Cleaning Service Contractor Pricing

[littlemelittleu2]

Interested in hearing your feedback on my pricing model to pay my cleaners. I own a small Air Bnb and residential cleaning business. It started as something I did for extra change when I got laid off and has recently grown beyond what I can reasonable handle on my own. I’m of the mind to really be entrepreneurial about this and start trying to scale.

A lot of my Airbnb clients have 1-2 bedroom units that can be cleaned within 2 hours. My residential are your standard 3-4 bed homes that take around 3-4 depending. My clients have expressed that their frustration is the unreliability and high cancellation rate of cleaners. The like that I show up on time but also that I’m fast. There have been multiple times where I’ve been able to get their unit done and they can put it back up for a same day booking.

I’d like to target my pay rate to attract efficient and reliable cleaners but also be profitable. My overhead is near nothing, with maybe $50-100 a month in supplies. I’m not currently advertising outside of word of mouth and cold calling. I have 30 or so jobs a month.

For pay, I’m thinking of doing per job vs per hour, cleaner is paid half what I charge the client. My thought is this incentivizes the cleaners to do an excellent but quick job to maximize their hourly rate. So for example a cleaner might get paid $50 for a 2 bed unit.

Thoughts? Is that a fair wage for the job and do those margins make sense for me?

 

[faithv95]

@littlemelittleu2 If you’re paying by the job, make sure to put in their contract that they are responsible for go-backs on their own dime. If you pay by the job and pay them to go back and fix mistakes, they have no incentive to do a good job. Even with the go backs being on them, you’ll need to hire high quality people who actually care, if you hope to maintain good quality.

 

[littlemelittleu2]

@faithv95 Good thinking. Thank you!

 

[pastorpontibus]

@littlemelittleu2 To clarify, you are currently doing the cleaning yourself to this point and you’re thinking you can grow your business? If that’s the case, then you must hire employees, even if they are part-time. (Assuming you’re in the U.S., this is an IRS requirement) You can “outsource” the cleaning to another cleaning company, not an individual. That company can be a solo operation but they must operate a real business AND work for others. In most of these cases you’re going to have a 70/30 slit with them if not more to them. Otherwise they are just going to cut you out or not show up or do poor work or all of those things.

Hire people, build a real company so that the quality business you have on your own grows in the example you’re setting.

 

[littlemelittleu2]

@pastorpontibus Yes I’m currently solo owner and operator. I put a few feelers out and got another two steady Airbnb clients that are wanting to give me more work.

I see what you’re saying and that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[betty129]

@littlemelittleu2 Hi there, this not an answer to your question but a question for myself. do you mind if i ask how you market and obtain your clients?

 

[littlemelittleu2]

@betty129 Hi! I started off on websites like Care.com and next door for residential cleaning. I just responded to every ad looking for a cleaner. I gave them business cards to give out and offered discounts for customers that booked me by their referral. One of those referrals was a STR property management group and that’s how I got into Airbnb. I recently locked down two new BnB clients. For that I googled “STR property managers near me” read their reviews and picked the top to mid rated, then emailed a few a day. If I didn’t hear back within a week, I called. Of the 20 I messaged, 5 responded and 2 booked me. Once I get some help I’ll repeat until I hit my revenue goal.

 

[betty129]

@littlemelittleu2 that’s awesome thanks for your reply!
on care.com you just replied saying i offer cleaning services outside of care.com? how many clients were you getting off care.com if you don’t mind me asking. i’m having a lot of trouble acquiring clients. lead flow is so tough

 

[littlemelittleu2]

@betty129 Yes I just replied to every ad within a 10 mile radius of me. I typed up a quick pitch and sent it. Care was tough. There a lot of tire kickers. I just have sent 50+ pitches and got 3 clients. I had better luck on Nextdoor. It pays to be personal instead of just saying “Call me! xxx-xxx-xxxx” I would message “sending you a dm with rates” and then dm my same sales pitch plus a prelim quote based on their needs. I always said first clean is 10% off and that usually worked. I’ve gotten 10 or so clients from Nextdoor. I personally don’t see value in paying for leads since there’s no guarantee of landing the job and there’s about the same competition. Door to door has also been successful.

 

[betty129]

@littlemelittleu2 great points here. I post regularly on nextdoor but haven’t gotten any calls or bookings. I do google local service ads but I’ve only landed one client out of the 3 calls i’ve gotten. sort out of ideas and playing the waiting game i guess.

 

[littlemelittleu2]

@betty129 Yeah you just kind of have to be relentless and persistent. I blocked out 20-30 minutes a day to send out messages. That way I don’t kill myself obsessing over it. It’s a game of numbers. Eventually something is going to stick. And once you get a client treat them well and incentivize them to refer you. Word of mouth has been what’s gotten me to this point. Good luck!

 

[betty129]

@littlemelittleu2 thank you so much for the words of wisdom! really appreciate it