other unusual bit was she wanted us to dispose of any rubbish in their bin (we can't take it as we don't have a license) then put the bin out for bin day & possibly call back round to take the bin back, as they will not be in the area much they live 2 hours away. Not sure what to do on this & just maybe say no, or charge??? Never been asked that one before. Also she wanted us to check for marks on walls or anything broken or damaged or stains on cushions or matresses etc & leave notes if we find anything, also never been asked this before, she said they will check, but best if we can check as we clean to make sure nothing is missed, but this will also add to our time!

Also in terms of payment, what do you guys do? Normally with regular custies they pay on their cleaning day, and with other eot's in the past I have asked for payment up front, but not sure they will go for upfront, I get the feeling not  but if we end up with 8 properties to clean, I'm a little uncomfortable waiting on an invoice for so much money say possibly upto £1200 when they live 2 hours away. Take a deposit, what do you guys think??

Any help advice really welcome & thanks in advance 

[The Great One]

Hi

£150?  Double it and also maybe add a few hours on to the time you think it will be done, don't forget all the skirtings, inside window frames, shelving, door frames and the doors themselves, vac and mop floors etc

Regards

Martin

[mystery]

Thanks for your reply Martin. On further reflection, I think I will allow maybe 12 hours, for contingency. For a student let it isn't actually that dirty, it's more dust & the fact there is all the furniture to clean inside & out, I think that will allow enough hours for window frames, all woodwork etc & there are not many floors to mop & actually the vacumming shouldn't take that long, as it has been done by the tenants.

Seriously £300? What area of the country are you in? I'm in Lincoln & even Merry maids who are the highest billers for my area wouldn't charge quite as much as that. I really don't think I will get the work at £300, even for a top class finish. And we could really do with this in July, as it's so quiet. Would you offer any discount for multiple properties & at what sort of level?

Thanks so much for your imput.

[The Great One]

Hi

For multiple job guarenteed yes I would of course give a bulk discount.

I do student EOT's down here in Brighton and as I do so many of them (68 last august) I do them cheaper than £300, but I did do a 6 bed/bath last year for £350 the clean and £380 the carpets.

Regards

Martin

[mystery]

I just maybe think Brighton is a bit more affluent than Lincoln. In reality, this is only a 4 bed/2 bath/3 rec room house, with 2 rec's converted to bedrooms. I'm thinking of going in around £200 - £250, I think I will be being too greedy based on the fact it really isn't that severe.

Do you ever insist on a deposit or anything upfont Martin? I have never cleaned 8 properties for someone before that doesn't live locally & I'm a bit nervous about it to be honest.

[Adam P]

i also wondered about deposits on eot cleans. worried it may put some off but then maybe it'll put others on as we seem more legit?

often we don't see the property until the day of the clean so would people that do take deposits still take them for these? maybe like £20 or something before agreeing a price?

[martin19842]

hi there

i suggest you send 2 people in so as to get through the property quicker, moving furniture is easier with two people, if you were in at 12 hours times £12 ph then £144 for the clean, plus the admin they want you to do, ie inspect, and report,

an idea, offer to photograph any reportable items, ie broken furniture, badly marked walls, and then email them to the client, with the report, i would then add £25 to the bill so you are now at £169.

the client will then think that you are going the extra mile for them

do they want the oven cleaned, another say £30 depending on the size.

so this starts to lift the price.

with regards to payment i would email invoice to the client when completed with the photos, and give your bank details for a payment within 7 days, subject to a satisfactory first job and payment stands you in good stead for the others.

good luck

regards

martin

[Adam P]

2 people? the least amount of people that should be doing a decent sized property should be 3 imo. takes wayyyyyyyyyy tooooooo longggggg for just 2 people which is never good when you're spending all day getting very dirty.

[e newlands]

£130 / day x 2 cleaners
should take a day
10% booking  deposit non refundable in case cancellation invoice on completion and pay within 7 days
that my usual for this type of work
check the oven you may need to factor in this over and above that price considering they are scummy dirty students may loose a few hours there

[dianegreenwood]

I would charge about £280 for this inc oven, inside fridge, etc, possibly discounted to £260 if guaranteed more and the payment terms are good.   I would estimate two people to take a whole day to do it with some contingency built into the price if they run over, however I would probably send three with a view to doing 5 to 6 hours each because we find that's a much more healthy way to work on these things.

We've won a contract to clean 56 of these in July using the same method of calculation so we are competitive.

Hope that helps

Diane

www.freshlymaid.co.uk

[Adam P]

congrat diane.

do you do eot cleans for the tenants as well? reason i ask is because i've often wondered if it was possible to mention it could be more if it takes longer then expected, but expect no one would like this.

[dianegreenwood]

Yes we are cleaning a couple this year direct for tenants before they hand over.  Its funny though that most think its too much when we quote and say they'll do it themselves, but then we get called in anyway and its taken out of their bond!

You really have to give a firm quote though and some may go a bit over and some will take less time.  You should never lose on a job though so long as you have the right equipment and products and are charging enough per hour that the odd hour or two over won't make any difference and always build in a 1 to 2 hour contingency.

I've priced our contract up to include additional equipment purchases and a full time supervisor and it will still make a healthy profit even if we run over on some.

The key I found last year because I hire in temp staff was supervision.  Have someone full time supervising and your staff will be far more productive!

Cheers

Diane

www.freshlymaid.co.uk

[Darranvps]

We used to do a lot of work in Leeds and York for this kind of stuff.
All I can Say is Diane's quotes seem about right.
My only concern would be if chinese people are in the accomodation, they seem to lose a lot of hair which is tricky to get thoroughly out of the carpet, with the little Henry vacuums etc

[mystery]

Thanks for all your replies guys....So I decided to submit the quote at £220, which some of you may think is a bit low, but I really wanted to be competative in the hope we may get this. There are only 4 of us including me, so an extra 8 properties to clean in a month would be a nice bonus. And I've had a very good look at the property & it has been left in a reasonable state, more than anything it's purely dust & pulling out furniture etc.

 We've never had many enquiries like this before, I wonder how you guys get so many? I think we may have to push this area a bit more in the coming few months.