Unlimited s/s time/or 30 min.

[washnvac]

Is anyone still doing a variation of "unlimited time" in the s/s bays? I am still doing $5 for 30 minutes at my four washes. It has been a bit tough with utility costs sky rocketing. If anyone does unlimited, what have you done to help curb costs to offset utilities? I don't really want to raise pricing or cut time in the current economic environment.

 

[thoffmanjr]

We give 22 minutes for $10, 16 minutes for $8, 9 minutes for $5, and 1m:20s for $1. It isn't “unlimited time” but you could use a multifunction timer to set different pricing. Raise your unlimited price and offer “regular” pricing too. Why not $8 or $10 for 30 minutes and $2 / 4 minutes or so? Add credit cards and offer the same pricing scheme. The CC system could max out at $10 / 30 minutes too. Get a PLC to do it all.

 

[washnvac]

You guys are in NY. I am lower, slower Delaware. I have to keep it simple. My volume is still great at the $5. I suppose when I decide to do some facility upgrades I could use your approach. Thanks.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

My volume is still great at the $5.

It should be. IMO you are giving away the farm @ 30 min. Cut it back to twenty and I'll bet virtually no one says a thing. Are your washes poor performers, making you feel you need this giveaway pricing to draw in customers?

 

[washnvac]

No, actually they do really well. This is my edge in the marketplace. I have done it for over 8 years. It definitely draws the customers in. Many weekends my place is full, and my competitors that charge $2 for 4 minutes have dry bays. Remember, I am getting at least $5 from every customer. Averge customer uses 15 minutes; after a snowfall it is 21 minutes. When my customers leave, they feel they have gotton a great value. And most importantly, they leave with a clean vehicle because they did not have to run around like a crazy person playing feed the meter. Plus my goal is to trade some of these folks up to an $11 automatic wash.

 

[mmc]

A couple of things would worry me about 30 minutes or unlimited time a. what if somebody drives off and leaves the wand running and b. if someone puts in $5 and washes for 20 minutes, doesn't the next person just wash without putting any money in for 10?

 

[washnvac]

No. I have double loops in the floor. When customer pulls out, timer resets. If two cars are in the bay, it will not work. If they try to run in nose to tail, it resets. Trust me, people have tried every which way to wash two on the same time. The result is always the same--magnetic loops reset the timer. I have had it for so long, just about everyone knows that it won't work with two. It is comical to watch when someone tries, though.

 

[Jony82]

No, actually they do really well. This is my edge in the marketplace. I have done it for over 8 years. It definitely draws the customers in. Many weekends my place is full, and my competitors that charge $2 for 4 minutes have dry bays. Remember, I am getting at least $5 from every customer. Averge customer uses 15 minutes; after a snowfall it is 21 minutes. When my customers leave, they feel they have gotton a great value. And most importantly, they leave with a clean vehicle because they did not have to run around like a crazy person playing feed the meter. Plus my goal is to trade some of these folks up to an $11 automatic wash.

Washnvac-

Have you thought about the potential of advertising the "Unlimited Time Car Wash"? Seems unlikely that anyone would spend more than 30 minutes in a self serve bay washing their car anyways, so advertising unlimited time would be an eye catcher to passerbys and wouldn't cost you much more. People would be more likely to talk about it and you might be able to push people to rinse down the bays when they are done since it won't cost them any time/money (it's a stretch, but I'm sure a few would do it).

Also, I am curious about how your loop system works. I'd like to do that here in Iowa if I ever decide to buy a 2nd wash.

 

[washnvac]

Actually I do advertise "wash as long as you want", then in the fine print "up to 30 minutes". Most every customer thinks it is a great value. I actually get a few guys in big suvs or pickups that double cycle ($10), and they think that is a great deal. The loop set up is fairly simple. You saw cut an approx 4' by 5' area in the center of the bay, and a 2' by 6' on either apron. You only saw cut down 2 inches--you do not want to hit that floor heat. (although it is really no big deal to repair if you do). I use pre-formed loops for my size cuts. Then you run a saw cut for each loop to the wall. Loops are ordered with enough wire to run to equipment room where your control boxes will sit. Feeds are run up the wall in rigid conduit. Loops in floor are covered with Q-Seal. You need two control boxes for each bay. On the center loop you use the n/o relay, set to "pulse" on exit. Then you run the two leads for the relay to the 2 and 3 on a gin-san timer control. When customer leaves, this resets the timer. On the outer loop, you use two relays. Relay 1 is set to "presence" in the n/c mode. You wire this to the 24v feed to your coin acceptor. Should two cars be in the bay when coins are inserted, they will simply fall out because you have broken the power to the acceptor. Relay 2 on that box will be set to "presence" on the n/o feed. This will run to the 2 and 3 on the timer. A car entering the bay while another car is washing will reset the timer. That is it in a nutshell--I tried to keep it short. All componenets come from www.leadinsystems. com. On the loop control boxes order relay 2 with the 1 second/2 second pulse option because I have found that some of the 401 timers require a full second short to reset.

 

[Sequoia]

At $5 for 30 minutes your price is just under .17 cents per minute. I recognize that I am in a different market, but my base price is $2 for 4 minutes, which is .50 cents per minute or about three times the price.

I run my advertised "special" as $4 for 10 minutes, and have programmed by bonus time to kick in when it hits the $4 level. I've considered bumping this to $5 for 12-15 minutes, but haven't done so yet.

In addition to a concern about paying utility costs based on .17 cents per minute, I would be concerned about having all the bays tied up and losing business to drive-aways. I only have 3 SS bays, and on a busy day I get drive-aways because all of them are full and people don't like to wait. If I offered a 30 minute special I believe I'd lose substantially more business on the busiest days.

 

[washnvac]

Sequoia....I agree in your situation. My concept certainly is not for everyone. I have built on this for 8 years. And at my four it has incresed my business year over year for all 8 years. My ultimate goal is to get them in the lot, get some type of wash, get a couple vac cycles, maybe some vending, a soda occassionally, and finally upgrade to an $11 automatic wash occassionally. You can't sell anything if you do not get them in the lot first.

 

[kabak]

bonus time

We are thinking to go $5=15min as bonus time and keep our $2=4min in order to compete with 4 tunnels