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How Grooming Prices Are Set, and Why They Keep Rising
A grooming price is not just the dog's size. Coat, condition, behavior and the salon's costs all go into the number.
Owners often ask why the same salon charges one price for a beagle and three times as much for a doodle of similar weight. The answer is that grooming prices are built mostly from time, and time depends on far more than size.
What goes into the price
- Size. Bigger dogs take longer to bathe and dry and need more product.
- Breed and coat type. A short coat that only needs a bath and tidy is quick. A coat that needs a full haircut with scissor work takes much longer. Double coats need careful deshedding.
- Coat condition. Matting, burrs and neglect add time, which is why many salons charge a dematting fee.
- Behavior. A dog that needs two people, frequent breaks or a muzzle takes longer, and some salons add a handling fee.
- Add ons. Teeth brushing, nail grinding, special shampoos, blueberry facials and bandanas are priced separately.
- Location. Rent and wages vary by area, and so do prices.
Why prices keep rising
Grooming is labor heavy. Most of the price pays for a skilled person's time, and wages, rent, insurance, water and supplies have all become more expensive. Larger, longer coated dogs being more popular has also pushed the average groom time up. When a salon raises prices, it is usually catching up with costs rather than adding margin.
How prices connect to groomer pay
For a commission groomer, the salon's price list is effectively your pay rate. At 50 percent commission, a $90 groom pays you $45 before tips, whatever it took. If that groom takes 90 minutes, you earned $30 an hour on it. If it takes two and a half hours, you earned $18. That is why fair pricing for long grooms matters to groomers as much as to owners. Our guide on how grooming commission works covers which charges are usually commissionable, since some salons leave add ons out.
Questions worth asking your salon
- Are dematting and handling fees commissionable?
- Who decides the price of a dog that is booked as one size and arrives as another?
- When prices go up, does the commission rate stay the same?
- Are discounts and coupons taken out of the revenue your commission is based on?
See what your price list pays you
Log a week of grooms at their real prices in the commission calculator, then compare each groom's pay to the time it took. The pay per dog guide walks through the math.