How to Price Dog Grooming Services in Australia (2026 Guide)

What This Guide Covers

This guide teaches you exactly how to price your grooming services so you make good money without losing customers. We'll cover:

• What Australian groomers actually charge in 2026
• How to set prices based on dog size
• How to add fees for extra work (matted coats, difficult dogs)
• How to create packages that customers love
• When and how to raise your prices

Let's make your pricing work for you.

This guide is general information for Australian pet business owners, not financial, tax or accounting advice. Any market price ranges referred to are observation from publicly available sources, not a benchmark we stand behind, and your own costs, market and circumstances will differ. Employment figures are verified against the primary source on 7 August 2026 and linked at the foot; award rates change on 1 July each year. You remain responsible for your own pricing and compliance decisions: confirm current rates with the relevant authority or your accountant before you act. Petboost accepts no responsibility for any action taken on the basis of this article. If anything here is inaccurate, tell us and we will correct it.

What Australian Groomers Are Actually Charging in 2026

Here's what groomers across Australia are charging right now:

What this means for you:

• Metro areas charge more than regional areas
• Premium salons charge 20-40% above these prices
• Your experience and quality justify higher prices

01. Build Your Pricing Around Dog Size

The simple rule: Bigger dogs take more time. More time means higher prices.

Here's why size-based pricing works so well:

• It's fair. A Great Dane takes 2-3x longer than a Maltese
• Customers understand it. Nobody argues with "bigger dog = more work = higher price"
• It's easy to show. Your booking system shows the right price automatically

Key Takeaway: Set up 4-5 size tiers (XS, S, M, L, XL) with different prices for each. Customers pick their dog's size when booking and see the correct price immediately.

How Petboost Helps

With Petboost's service setup, you create size-based pricing tiers for every service. When customers book through your online booking portal, they only see the price for their dog's size. No confusion, no phone calls.

02. Add Condition-Based Fees

Not every dog arrives in the same condition. A well-maintained Poodle is very different from a matted one.

Standard add-on fees you should charge:

The important part: Tell customers about these fees BEFORE you start. Put them on your website, mention them when they book, and always explain why.

How Petboost Helps

Create add-on services that staff can apply at checkout. The invoice updates automatically. No awkward "surprise" conversations.

03. Create Prepaid Packages for Regulars

This is where smart groomers build steady income.

Prepaid packages are simple: customers pay for multiple grooms upfront and get a discount. They win (savings), you win (guaranteed money).

Why packages work:

• Money in your bank NOW (not later)
• Customers are less likely to no-show (they already paid)
• They keep coming back to use their credits

How Petboost Helps

With Petboost packages, customers can buy packages themselves through your customer portal. Credits track automatically. When they book, the system uses their prepaid credits at checkout. Zero spreadsheets.

04. Choose Your Lane: Premium or Volume

You can't be cheap AND premium. Pick one:

Volume Strategy

• Lower prices
• More dogs per day
• Faster turnaround
• Lower profit per dog, more dogs total

Premium Strategy

• Higher prices
• Fewer dogs per day
• More time and care per dog
• Higher profit per dog, fewer dogs total

Our recommendation: Most groomers we work with are happier with premium positioning. You earn more per hour, burn out less, and attract customers who value quality.

05. Raise Your Prices Every Year

Everything costs more every year. Rent, supplies, insurance, wages. If your prices stay the same, you're actually making less.

How to raise prices without losing customers:

1. Give 4-6 weeks notice so customers aren't surprised
2. Explain why (rising costs, new equipment, training)
3. Keep it reasonable (5-10% increase is normal)
4. Apply to new bookings (honour existing appointments)
5. Pick a good time (new year, your business anniversary)

Reality check: Most customers accept price increases without complaint. The ones who leave over $5 were never your best customers anyway.

06. Set Your Price Against Your Suburb, Not the Country

The single most common pricing mistake is benchmarking against a national average. There isn't one that means anything.

A full groom at $90 in a regional town and $125 in an inner-city salon can be the same business decision, because the inputs are different: rent per square metre, what you pay a groomer, how far you drive between mobile jobs, and what the households around you earn.

You will see national and capital-city price ranges quoted in a lot of places, including our own consumer guide to grooming costs. Those are useful for a pet owner working out whether a quote is reasonable. They are close to useless for setting your own prices, because they average across business models that have nothing to do with each other.

Derive your own number instead:

1. Work out your true table time. Not the groom time, the whole occupancy: greet, groom, dry, finish, handover, clean down, and the gap before the next dog. That is what you are actually selling.
2. Work out your cost per hour of table time. Rent, wages including on-costs, insurance, utilities, consumables, software, and your own wage, divided by the hours you can realistically sell in a week. Be honest about that last number, because nobody sells 40.
3. Add your margin, then check the result against your calendar. If you are booked out three weeks ahead, your price is too low regardless of what anyone else charges.
4. Then, and only then, look sideways. Compare against salons in your own suburb offering your own standard of finish. Not the mobile groomer two councils away, and not a national figure.

The employment on-costs in step 2 are where most owners under-count, particularly casual loading, super and workers compensation. Our state-by-state guide to employment costs sets out what those actually add up to, and they differ meaningfully depending on which state you are in.

One regional adjustment worth making deliberately: if you are in the Top End, your demand peaks in the southern winter rather than over Christmas, because the Bureau of Meteorology's northern wet season runs October to April. Seasonal pricing built on a southern calendar will have you discounting in your busiest month.

The Bottom Line

Pricing isn't complicated. Here's the formula:

1. Size-based tiers for your base prices
2. Add-on fees for extra work
3. Packages to lock in regulars
4. Annual increases to keep up with costs
5. Your suburb's numbers, not a national average

Do these consistently, and you'll build a profitable grooming business that doesn't burn you out.

Ready to Set Up Smart Pricing?

Petboost makes it easy to set up size-based pricing, add-ons, and prepaid packages. Customers book at the right price automatically.

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Or learn more about pricing and packages.

This article is general information for Australian pet business owners, not financial advice. Any price ranges referred to are market observation, not a benchmark we stand behind, and your own costs and market will differ. Verified 7 August 2026 against the sources below. If anything here is inaccurate, tell us and we will correct it.

Sources

• Bureau of Meteorology, Northern rainfall onset and the wet season: bom.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Miscellaneous Award MA000104 summary, which covers pet groomers: fairwork.gov.au