How much can I negotiate?

Great question! And an issue that many hot tub shoppers have struggled with. There are a lot of factors in play here, I'll try to break it down for you.

What determines a dealer's price on a Hot Tub?

There are a lot of variables in Hot Tub pricing, which could be why you got two different prices from two different Master Spas dealers. Overhead is a big factor here. Things like freight, leases, payroll and utilities play a role in a dealer's price determination. If dealer A has higher overhead than dealer B, they either need to sell a higher volume of spas, sell spas at a higher price, or both. Presentation plays a big role in the sales process, so oftentimes a nicer, more expensive showroom will generate a higher average ticket price than a warehouse setting. Hot Tubs are a high-margin product for dealers, and greed can definitely play a role here as well, but we'll get into that later.

What's a normal markup?

While more and more Hot Tub brands are adopting MSRP pricing, the majority of brands still do not have an MSRP number to fall back on. This means pricing is largely in the hands of the dealers. For those that do have MSRP, these numbers are typically inflated 10-20% compared to real world sale prices, which commonly equates to thousands of your hard earned dollars. Most dealers inflate their "sale" prices the same way, so the best advice here would be to avoid buying at sticker price if at all possible. This isn't to say there aren't some dealers that list a reasonable, fair price in-store, but in my experience the majority do not. Another thing to be on the lookout for here is financing-based price inflation. Dealers will often advertise long term 0% financing incentives, but they also have to inflate their price to account for the hit they'll take on the financing side. In the Hot Tub industry, cash is still often King.

How can I negotiate?

As you can see, there are a lot of variables in Hot Tub pricing. Another one we haven't discussed yet is salesperson commissions. A Hot Tub salesperson is often paid on a sliding scale where they get a higher percentage commission the more they sell the Hot Tub for. This is a great way to incentivize sales staff to keep prices high, but it makes your job as negotiator more difficult. As I mentioned before, these are high margin products for dealers (markup is commonly at or over 100% of dealer cost), and a good salesperson can make a lot of money selling Hot Tubs, so strap in for an uncomfortable negotiation process at many stores around the country. Some common ways you can save money are with military/first responder discounts, floor or blemished model discounts, cash discounts, or even giving a larger deposit on the front end. Ultimately, as with anything, you have to be willing to walk out the door without a new Hot Tub if you aren't able to reach a figure you feel comfortable with.

Hopefully this helps, use Hot Tub Hunt's pricing tools to get a good idea of what others are paying for the same Hot Tubs, and add yours into the mix after you buy!