New Dual-Bay Petit 360i Build

[Flandomagic]

Two other things - you cite you will have 300 days a year where you will be open and people looking for washes. That seems very low to me. Sure - weather factors into our business, but that is essentially two months per year of not washing cars! Also - $22,000 per month payback will not work with your price structure.

I was trying to be conservative there on days open. Standard number around 340? Payback seems to pencil out around break even at a .6% capture with the mentioned pricing. Will people in Midwest pay $20 for a wash when the guy across town is half that, even if he doesn’t do as good of a clean job? Just feels steep to me, but maybe I’m just cheap! I would love to up the prices on my plan if it is realistic.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I was thinking about limiting the monthly washes too, to a level not many people would ever reach anyway, just to avoid abuse. I have ballpark equipment costs figured around $750k and building/site around $1.3M. Capacity per hour with the longer bay and running 2 is actually similar to a tunnel if you consider about a 3 min wash and 2 cars in bay at a time. I would never max out capacity at my site. Might also consider just going with one bay to start with and leave the other empty until I'm out of debt. Just would not be great to have the only bay down for an issue/maintenance and lose 100% of business, as well as have stackups on busy days that would probably drive people away. I have a friend with Dencars that I'm planning to grill hard. Thanks for the input!

I think sometimes the abuse concern with unlimited passes is overstated at times. I have a busy dual Petit site and for every member that "abuses "the membership and washes every day there's at least 10 that wash once a month maybe.

I also think a three minute wash in 90+ percent of the country is unrealistic. Between challenges with dwell time and then the actual customer thruput your'e more likely at 4.5 all said and done - paying/activating the wash till they pull out the dryers.

 

[washnshine]

I was trying to be conservative there on days open. Standard number around 340? Payback seems to pencil out around break even at a .6% capture with the mentioned pricing. Will people in Midwest pay $20 for a wash when the guy across town is half that, even if he doesn’t do as good of a clean job? Just feels steep to me, but maybe I’m just cheap! I would love to up the prices on my plan if it is realistic.

Washing one out of every 167 cars that passes your site does not sound realistic, regardless of pricing. I’d do the math with a more realistic capture rate.

 

[Flandomagic]

I think sometimes the abuse concern with unlimited passes is overstated at times. I have a busy dual Petit site and for every member that "abuses "the membership and washes every day there's at least 10 that wash once a month maybe.

I also think a three minute wash in 90+ percent of the country is unrealistic. Between challenges with dwell time and then the actual customer thruput your'e more likely at 4.5 all said and done - paying/activating the wash till they pull out the dryers.

Thanks for that insight- do you leave room to stack a paid car or two in front of the door? That was my thought- set the POS systems back a bit to allow for prepaid to be ready as soon as the bay opens.

 

[washnshine]

Thanks for that insight- do you leave room to stack a paid car or two in front of the door? That was my thought- set the POS systems back a bit to allow for prepaid to be ready as soon as the bay opens.

Some will only pay once the previous wash is complete - no mattter what you tell them or what signs you have. Or, they will pay and just remain at the pay station anyway until the wash is free. Setting the pay station away from the entrance is a waste IMHO.

 

[Flandomagic]

Some will only pay once the previous wash is complete - no mattter what you tell them or what signs you have. Or, they will pay and just remain at the pay station anyway until the wash is free. Setting the pay station away from the entrance is a waste IMHO.

Interesting how much psychology goes into this!

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

Thanks for that insight- do you leave room to stack a paid car or two in front of the door? That was my thought- set the POS systems back a bit to allow for prepaid to be ready as soon as the bay opens.

I would've liked to have some room to stack, but this was a retrofit and I had to work with what I had. My tellers are about 15 feet in front of the entrance. My LPR cameras mounted on the Teller itself.

Getting yourself at least two cars stack would be nice

 

[Flandomagic]

Reality check from all the great feedback I've gotten so far: So with my original plan, if I adjust to use a 0.4% capture rate (37 cars/day), which sounds like that is maybe even optimistic, up my pricing to $15/$20/$25, and ditch subscriptions (or at least don't count on having many the first year), I'm still looking at a yearly loss of over $50k. So the only significant triggers left to pull would be a simple steel building construction and go down to 1 Petit bay, maybe try to lease the land instead of buy, and still need to scape up more cash to start with to avoid more costly loans or leveraging against my home. Man, this is more challenging than I thought! Any other advice or ideas on making this work? I still think the location is a great spot for a wash!

 

[Jeffhanson30]

I think sometimes the abuse concern with unlimited passes is overstated at times. I have a busy dual Petit site and for every member that "abuses "the membership and washes every day there's at least 10 that wash once a month maybe.

I also think a three minute wash in 90+ percent of the country is unrealistic. Between challenges with dwell time and then the actual customer thruput your'e more likely at 4.5 all said and done - paying/activating the wash till they pull out the dryers.

I find this notion of abuse for paying and using a membership that is advertised as an unlimited monthly membership. Most/if not all of my friends who pay for a monthly membership to an express tunnel get their vehicle cleaned daily because they truly like a clean car and find the service worth the subscription from a convenience standpoint. I don’t think they are abusers of the membership and think it’s funny you believe they are. If you don’t like the service or feel all customers are abusers who use it to its fullest then don't offer it if you feel that strongly about it.

 

[Keno]

I find this notion of abuse for paying and using a membership that is advertised as an unlimited monthly membership. Most/if not all of my friends who pay for a monthly membership to an express tunnel get their vehicle cleaned daily because they truly like a clean car and find the service worth the subscription from a convenience standpoint. I don’t think they are abusers of the membership and think it’s funny you believe they are. If you don’t like the service or feel all customers are abusers who use it to its fullest then don't offer it if you feel that strongly about it.

I can't speak for car wash guy, but most of the time when people are referring to abuse on the IBA unlimited memberships, it is referring to the customer using the same membership on multiple vehicles. That's the big thing with Dencar, they have safe guards in place to prevent this abuse, though I have heard mixed reviews on Dencar as a whole and this feature in particular

 

[Jeffhanson30]

I can't speak for car wash guy, but most of the time when people are referring to abuse on the IBA unlimited memberships, it is referring to the customer using the same membership on multiple vehicles. That's the big thing with Dencar, they have safe guards in place to prevent this abuse, though I have heard mixed reviews on Dencar as a whole and this feature in particular

But again, my friend pays for memberships per household vehicle, so his wife has a membership and he has a membership. The membership is unique to the vehicle and not the person. It sounds like if you plan to offer memberships then you should copy the same approach and make it vehicle specific. Ie like a RF ID license plate reader or membership scanner to the vehicle ID. I don’t see the point labeling customers abusers. I have never seen a place where I could just pass a member card around and all my friends and family can use like a Netflix membership.. lol

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I can't speak for car wash guy, but most of the time when people are referring to abuse on the IBA unlimited memberships, it is referring to the customer using the same membership on multiple vehicles. That's the big thing with Dencar, they have safe guards in place to prevent this abuse, though I have heard mixed reviews on Dencar as a whole and this feature in particular

No I was referring to people washing excessively. My average is 2.6 washes per month. I'm talking about the single customer that washes their vehicle 20-30x a month. I have Dencar

 

[aussiewash]

Reality check from all the great feedback I've gotten so far: So with my original plan, if I adjust to use a 0.4% capture rate (37 cars/day), which sounds like that is maybe even optimistic, up my pricing to $15/$20/$25, and ditch subscriptions (or at least don't count on having many the first year), I'm still looking at a yearly loss of over $50k. So the only significant triggers left to pull would be a simple steel building construction and go down to 1 Petit bay, maybe try to lease the land instead of buy, and still need to scape up more cash to start with to avoid more costly loans or leveraging against my home. Man, this is more challenging than I thought! Any other advice or ideas on making this work? I still think the location is a great spot for a wash!

You don't need 2x Petit for 37 CPD, a single Razor or Laserwash 360 would be fine.