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Mark I thought commercial

I was lucky enough to meet a director of hotel opperations and asked him if I could do a demo in one of his hotels, and he let me. They already do their own in house carpet cleaning and were skeptical about needing a proffesional, but agreed to let me do a free demo. After I finished the demo he was all for me cleaning all of there hotels which total 308 rooms and this is the best part, they are willing to pay me 100 dollars a room if I apply a carpet protector, and clean the upholstered chairs, the average room is about 250 sq feet then they have mini suite and suites which are a little bigger, but it works for me. This puts me at about .20 cents a sq ft for carpet cleaning in a standard room and 25 dolars for the chair and 25 dolars for protector, of course this goes down when you add in the suites but not by much.

Hopefully I can continue to get more commercial jobs, if so I think I will stick with commercial.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Jon, what method and machine will you be using for cleaning?

Re: Mark I thought commercial

This sounds like a terrific deal. Usually hotel rooms generate between $10 and $20 for the carpet cleaning. Doing the furniture shouldn't be too difficult. Some pieces may be fairly soiled, but I'll bet a lot of them will not be. I would dry-vac them, spray them lightly with your carpet cleaning solution, then hand-wipe them clean and partially dry, concentrating on the areas with visible soil. You might also use your stair machine on any firm areas where soil build-up in significant. I doubt if any room will take you more than an hour. You should be bringing in around $30,000 for the rooms, plus more for whatever hallways, function rooms, etc. they have you do.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Phil I will be using my challanger package that Mark sold me, I will be encaping, the challanger is pretty small but they also do not want me to move any of the big furniture so the challanger will be good for getting into small areas.

Mark there are two hotels and the way we came up with the price was by getting the sq foot of one of the hotels and then figured the price for that one and divided it by the total number of rooms in the hotel and came to 60 dollars a room for cleaning and 20 for the chairs and 20 for the carpet protector(but this included the sq foot of the hallways) and then for the second hotel we just went with this average to figure out the price by the number of rooms. I might make a little less by the sq foot on the second hotel but at for the amount of work I am getting I do not mind, the first hotel the square foot price came to .20 a square foot so if I loss even .10 cents of that I will still be happy but I do not think the square foot price will drop on the second hotel but with out measuring I think it will go up, this was there idea so because I already had an idea of the sq foot in my head I agreed with out measuring. Typically even in residential work I do not easure I can estimate very close with the use of my eye, so usually I would just look and give a price if the customer was happy I was happy.

For any one new to this and is curious about weather or not Marks system is good or not, this is proof that this system cleans very well if you can ensure you clean all areas and do not rush you will get great results. This hotel in the past has used professional cleaners (HWE) and were not happy with the results and began to clean in house and felt they did just as good as those pros they used in the past, with one demonstration I was for the most part told to name my price, I did research on what others in the area were charging and gave a fair price for the area. If you are new the hardest part of this buisness is networking meeting people and getting your name out there of course usually as it was for me it is slow and hard at first, but with every job you do your name and reputation spreads a little further and if you continue to try and ensure you do the best job and do not cut corners your clientail will grow

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Jon Word of mouth among hotel managers in your area may bring more work of this type your way. My suggestion, when finances permit, is that you invest in a larger format machine for speeding up work in your customers' larger areas: hallways, banquet and function rooms, etc. I obtain excellent results in areas like these with the Orbitec CX-20, which costs about $2750. I sell these machines along with Challengers. (www.orbitecsolutions.com) With the solution tank mounted on the machine itself, and two upfront sprayers fed by an electric pump, your one-man productivity will be very high. 2000 to 2500 sq. ft. per hour is often achievable. The new Challenger machine Chris Watson referred to in a previous post may also be an option, although at this time it does not have an on-board tank & spray system, requiring that you or a helper do this part. I continue to urge them to make the tank & sprayer at least an option.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Mark,

How does the Orbitec compare with the Cimex? Is one better than the other in different situations. In short would it make sense to have both in your cleaning arsenal?

Re: Mark I thought commercial

What I like about a machine the size of the Orbitec CX-20 (sold elsewhere as The Brute) is that you can use it as both an encapsulator (with non-absorbent, or fiber pads) as well as an absorber of soil,( with terrycloth pads.) My Cimex is the 24" model, so it's a little faster than the Orbitec in open floor situations, probably about as fast as the standard 19" Cimex. But if I tried to operate it with cotton pads, they would in short order become saturated by the cleaner being gravity-fed down thru the center of each of the 3 heads. Once saturated with cleaning solution, they would have no capability of absorbing soil. The Orbitec, on the other hand, uses an electric pump and 2 up-front sprayer heads to spray out in fron of the machine's travel path, leaving the cotton pads fully capable of loosening & absorbing liquified soil.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

I have been looking at starting a carpet cleaning business(part time) for a year or two all this sounds very interesting. In your opinions is this one of the better ways to start a business like this?

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Scott In my opinion this is the best way to start a buisness like this for the following reasons:

1. It is low cost and no franchisee fees

2. There is and always will be a need for cleaning services.

3. THere are profits in it.

4. You can take your time and let your business grow. Let me explain this, most business start out slow, and gradually build up momentum. If you start a buisness where you have to take out a loan or have to pay store fron rent for your business exclusivley, or your product expires if not sold in a timely manner, if one of these apply to a new business then that business can go out of business before it builds its momentum. THe first few months or even year you may not get alot of business so if you have to pay bills every month on your business but it is not making money you may go out of business. This is what makes Mark's business oppertunity so good. with a very small investment to but all the equiptment ypu need there are no more on going expenses that you have to pay other then taxes (you may create more expenses like for advertizing but this is not required to keep your business, only to get business, you will not loose your business by not advertizing there are inexpensive ways to advertize)
TO say this point simply once you buy the equiptment you will always have your business even if you are not getting jobs because you will not owe anything to your business like rent wages electic bill yadyadya.

The forth and most important reason- it works Marks package really cleans carpet, I was very skeptical at first but Mark told me if I was not satisfied I could return my package with in 30 days for a refund well it has been almost a year and I still have my equiptment.

One last reason- Customer service, just look at how Mark takes care of his customers, he created this site to bring us altogeather to learn from each other and ask questions if we have them, plus look at how offten Mark responds to all of the post here that shows he cares about his business, not only mark but the people who manufacture the challanger also deliver excellent customer service, I did have a problem with the challanger once but they were very helpful and did not give me any difficulties over the warranty and rushed the part I needed at no charge.

This is a very low risk business and can produce high rewards.

The most difficult asspect of this business is getting the jobs but if you stay persistent and do not give up you will get work but it does take time for some.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Jon
Thank you for the kind words. I will continue to try and maintain this standard of support & assistance.

To Scott: I am just heading out the door on a couple of weeks vacation, so I am not going at this moment to try and duplicate Jon's very succint comments.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Jon,
Thank you very much for the info. I have a current job but I only have to work 4 days a week, so I thought this mightbe a nice business to start to be able to make a nice part time income without having a boss. If you have the time and would be willing, click and email me your email info there are some other questions I would like to ask if that would be ok with you? Thanks to you to mark and enjoy your vacation..

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Despite being on vacation, I find I am able to get connected from time to time. Surprising, since we are staying primarily at fairly remote B&B's, not big mainline hotels.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Scott sorry I have not checked this site for a while because I have been busy with my new account 308 rooms takes some time to clean, but if you want to contact me you can email me at witt-balth@hotmail.com. If you want to email me your number and a good time to call along with what time zone you are in I will be happy to give you a call and help answer any questions I can, but just to let you know there are people on this site that have alot more experience and knoweldge then I do, but I am not completly ignorant and would be glad to help if I can.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Jon, sounds like you got a great account! But how do you plan to such a large job? All at once? or so many rooms per month? and how offten did you recomend they have there carpets cleaned? Or do they just call you when needed? I am starting to go after some bigger comercial jobs and need some advice. Thanks

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Andy, it is going to take me a nice minute, but they are patient with me. On Suday I clean 4 rooms monday I clean 8 rooms tuesday I clean 8 rooms, and wednesday I clean 4 rooms. It works out good because they are a pretty busy hotel, it is part of a casino, so this way they do not have to close that many rooms, I am estimating that it will take me about 2 to 2 1/2 months to comlete this hotel and about 2 weeks to complete their smaller hotel. I did not recomend a certain number of times per year at first it was just once a year and they would maintain the carpets via in house cleaning through out the year, but the director of hotel operations is now thinking he may want to do it twice a year, good luck with getting a good account. It was very difficult for me, I am 26 but look like I am 17 or 18 so I think when I approached people they did not take me very serious, I was just lucky that he allowed me to give him a free demonstration. His executive house keeper even told me that I look to young and that she would not of given me the time of day, it is a good thing I went over her head first. that is the other problem I tend to have, I do not know who to talk to, usually the manager does not have the power to make a decision, and I think because they can not make the decision they de not care because it is not there responsibility, so the next business I approach I am going to try and talk to the highest person I can.

Re: Mark I thought commercial

Well for 26 I would say your doing real well. I wish I had started that young. I also don't look my age, but that isn't always a bad thing. I grew a beard and stash, makes me look older but pepole still don't take me seriously. :) well good luck on that acount!