I've always charged an extra fee for customers outside of a 10 mile but within a 20 mile radius, but recently I got a 4 star review from one despite squeezing them in last minute 2 days in a row for their warranty tankless diagnostic and getting parts rush shipped to get them back up and running just the following day. My total drive time was about 2.5 hours and I charged an extra $75 for each trip. If it happens again, I will probably just eliminate the extended area entirely because I don't want to charge my closer clients more just to make it "fair" for the ones that are further. I have 60 5-star reviews and one 4 star blemish. This is my first year in business so I'm still learning. I just wanted to share that charging more for the distance may just cause you to have unhappy customers instead of making them grateful that you accommodated them even if you're completely up-front with the extra fee.
That's a very great lesson and one reason why I don't add any "travel fees" as line items to my quotes. People don't want to feel nickle and dimed so I just add that extra fee to the base cost. This was especially true when I still had a massive service area, now on my intake form I only have the cities I service so if someone outside that area wants us to clean their property I just refer them to a competitor.
