[MrsMeredith]

Hi everyone!,

I'm looking for some general advice from the experts already set up and established in business here!

As you may know i am pretty new to the domestic cleaning business but have an insight into hotel house keeping as i work part time (weekends) at the moment . The pay is very crappy and it had me thinking why dont i go it alone and set myself up as a domestic cleaner. If it takes off then the the part time house keeping at hotel will soon go, especially at £5.05 per hr!

I have researched for last 3-4 months and eventually got a website in place and my 1st advert in local paper last week which has produced me 2 regular cleaning jobs already. BUT,,,,,,, i have had many people from here and in the business generally get intouch and remark about my rates per hour and for each size house.

So what i am asking is this, what should be the "average" rate for domestic cleaning per hour?  At the minute it is just myself cleaning and running the business until i get established. Feel free to look at my website and offer your comments and advice!!

Cheers and thanks for listening to me ramble on a bit!

Tracey.

[Tim Downer]

Hi Tracey

I don't know what the average price for a typical house is.....However, whatever price you come to, you must bear in mind future growth.
IE,if you start out at £7.00 per hour, then in 6 months employ someone at £6.50 per hour, your rate must go up. A bit too drastic for your customers to go up so much, so why not start at a price to cover for  future staffing - even before you start employing them?
Just a thought.....that was all

Kind Regards

Tim

[lynngc]

tracey,
i do a lot of domestic clients, and charge£9.00 per hour, using my own equipment and cleaning materials, but they seem to be biting my hand off at the moment.
i was thinking of increasing my price to £10.50 per hour, to new clients and keep £9.00 to old at present.  i live and work in an area where they need cleaners (well to do). majority  of my work is by word of mouth, and i've earned a high standard cleaning reputation.

i would start at £9.00 and take it from there.

£6.00 for your wage/staff
£3.00 for materials/insurance/petrol/telephone etc.


good luck

lynn

[Prestige1]

You are selling yourselfs short girls. it,s tough cleaning domestic houses I would say it.s much harder then commercial, the demands and standards are much higher. £10 per hour needs to be your absolute minimum. if you don,t have a lot of overheads you will do very well at £12 per hour to start and grow your business. I charge my girls out at £14.50 per hour plus Vat and get loads of work, but one down fall of being that expensive is you have to deliver a quality service, ie great products and very good staff.  don't feel guilty charging £12 you will be valued by your customers if you do a fantastic job every time, hope this helps. kind regards Phil

[MrsMeredith]

Thanks Lynn and Phil, you have some sound advice about rates. I will be ammending my rates asap!

Cheers Tracey.

[lynngc]

phil,
where are you based?
there are a lot of board cards in windows of newsagents etc, alot of competition.

lynn

[Prestige1]

Harrogate, North Yorks, this is a rich area but what I have found is if you market your self as professional (expensive) company you will get the good jobs. if you put hand written notes in post offices or cheap leaflets you will capture a certain type of customer. nothing wrong with that at all, its horses for courses, i need to charge that amount to see any profit. I advertise in a large ad yell pages, web site, my leaflets are full colour glossy brochore. £14.50 per hour is my labour rate but on some jobs it works out a lot more as much as £17 per hour, but remember if people pay prices like this they expect 1st class service, ie allways on time, never let them down, do a really good job + extras (clean external window frames and doors on occasions) I would like to think my main compitition is Molly maids and Merry maids pick up loads of x customers from these. But i did fill my book of work on lower priced jobs, once you have money coming in then try to get the worth while jobs. good luck Phil

[lynngc]

thanks phil for the ibformation.

much appreciated

lynn

[AJCleaningServices]

... I advertise in a large ad yell pages...

Phil,

I have not decided on what ad I am going to place in the Yell Book.  Here I asked the forum members for their opinion about my ads. 

You are not trading for the first year, how would you say, the size of the ad reflects on the response?
Thank you,
Kind regards,
Arthur

PS
I have been to Harrogate, love this place.  What I found remarkable about it is that shops, takeaways etc. do not have iron shatters on the doors and windows, peaceful place.

[Prestige1]

I think its a two column? any way it costs £1600 per year,  I also run a web link with yell .com this cost £360 per year, with me Marketing needs to all work together, when some one gets a leaflet they probably look in the yellow pages to try and judge if it is a reputable company. I look at it as an outfit! its no good having a Hugo boss suit and wear trainers and a mucky baseball cap, everything needs to re-enforce each advertising medium.  and I never just rely on one. I have tried adds in yellow pages full coulour £3,500 and I have found that my latest gets as many calls and its two colour. I think it would work a lot better if the Yellow pages did not cover as much of an area, East coast including York, Scarboro and Hull its to thick, any way hope that helps, kind regards Phil

[Bizzie Lizzie]

Hi, Does anyone charge (Domestic) the further travelling they have to do for jobs? thanks

[HQCS (John Kastrian)]

In reply to the last question,you just adjust the price to take into account any travelling expences.
One golden rule,do not underestimate,bear in mind you will be losing approx 30 % due to tax and NI payments,then cost of materials/fuel/ins etc,then your time,and of course your business needs to make a profit as well.

[Bizzie Lizzie]

Thank you - I will bear that in mind.
regards
Jan