change of contract

[raspberrytart]

Hi, I'm a c/m and up untill september have worked 4 full days. My mindees have gone off to school or whatever and I'm left working only 3 afternoons. I currently charge 1/2 fees for holidays and take 4 weeks a year. Parents have untill sept been happy with this. I am considering offering 4 weeks holidays per year with no charge, but obv this will leave me out of pocket, so I am thinking about upping my hourly rate by about 25p which will cover me for the loss of holiday pay.
Has anyone done this? Is there anything obv that I haven't thought of?
The reason why I'm considering no fees for holidays is because the nursery down the road does this and I have lost children to them.
Thanks

If the net result is the same, I would think parents existing parents should be fine with that. The trouble is you will always get families who focus on just one thing, for example who are adamant that they will not pay for holidays, or perhaps that say they will not pay a penny more than £x an hour. It is very hard to get across the message that they need to look at the whole package and work out the cost over a period, and of course also consider how well the service offered fits their needs. If your only or main competitor is the nursery, and you can offer a better hourly rate, then I would say match their fees structure by having no payment for holidays. If you think the paid holiday is losing you business it makes sense to change this. Remember that you don't have to calculate everyone's fees in the same way. You could always negotiate individually, by which I mean if you had someone who objected to paying holidays you could say you wouldn't, but charge a bit more per hour.

Thanks minderjinx. I have upped my hourly rate by 20p and have offered 4 weeks unpaid holiday a year.