Industry Guides
Mobile grooming and house calls: price the travel, not just the service
The day a mobile groomer sees the real number is a quiet one. Six dogs booked, a full van, and the evening arithmetic says the day paid less than a bad shop day. The road ate it. Here is how to price travel honestly and hold the time it takes.
The short answer
Travel is time you cannot sell. Count the buffer on each side of a visit as part of the visit, price the service and a travel fee over that whole block, and keep that block off the calendar so no other booking can use it. A house call that sells for the same as a shop visit earns less per hour, so the fee, not the service price, is where the difference is covered.
It applies to anything that comes to the client: a mobile groomer, a barber who visits, a massage therapist with a table in the car, a tutor. The arithmetic is the same and so is the mistake of leaving the road out of it.
Why the day feels fuller than it pays
In a shop, the next client walks in. On the road, the next client is twenty minutes away, and the twenty minutes is yours to drive, park and set up. The booking says one hour, the day says one hour and forty, and the money says one hour.
It is easy to price the way a shop does, because the service is the same. Bathing a dog takes the same time in a driveway as in a salon. The difference is everything around it, and everything around it is unpaid unless the price says otherwise.
The fix is not to charge more for the bath. It is to be honest about what the visit takes, and to put the travel where the customer can see it, as its own line, so it reads as what it is and not as a markup on the groom.
Count the real hour
Add the buffer on each side to the service time, then divide the price and travel fee by that total. Enter your own numbers below and compare the result with the same service in a shop. The gap is the cost of the road.
What a house call earns per hour of your day
Enter the price, the service time, the travel buffer on each side and the travel fee. Compare it with the same service in a shop.
- Day held for one visit
- 120 min
- House call, per hour held
- $53
- Same service in a shop
- $90 per hour
Hover or tab to a column for the numbers.
| Per hour held | |
|---|---|
| 0 min | $105 |
| 10 min | $79 |
| 20 min | $63 |
| 30 min | $53 |
| 40 min | $45 |
| 50 min | $39 |
| 60 min | $35 |
Example arithmetic. It counts the price and travel fee over the service time plus a buffer on each side. It leaves out fuel and supplies.
The travel time is real time out of your day. The fee exists to cover it, so check it against the line above.
A buffer is not padding
A travel buffer is the time between one visit and the next that you spend moving. If it is too short, you arrive late, rush the first ten minutes and run over, and the late fee is a chain reaction for the rest of the day. If it is too long, the day has holes.
Start with how long the drive really takes between your usual stops, add a few minutes to park and carry, and round up. Review it after a week. The chart shows how earnings per hour fall as the buffer grows, so you can see what each extra ten minutes costs and decide on purpose.
Hover or tab to a column for the numbers.
| Minutes | |
|---|---|
| Grooming | 240 min |
| Driving and parking | 120 min |
| Setup and clean-up | 60 min |
| Gaps | 60 min |
Example numbers for a single eight-hour day with four visits: minutes of the day in each use.
Group visits by area
The cheapest travel is the travel you do not do. Grouping bookings by neighbourhood on certain days cuts the buffer between them, and a day that stays in one part of town earns more per hour than one that crosses it. Some mobile businesses book north on Tuesdays and south on Thursdays for exactly this reason.
The table lists the choices that decide the rest of the day, so you can check each before you open your calendar to new bookings.
Decisions that shape a mobile day
| Service area | By neighbourhood or by day | How long you drive between stops |
|---|---|---|
| Travel buffer | 0 to 120 min, each side | How many visits fit in a day |
| Travel fee | A flat fee for the location, or one for the service | What the road earns |
| Who books | The client on the page, or staff on the calendar | Both ask for the street address |
A checklist of choices to make before the calendar opens to new bookings.
How NextUp Walk-in handles it
Mark a service We come to you in the item drawer under Staff. The booking page then asks the client for a street address, which is required, and shows the travel fee as its own line next to the total. The fee is the location’s flat fee or the service’s own, and it lands on the bill as a Travel fee add-on line. Staff booking on the calendar are asked for the address too.
The calendar keeps the team member free for the travel time, from zero to 120 minutes and 30 by default, before and after the visit. The address shows on the booking card, and in the details and on the Station page it is a link that opens the map. Lists of times (crew slot search, find next available, one-tap rebook) leave the buffer the way the booking does, so no time is offered that the booking would then refuse. One-tap rebook of a house call goes to the previous address.
Be clear on the limits. A house-call service is appointment-only, so it is not on the walk-in join list, and groups, events, series and multi-stylist visits do not take it yet.
Details: pet grooming, calendar and online booking, find next available, crew bookings, pricing.
Book a day that pays for the road
Questions
Can house calls be on the walk-in list?
No. A service marked We come to you is appointment-only.
Where does the client see the travel fee?
On the booking page as its own line next to the total, and on the bill as a Travel fee add-on line.
How long can the travel buffer be?
From zero to 120 minutes, with 30 as the default, held before and after the visit.
Can I use it for group or event bookings?
Not yet. Groups, events, series and multi-stylist visits do not take a house-call service.