Pricing rules, add-ons and surcharges
Updated
On this page
Sidebar: Business Settings → Pricing. Everything you charge for lives here, including boarding and daycare rates.
A single price per service stops working the moment you groom both a Chihuahua and a Newfoundland. Alaga gives you three layers, and you should add them in this order — most businesses need only the first.
1. The size and coat matrix
Set a price per combination of pet size and coat type for a service, rather than one flat price.
The building blocks are on the Pricing page:
- Pet Sizes — your own size bands
- Coat Types — your grooming categories
- Breed Suggestions — maps a breed to a likely coat type, so staff booking a Cockapoo get the right category offered rather than guessing
Define sizes and coats first, then fill in the matrix per service. It is a few minutes per service and it removes most pricing arguments permanently, because the price follows the dog rather than who is on the desk.
2. Condition modifiers
Modifiers cover what you find when the dog arrives rather than what was booked: matting, a coat that has not been touched in six months, behaviour needing two handlers.
These are the charges most businesses are worst at collecting, because raising them feels awkward at the counter. Having them defined in advance makes it a policy rather than a personal decision, which is easier for staff to apply.
3. Date rules
Date rules change prices for a period — holiday weeks, peak season, weekends.
A rule has:
- A name, which the client sees, so call it "Christmas week" not "Rule 3"
- A multiplier — 1.25 for 25% more
- Optionally a fixed amount added on top of the multiplier
- Start and end dates
- What it applies to — all services, specific services, or appointments, boarding or daycare only
- A priority, deciding which rule wins when two overlap
Set holiday rules well ahead. A rule added after a client has booked does not reprice their existing booking.
Add-ons
An add-on is a service marked as an add-on: it attaches to a main booking rather than standing alone, and cannot be booked online by itself. Nail trims, teeth cleaning, de-shedding treatments.
Add-ons are the easiest revenue in a grooming business, and the only reason they go uncollected is that nobody offers them. Having them in the catalog puts them in front of whoever is booking.
Order of application
The matrix sets the base for that pet, modifiers reflect its condition, and date rules apply on top. Priority decides between competing date rules.
If a price looks wrong, work down in that order: check the matrix cell for that size and coat first, then modifiers, then whether a date rule is live.
Practical advice
- Do the matrix before you open date rules. Size and coat explain most of the variation in a grooming price; holiday surcharges explain very little.
- Round to sensible numbers. A matrix generating £47.63 helps nobody.
- Review annually. A price matrix built two years ago and never revisited is where margin quietly disappears.