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Thought I would post a new topic since there hasn’t been an awful lot of talk going on in here.
When I took over my area here in Charlotte, I got a call from a guy who was contacted by the previous owner of my area. This guy was the Maintenance guy for a hotel called Staybridge Suites, which is affiliated with Holiday Inn and owned by a company called IC Hotels group. It was more of an extended stay hotel although they didn’t call it an extended stay. Anyways, he used to bring me in and have me clean the carpet and upholstery in rooms that were rented out for longer than normal or any pet rooms. There were a couple of pretty dirty rooms but overall I was averaging more per hour with this hotel than almost any other jobs. I was charging $.15 per sq ft, $45 for a sofa, $22.50 for a standard chair, and $5 for dining chairs. One day I called to follow up about payment (late of course) and it turns out that he and the General Manager up and left (or got fired, not quite sure), the new manager was happy to pay me though, however she (new manager) was a price shopper and wouldn’t let me clean for them anymore. I offered to do a free demo for her and show her what good work I was doing for them, but she said no thanks.
I got a call last week and this same maintenance guy got a new job with a hotel called Homewood Suites by Hilton. He brought me in and showed me around and I could already tell he was planning on bringing me in if I was willing to take good care of him and not beat him up on price. So I quoted him the same pricing and he said great.
I just went in yesterday and clean 8 hotel rooms for them. They have 1 and 2 bedroom suites, no studios. They had me clean all carpet, upholstery, and curtains. Took me about 8 hours and the total bill came to $1,646.00. I’ve seen stuff about hotels here on the board before but I I didn’t see anyone who thought to much of working for them. I’ve found that there are hotels that are willing to pay a good amount if you do good work. The only problem is they want to pay you months down the road and hope you foor some reason forget about the bill.
Please share your experiences with hotels you have worked for and what hotels you currently do work for regularly so we can look them up in our areas. Also share any ideas on how to get these big companies to process your invoice quicker without having to call and follow up all the time?
I clean the common areas of Holiday Inn here too and the lady down there will just lie to me and say she submitted the invoice when she hasn’t, then I have to call their corporate offices to find out the truth and get a check sent, they have yet to be less than one month late on the bill.
Hi Grant,
I’m having a hard time getting some of my operators on this board, so I will answer for a few of them. I know some are doing Hampton Inns. The pay issue is nothing more than big companies using YOUR money, They think 60-90-days is the “norm” Years back I had a manufacturing business and they beat me up on late payments, I finally went to 10%/10 Net/30 on all invoices and it made a considerable difference in my collections. It might be worth a try on your invoices next time.
Ron
Grant:
Our business is mainly residential (85-90%); however, the few commercial accounts we do have take 15-45 days to pay. These commercial accounts are very important to us especially during our slow months (Jan/Feb). Greg Miller (No. CA) is a good person to talk to; I believe most of his business comes from commercial accounts.
Good luck – Sounds like you are doing great!
Grant,
Most of my clientel is commercial—70/30. I am hoping to even that out eventually. Yes, they are hoping you forget or hoping you are willing to take a payment 60 or 90 days down the road. The best way to put it, is that they are waiting for a return on their investment, in other words, hoping there money, payments from their clients, etc… gain interest and make more money on top of their rediculous profits. Maybe someone with more investing skills can explain this better, but something along those lines. I require my hotels to pay within 30 days or no more work will be done untill payment is made. I slap on late fees and threaten to send to collections if no payment is made, or I will call their corporate offices and bug them. The best way is to call their investors, which I like to meet upon landing a job, if they have investors, because I can slap them with a collection letter as well. I have two apartment complexes right now. Both pay within 15 days, or Net 15. Any longer and no more cleaning. I used to have 10 complexes and I have dropped them due to this net 60 and 90 crap which really hurts when you are trying to grow, which is why I am trying to go more residential. Out of those 10 dropped, 8 have called at some point asking if we would come back and we ask if they can pay within 15, 30 or same day, and they say they can’t. We say, sorry charlie. I realize that you have to bite the bullet sometime, but don’t get the reputation that you will except 60 and 90 day payments, unless your just busting with business and don’t mind. They will eat you up, especially Indian hotel owners—not all of them are this way–and please–please no one be offended but this is the demographic that will do all they can to get the carpets cleaned for nothing. WE ARE THE NAME BRAND and the carpets DRY IN ONE HOUR. They can have the room cleaned and check someone in an hour or less within the cleaning time, and they love that, trust. Low down time on those rooms is extremely valuable to these guys and gals. Same thing with apartments, the sooner they get em in, the more happy the owner or boss will be. Then we clean at every lease renewal which keeps their clients in the apartments and keeps us happy as well. It was hard for us in the early years as it was for most of you but don’t sell yourself short. I used to charge a 3 room house for $65 two years ago and now I charge $105 for 3 rooms and am considering upping that. Chem-dry is charging $130 for 3 rooms for crying out loud. As far as rooms for hotels and apartments, it varies. If a hotel is willing to pre-vacuum(which the house keeper usually does), move furniture(chairs, tables, night stands) then I charge anywhere from $8 to $15 a room. It takes all of 10 minutes to do the high traffic area and I know this is cheap as well, but I never made $8 every 10 minutes before I started this business. A $500 to $800 day is ok with me. Anyway, I could go on. I’m sorry about your loss of the previous hotel you had and don’t get me started on Hampton Inn 😈
Hope all is well and hope this helps anyone. Give me call sometime for more info or if you think I’m just plain nuts.Mike Nowlin
(956)607-4975Hotels currently serving:
Ramada, Hampton, Best Western, Executive Inn, Wingate, Holiday Inn, Super 8, Motel 6, Hawthorn, Days Inn, La Americana Inn, redwood inn,
Looks short but goes like this:
3 ramadas, 2 Hamptons, 2 Best Westerns, 5 executive inns, 1 wingate, 2 holiday inns, 2 super 8’s, and 2 hawthorns, 2 days inn, 1 la americana, 1 redwood inn, and a couple of run down hotels that clean about once a year.
The funny thing is, the run down hotels will usually pay same day.
Another hotel owner informed me that chem-dry would take payment for the whole year up front. I can understand how that would help your pocket book, but what if the hotel shuts down, or you shut down, or get sick, or anything and then you owe them money that you may not have later down the road, not to mention you will hardly ever get to clean all the rooms, etc.I’m done,
Mike
Hey Mike, How many vans do you have to run to serve all those hotels. I have 1 Embassy Suites and I could really have 1 van working there full time. You have 23 hotels thats impressive!
Just me and the wife bro. These guys clean once every 3 months so it’s not too difficult. Some of them go 4 months. Keeps us busy in slow times, but we need to get more residential going. I spoke with Daniel today Washington and he mentioned he had a hotel he was cleaning once a month. That would be great!!! I can only do so much that these owners/operators of these hotels are willing to do. A lot of them don’t want to spend anything for anything, but we are working on them daily to get them to clean more often. Thanks for reply and hope you get some more hotels. Not a racist, but the majority of these are Indian owned and are mostly familly to each other. Primary name we run into is Bhakta, Patel. I spoke with an operator from North Carolina who mentioned he worked for a Patel. They are not the easiest to work for but when you need the work and jobs, you have to get ’em you know.
God Bless,
Mike
Hey Dan, I get $25.00 per room, $50.00 per sofa, $5.00 per chair, .15 psqft for traffic areas. It has been a good account.
I assume that you do several rooms at a time? Also, are they individually owned or is their carpet cleaning a corporate decision? Possible national account opportunities????
This would be a great national account. I have been working on getting it for all the franchises. This is what they want done every month. 35 rooms cleaned $875.00, 35 sofas cleaned $1750.00, 200 chairs cleaned $1000.00, 10000 SQFT of traffic areas cleaned $1500.00. Total every month $5125.00. This is all I have been able to handle so far per month, 35 rooms cleaned $875.00, 110 chairs cleaned $550.00. I am currently trying to get an employee and another van just to handle this and a few other commercial accounts. They have also requested an estimate on the tile cleaning. My embassy suites is only a mid size hotel, 4 stories 200 rooms. When I had my Chem dry franchise I new other chem Drys that had embassy suites in San Diego and Los Angeles, these were $15,000.00 to $20,000.00 accounts per month.
Wow!, That is a great account to have. I will need to touch base with the Embassy Suites here. I will also contact corporate to see if there are any possibilities for a national account…
Thanks
One more thing, what do you normally charge for residential in your area? I want to get a feel for the cost of living differences from there and here.
Dan
Hey Guys and gals,
Thought I would give an update on the new hotel I landed. I just emailed them a copy of their invoices and included in the email (to the GM) that we would be willing to offer 15% off for any employees of the hotel who would like to have their personal homes cleaned. She called me 15 minutes later and booked an appointment to do her personal home, this account is looking better everyday, she said she had called the Steemer a while back and their quote was of course through the roof, so she put it off. I am cutting her a smoking deal since she is the GM down there and once she sees what I’ll do with her dogs “accident” spots, she will surely be a loyal customer and a good account for years to come.
Great Grant,
Good move. I should have been doing that myself. We did mention to the owners/managers but I guess we will have to put it writing or something. Keep up the good work brother.
God Bless
Hey Dan, We charge .25 to.30 psqft. .15 for protector.
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