High Demand Pricing

In Colorado we have peak demand times in our business, December through March. Has anyone ever tried or thought about two pricing structures, higher in the winter during peak demand and lower during the off months?

I thought about that years ago - but never did it. My thinking is that you will see all of regular customers plus the ones that only use your facility during the winter in those months. I don't think you can apply supply and demand economics to the car wash. I believe the hope is that you'll want to retain as many from winter washing as possible. They may not decide to return if they think your pricing is too high in the winter. But another school of thought is that if
the quality of your wash is good and you provide customer focus on providing helpful service to the customer in taking care of his car, then price is less of an issue. Perception and service is #1 at your wash.

I've though about something a little different, how about two lines of entry on peak wash days. Say your price for an exterior wash is $10 most of the time. How about an express lane in the winter for $20? After all, money talks and B.S. walks! I mean, Busch Gardens does it. When you pull in to pay for parking, you can pay either $10, park in Ten Buck Two and wait to take a tram car to the entrance, or you can pay $20 and go to preferred parking near the entrance.

great idea bill but people always opt for the shortest line with out reading signs. I bet you would have a lot of turn arounds. When I was full serve. we had an exterior only line we would have a line down the road, and here comes somebody barreling in the yard and pull up and say full wash in the outside only line. well if you want the inside thats the line over there, wtf they would say. The express exterior line only lasted a year or two till we went flex.

I'm going to go off into the deep end for a moment and do a little brainstorming. If you go to a dealerhship to have your car serviced, you are in a waiting room and you car comes back serviced and washed. What about "valet car washing" for those that don't want to wait in the lines ? The waiting room could have a TV, coffee, magazines, internet, newspaper and donuts - all of course for an added price. Labor would be problem, but could this be done during the slow season and would there be a market for this sort of thing ? The car is simply brought back to you after all is done.

Joe