I've been really active with Rover, and having constant stays for the few months or so. Since summer is coming, I'll be out of school and will have more time to spend with dogs that stay with us, I've decided to raise my price. My question is has anyone ever noticed a fall off from stays when the price is raised, have previous customers complained, do you offer regular customers to pay the original price, etc?
I've raised my rates significantly (for me) over the last year. I've developed a dual rate system to both increase revenue, but also keep established clients happy. New clients (those who's first stay was in 2015) are charged my standard rate. Established clients (those who's first stay was prior to 2015, get 10% off my standard rate.
I plan to raise my prices again in June, but only my "prior-to-2015-ers" and post-June-2015-ers will be affected: I'm transferring all my January through June clients into the Established Clients category.
Kind of a huge pain, but what can I say. I'm cheap.
Don't forget that once a client knows you, they're more likely to stick with you-- even through a price increase-- rather than find someone else.
How do you do this? I want to raise my rate in mid-July but I already have clients and don't want to charge them extra if they book with me again?
if they have already booked, the price raise will not reflect upon them.
I've never had a complaint, and I've raised my prices a couple times over the last year. None of my clients have even mentioned it. One tends to book far in advance, so they have twice been grandfathered into my older rates just by virtue of booking before the rates were raised at all. If an existing client were to ask, I'd be happy to keep them at the previous rate, but it hasn't come up yet.
What I HAVE noticed, however, is that with my higher rates, I have more clients offering to pay more for additional services, like pick up and drop off, or for partial days if their pick up time is later than drop off. I've had multiple people suggest I charge them more. It's really nice to see your work being appreciated and valued, and I feel like that's more common if your rates are higher.
I agree with the others, but I would also put a time limit on discounts to existing clients, say, give them the discount for 3 months, then start charging the new rate. Explain to them ahead of time what you are doing, that expenses are going up, whatever reason you want to give. Businesses raise their prices all the time, so most people are used to that.
I raised my rates twice and I'm just as busy. I'm still below average but not the lowest. I truly believe that I am providing top service for my rate. Rover is my only job and I take the dogs to fun places.
Don't be afraid to raise your rates if you are busy. If a customer notices, just offer them a discount for their next stay but let them know that their rate will increase after that. Play it by ear, not all customers will even say anything. If they complain but they book alot, it will be worth it to discount for them just to keep them with you, but put a time frame on it, say 6 months or something. Let them know that your expenses are going up, they should understand that. Some customers just always ask for a discount, I use to give them one automatically but know that we are busy, not so much. We raised our rate several times the first year and it seems like we got more business after an increase...crazy! We have been at the same rate for a year now but I have still increased the income by no longer offering reduced weekly rate, lowering the discount for a second dog, and raising the holiday rate. Just check the other sitters in the area to stay competitive.
If you do decide to raise your rate, you should discount charges for repeat clients so that it matches the price of their original stay.
How do you set the discounted price for repeat clients?