Pool Service Pricing Calculator

How to use this pool service pricing calculator

1. Time a normal stop. From parking to driving away, on an average pool in season. Big pools, heavy tree cover and salt systems take longer; price them as their own stop type.
2. Measure the drive between stops. Use your route software or a week of mileage logs. The drive is where dense routes make their money.
3. Choose chemicals included or billed. Tick the box if you bill chemicals at cost plus markup on top of a flat service price.
4. Spread overhead across your active pools. A year of insurance, software, phones and marketing ÷ 12 ÷ number of pools.
5. Set your margin. Then check the stops per day and revenue per route day: that is the number that tells you if a route works.

The formula

Worked example

These are assumptions for illustration, not market figures. Swap in your own.

Weekly service, 25 minutes at the pool, 10 minutes and 3 miles to the next stop, $22 an hour labor, $9 of chemicals per visit included, $0.70 a mile, $15 overhead per pool per month, 30% margin, 8-hour route day.

Each stop takes 35 minutes, so labor is 35 ÷ 60 × $22 = $12.83. Add $9 chemicals and $2.10 vehicle: $23.93 per visit. Weekly is 4.33 visits/month, so the monthly cost is $103.71 plus $15 overhead = $118.71 break-even. At 30% margin the price is $118.71 ÷ 0.70 = $169.59/month, or $39.14 a visit, which is $67.10 per labor hour. A tech fits 13.7 stops in 8 hours, about $537 of revenue a route day.

Cut the drive between stops from 10 to 5 minutes by adding pools in the same streets and the tech fits 16 stops a day, while each pool's cost goes down. Route density is the cheapest raise a pool company can give itself.

How to price pool service

Price the stop, then check the route

A monthly price per pool only works if the route behind it works. After you price a stop, look at stops per day and revenue per route day. If a new account sits 20 minutes away from everything else, it can cost twice as much to service as one on a street you already visit; price it that way, or say no until the area fills in.

Chemicals included or billed

Flat pricing with chemicals included is simple for the customer and rewards good water management, but big or neglected pools can eat the margin. Billing chemicals separately protects you on heavy-use pools and makes the base price look lower. Whichever you choose, track chemical cost per pool so you can see the outliers.

Stop types

Not every pool is the same stop. Keep separate prices for small spas, standard pools, large or heavily treed pools, and commercial pools with logs and inspections. Every-other-week service usually costs more per visit than weekly, because the water is in worse shape when you arrive.

Seasonality

In year-round markets, summer is heavy on chemicals and green-pool calls, winter is lighter. In seasonal markets, openings and closings are separate priced jobs, and the route shrinks for months. Price green-pool cleanups, openings, closings, filter cleans and repairs as one-off jobs; they keep revenue up when the weekly count drops.

Repairs and equipment

Techs see failing pumps, heaters and salt cells every week. A clear repair price list and a quick way to get the owner's yes turns those observations into extra revenue on the same visit.

Raising prices on old accounts

Accounts signed years ago are often the least profitable on the route. Run each one through the calculator with today's costs, and give the ones far below the line a notice period and a new price. A few may leave, and the stops that replace them can be closer together.

Quote calls come in while you're on a job

Pool owners call around when the water turns green or their old service stops showing up. Unmanually is an AI Office Manager that works 24/7 and that you run by voice: the AI Office Manager answers, asks the pool size, condition, equipment and address, gives your monthly price, books the first visit on the right route day and texts the confirmation, then sends the invoice and chases it. See what Unmanually does for pool service companies, or get a free website that calls every new lead back in about a minute.