Why copying competitors is a trap for your margin
The easiest way to set prices is to look at what the salon around the corner charges and land just below or above it. That feels safe because you know it fits your market. In practice it rarely leads to a healthy margin.
Three problems with this approach. One: you do not know the cost structure of the neighbor. Maybe she works from her own living room without rent, maybe she buys products via a wholesaler you do not access, maybe she does treatments 30 percent shorter than you can without dropping quality. You copy her price without her cost structure.
Two: you unintentionally position yourself on price. Whoever says "we are a little cheaper than the neighbor" pulls in clients on price difference. Those clients are loyal to the lowest price, not to your salon. Next time someone nearby goes 2 EUR below you, you lose them.
Three: you get no room to invest. A rate copied from the market is by definition average. Average rates deliver average margins, and average margins do not leave room to buy better materials, pay your team better, or refresh the salon. You stay stuck in middle-of-the-road economics.
The alternative is to calculate from your own cost structure, your own treatment times, and your own positioning. The market check comes at the end as a sanity check, not as a starting point.
The three costs that belong in every rate
Before you name a price, know what the treatment costs you. Three cost categories:
Direct costs: product consumption per treatment. Products you actually use up: the portion of cream, the amount of wax, the disposable gloves, the mask sachet. Not the whole pot, not the whole roll, only the portion used for this treatment. The example calculation below uses 7 EUR ex VAT for product consumption on a facial.
Indirect costs: fixed overhead spread across treatments. Rent, insurance, utilities, cleaning, subscriptions, marketing, accountant, bank fees. Sum these per month and divide by the number of treatments per month. The example calculation below uses 9 EUR in indirect costs per treatment.
Labor costs: your time or your staff member's. Including employer-side costs (social security, pension, vacation accrual). A full-time staff member on a 16 EUR gross hourly wage costs the employer roughly 22 to 24 EUR per worked hour. For an owner who has to pay themselves, a similar rate usually applies, otherwise you effectively make no profit.
The floor is fixed by law. The Dutch statutory gross minimum hourly wage for age 21 and over is 14.71 EUR from 1 January 2026 and rises to 14.99 EUR on 1 July 2026. Source: Rijksoverheid, minimum wage amounts 2026. The beauty trade has no collective labour agreement of its own, so for many salons that minimum is literally the bottom. If your specialist works inside a hairdressing business, she does fall under the CAO Kappersbedrijf, which runs from 1 July 2025 through 31 December 2026 and has been declared generally binding. Add roughly 35 to 50 percent in employer charges on top of that gross wage to arrive at what a worked hour actually costs you.
Example calculation for a 60-minute facial:
- Direct product cost: 7 EUR
- Indirect cost per treatment: 9 EUR
- Labor cost (60 min): 23 EUR
- Total cost price: 39 EUR
At a 75 EUR ex VAT sales price this gives a gross margin of 36 EUR, or 48 percent. At 90 EUR your margin sits at 51 EUR, or 57 percent. Below 65 EUR the treatment runs on too tight a margin.
How long does a treatment really take? Time yourself for a week
A common mistake in the calculation above: labor time is more than treatment time: it is treatment time plus changeover plus cleanup plus client greeting plus admin.
A facial that on paper runs 60 minutes often costs 75 to 85 minutes in practice once you count everything:
- 5 minutes client greeting and intake
- 60 minutes treatment
- 10 minutes cleanup and changeover
- 5 minutes admin and payment
If your rate counts only the 60 minutes, you are not billing for 25 percent of your labor time. On a day with 7 treatments that is one and a half hours of unpaid work per day.
Time yourself for a week per treatment for the actual total time. Stopwatch on at client arrival, off at exit plus cleanup. The average is your real treatment time. There is usually a surprise in it: the actual time runs higher than you expected going in.
Adjust your rate to actual time. Not by raising immediately, but by realistic calculation: a 60-minute treatment that actually costs 80 minutes asks labor costs based on 80 minutes, not 60.
Market check: what do you charge and why?
Only after you have calculated your cost price and margin do you look at the market. Not for the copy-paste, for the sanity check.
Approach:
Select 5 comparable salons within a 10 km radius. Not one street over (too close), not a salon in a totally different city district (too far). Compare beauty salons that match yours on service and location segment.
Check their rates publicly. On their website, on their Google Business Profile, on Treatwell or comparable booking platforms. Make a list per treatment. Do not read a Treatwell rate as that salon's own rate: commission comes off it first, and the Treatwell commission model explained sets out how much.
Determine your position. Do you want to sit in the middle (10 to 20 percent above the lowest rate), at the top (above the average), or at the bottom (risky, only if you have a specific positioning strategy)? The middle is the safest spot for most salons because there you have margin to deliver quality.
Do not freeze on one moment. Market prices shift. A comparison from January 2025 says little about what the market asks in 2026. Run this check at least once a year.
The market check does not lower your cost price. If the market asks 60 EUR for a treatment that costs you 70 EUR to deliver, you do not go below cost. You revise your process: shorter treatment time, different products, different positioning. Or you accept that this treatment does not fit your salon.
VAT: why you need to know two prices at once
Every amount in this guide is excluding VAT, because that is the side your margin lives on. On your door, your menu and your booking page the amount is including, because that is what the client pays. Do not mix the two, and never set a rate off a number you saw on a competitor's website without first asking which of the two it is.
Cosmetic treatments carry the standard 21 percent rate. The Dutch healthcare exemption covers, in the tax office's own words, "medische handelingen die gericht zijn op de persoonlijke gezondheidskundige verzorging van de mens", medical procedures aimed at a person's healthcare, and a facial or a lash lift is not that. So there is no route to a lower rate. Source: Belastingdienst, Vrijstelling in de gezondheidszorg. Trade body ANBOS asked the tax office for clarity on medically necessary treatments at the end of 2024. In July 2026 the tax office's VAT knowledge group published a position: acne and hair removal treatments are taxed in principle, and a therapeutic purpose must be objectively demonstrable, for instance through a medical diagnosis. ANBOS says the matter is not settled yet, so do not price next year on the assumption that an exemption lands. Source: anbos.nl, news item of 30 July 2026, checked September 2026.
If you have one foot in medical work, a medical pedicure taking referred foot care for instance, it becomes a question per treatment rather than a salon-wide rule. The tax office names no professions or treatments on that page, so have your accountant test it before you build a rate on it. Two VAT regimes in one diary is workable, but your bookkeeping has to handle it before you set the prices. If you are still below the turnover threshold, the question comes one step earlier, namely whether you charge VAT at all: the Dutch small business scheme and VAT for salon starters sets out what that choice locks you into.
Realistic 2026 prices in the Netherlands
On 10 September 2026 we worked through the public rate pages of 19 Dutch beauty salons, spread across Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Groningen, Tilburg, Breda, Nijmegen, Arnhem, Almere and Haarlem. Only salons that publish their prices as text on the page, no PDFs and no photographs of a price list. Below is what we found, exactly as it stood.
Mind the VAT: these are consumer prices, so they include 21 percent. The rest of this guide works excluding VAT, because that is where your margin sits. Divide by 1.21 to put the two side by side.
| Treatment | Salons pricing it publicly | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic facial (around 60 min) | 12 of 19 | 56.50 EUR | 72.50 EUR | 130 EUR |
| Extended facial (around 90 min) | 13 of 19 | 77 EUR | 95 EUR | 160 EUR |
| Eyebrow wax or shape | 12 of 19 | 8.50 EUR | 19 EUR | 25 EUR |
| Full leg wax | 10 of 19 | 24 EUR | 53.75 EUR | 84 EUR |
| Lash lift | 9 of 19 | 45 EUR | 52.50 EUR | 95 EUR |
| Pedicure | 5 of 19 | 30 EUR | 47 EUR | 75 EUR |
| Massage, 60 minutes | 5 of 19 | 59.95 EUR | 69 EUR | 99 EUR |
| Gel polish manicure | 3 of 19 | 24 EUR | 42.50 EUR | 66 EUR |
| Lash extensions, full new set | 3 of 19 | 67.50 EUR | 81.50 EUR | 95 EUR |
| Manicure without gel | 2 of 19 | 25 EUR | 36.25 EUR | 47.50 EUR |
Own sample, 19 salons across 12 cities, taken from public rate pages on 10 September 2026. Amounts include 21 percent Dutch VAT.
The bottom three rows are too thin to call a market picture. Two salons pricing a standalone manicure is not a range, it is coincidence. That gap is information in itself: the manicure without gel has all but disappeared as a separate product, nearly everyone now prices only the gel polish version, and the rates per nail technique are broken out in gel, BIAB and acrylic nail prices and treatment times. Lash extensions are rarely priced openly either, with most salons showing only the infill rate or writing "on request".
What else stands out: the extended facial runs a factor of two between the lowest and the highest price. Almost all of that difference sits in equipment and product brand, not in the time the treatment takes. Salons adding microneedling or something similar price around 130 to 160 EUR; salons doing a classic treatment with a good brand sit around 90. A client reading only the treatment name has no way to place that gap, so spell out what is in it.
And watch those names: a "classic" runs 45 minutes at one salon and 75 at another. If you are comparing yourself with a colleague, compare the rate per minute rather than the amount under a treatment name.
Variation per staff member: senior versus junior rates
Not every therapist on your team works for the same rate. A senior with 10 years of experience and an established client base justifies a higher rate than a junior with 1 year. The differences can be large:
- Junior (0 to 2 years): 75 percent of standard rate
- Mid (2 to 5 years): 90 percent of standard rate
- Senior (5+ years): 100 to 115 percent of standard rate
- Specialist (unique offering, expertise): 120 to 150 percent of standard rate
Example for a classic facial at 75 EUR standard rate:
- Junior: 56 EUR
- Mid: 68 EUR
- Senior: 75 - 85 EUR
- Specialist with specific skin expertise: 90 - 110 EUR
Administratively you have to be able to process this: a different rate per treatment per staff member. A salon system that cannot do this limits you commercially. So weigh that point explicitly when you pick software for your beauty salon. What that system may cost depends on how you pay for it: pay-per-booking versus a fixed subscription works out at which booking volume each model is the cheaper one.
Communicate transparently on your booking page. Clients can choose based on budget or preference. A client who specifically wants the senior knows up front what that costs. A budget-aware client can pick the junior. Nobody is surprised at checkout.
This is also a good way to give juniors a growth path: from junior rate to mid rate over 2 to 3 years, tied to a development plan and a minimum treatment count.
When do you raise your rates?
Three moments when a price increase is logical:
Annually for inflation and cost rises. Inflation in the Netherlands sits structurally at 2 to 4 percent per year. Product prices, energy, and rent often rise faster. Anyone who does not raise rates for three years effectively loses margin.
At major cost events. A new lease with a 15 percent increase, a wholesaler raising the price of a main product by 20 percent, a mandatory training requirement. These events usually call for an interim adjustment.
At positioning changes. You invested in new equipment, you added a specialty, you renovated the salon. The rate follows the quality level.
How to communicate an increase:
- Announce 4 to 6 weeks ahead by email or message
- Name the reason clearly (inflation, materials, quality)
- Specify the effective date
- Offer existing clients a final booking at the old rate
- No apologetic tone, just business clarity
A typical beauty salon loses some clients on a price increase. That is normal and often healthy, usually clients who chose on price and do not match your salon positioning.
Which numbers do you measure on your rates?
Four key numbers that matter in every beauty salon:
Average revenue per treatment. Total revenue divided by treatment count. If this rises, you work more effectively or your mix has shifted to higher-priced treatments.
Margin per treatment group. Which treatments carry the salon, which drag. Facials with massage often have a high margin, short manicures a low one. With this insight you steer your offering.
No-show rate per price tier. High no-show rates on higher-priced treatments suggest clients last-minute pull back. A deposit policy (handled outside your salon system via payment link or bank transfer) can help there.
Treatments that no longer make sense. A treatment that costs you 80 minutes to deliver but only brings in 55 EUR runs at a loss. Count per month times loss margin gives you what it costs. Often better to drop or reposition.
Measure three months, then look at the pattern. Decisions on one month of numbers are often wrong, three-month trends point direction.
How to apply this in your salon next week
Start by calculating your cost price per treatment. An hour of work in a spreadsheet gets the foundation. Then add margin to your desired rate and check against the market.
With CelerBook you set a separate price per staff member for the same service, so junior, mid, and senior rates coexist on your booking page and clients can choose themselves. They see straight away which rate belongs to which staff member, no surprises at checkout. A different treatment duration per staff member can be recorded and it applies once the appointment sits in the calendar, but the free slots on the booking page are still calculated from the default duration of the service. If your senior is structurally faster than your junior, allow for that yourself when scheduling. With reporting you see revenue per service, the average ticket and revenue per available hour. CelerBook does not calculate margin, because purchase and product costs are not in it. You put those next to the revenue per service yourself. Decisions on rate adjustments stand on data, not gut feel. Pay-as-you-go from 0.25 EUR ex VAT per completed appointment, no fixed monthly fees. Try CelerBook for free.